LGBTQ Pride Message On VA Church Sign Smashed By Vandals

RESTON, VA — Michelle Nickens, pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, has a message for the person who damaged the church’s sign with a message celebrating LGBTQ Pride.

“A Bible verse says, ‘What you have meant for evil, God has used for good',” she told Patch on Tuesday. “That's the way that I interpret it. Whatever it was, if you used a hammer or a brick, or whatever it was that you took to our sign, it only makes us stronger. And we will use this as an opportunity to let people who are looking for a safe, faith community, know that we are here and we're serious. We are serious about love and loving."

On Sunday morning, a member of the church’s congregation was the first to notice that someone had shattered the sign’s clear plastic covering and torn down the letters that had spelled out the last word in the message, "God is Love. Love is Love. Celebrate Pride."

“Whatever was used to break the plexiglass on the sign was right over the word pride," Nickens said. "They actually damaged it so that the little track that the letters slid into was damaged. We could not even put the letters back up.”

Given that the vandals smashed the part of the sign containing a Pride message, Nickens — a queer woman and female Baptist minister — believes the church was specifically targeted because of its status as a religious institution that stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ community.

Washington Plaza Baptist Church was one of the founding faith communities that helped start Reston Pride. For a number of years, Nickens has served as Reston Pride’s clergy liaison, organizing faith institutions to provide a blessing over the event.

In addition, church members have regularly marched in the Capital Pride Parade and Nickens has also been the sole Baptist clergy person to speak annually at the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a vigil to commemorate all the transgender people lost to violence in the previous year.

“I wish that there were more people who knew that there were churches like ours that existed,” she said. “We are not typical with the positions of most Baptist organizations. We happen to be members of two Baptist organizations that are welcoming and affirming, the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists and the Alliance of Baptists.”

Also See:

• White Supremacist Propaganda Widespread In VA, DC, Elsewhere
• Black Lives Matter Banner Stolen From Reston Church
• Rainbow Flag Repeatedly Stolen From Reston Church

At a recent national meeting, Southern Baptist delegates overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage — including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide, according to the Associated Press.

The wide-ranging resolution doesn’t use the word “ban,” but it left no room for legal same-sex marriage in calling for the “overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God’s design for marriage and family,” according to AP’s reporting. Further, the resolution affirmatively calls “for laws that affirm marriage between one man and one woman.”

Nickens said the act of vandalism would not change what Washington Plaza Baptist and its congregation stand for.

"We are welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ people, which means not just that LGBTQ people are welcome, but that we will perform marriages,” she said. "I'm a queer woman myself, so there’s full inclusion of the LGBTQ community in our church."

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story