start. Sex education is a really good place also to put your support. Plus programmes that create cultural
change around sexual assault, creating a greater sense of responsibility among boys and men and how they
relate to women. There are so many things we can do as Christians to create a real systemic change as
opposed to this, which... in fact creates a lot of damage.” She says she doesn’t want to judge the motivations
of such vehement protesters, “but if their goal is to save babies then there are a lot better ways to do that”.
There are so many things we can do as Christians to create a real systemic change as opposed to this, which
in fact creates a lot of damage
I ask Hamilton-Poore if the church is packed every Sunday. She laughs sadly and shakes her head. “No,
America is going the same way as Europe. The south a little slower, but it’s still happening.” Throughout
the years, she’s been stationed at churches throughout the US. One of the biggest shocks was when she
moved from a southern town, where weekly churchgoing was the done thing, to northern California, where
it definitely wasn’t.
“The press used to ring me up and get quotes from me and other members of the parish for the local paper
every time something happened,” she said. “Then all of a sudden, in California, no one was calling.” She
laughs. “Suddenly it was like, no one cares what I think!”
The First Presbyterian church in
Birmingham (Chris Pruitt)Perhaps it was a shock to the system, then – or perhaps a
welcome return to form – when people began sharing her pro-
choice article on social media and talking about her views on the
internet. It’s certainly a modern way to reach the flock, while
many other American churches are determinedly stuck in the
past (when their only presence online is a live-stream of the
Sunday service.)
What would Hamilton-Poore say to those churches which still
choose to exclude people, whether women who have had
abortions, members of the LGBT+ community or both?
“That it’s always appropriate for churches to have a stance of
humility,” she replies. “Jesus’s first followers were surprised,
sometimes scandalised by the people Jesus included. Human
members of Christ’s church are often trailing along kicking and
screaming [but] we need to remember how surprised Jesus’s first
followers were and prepare to be surprised ourselves with who
we’re being led to welcome. And the other part of it is to
remember that we should be surprised when we are welcomed
and accepted, because we all have our brokenness. It’s not like
we’re the insiders here... We’re not the doorkeepers.”
Down the road, I speak to a young woman from a rural part of the state who asks to remain anonymous and
tells me she had an abortion as a teenager. I say that I just came from a meeting with a reverend, and she
makes a face; then I explain that I was there specifically because Terry Hamilton-Poore is a pro-choice
pastor with a good track record on preaching about women’s rights. “Wow,” she responds, visibly surprised.
“That really makes my heart warm.”