Pilgrimage, an annual gathering of middle and high schoolers organized by North Carolina United Methodist Conference (NCUMC), concluded this weekend. According to several participants, this Fayetteville-based event took a turn when a tradition turned political.
“We have a thing that we do with clothespins where you put inspirational messages on them and clip them to people,” sophomore Meredith Clouse said. “There were a couple pins that had some racist and political comments on them. It was eventually brought to everyone’s attention and dealt with but it did offend a lot of people.”
The person on the receiving end of this clothespin spoke out against those who pinned the clothespin to her shirt in a testimony given to the crowd of participants.
“A woman who moved to America when she was nine came on stage and told her story,” sophomore Riley Shaner said. “She was bullied when she got to America because of her accent and not being able to speak English and she talked about how hard it was for her. She told a story about the people in her youth group pinned a clothespin pinned on her that said ‘build the wall’ and how much words like that hurt. She tried to get across how much that hurt them and how we should all try to welcome each other.”
This year’s presidential election results have caused an uproar among many. Protesters in various cities in America have taken to the streets to show disapproval of the presidential elect, Donald Trump. This past weekend’s event of worship and gathering soon became a political playing field when the clothespin activity was mocked. The aftermath of this incident has caused controversy among those who attended.
“I understood where they were coming from in the beginning of the lecture about how we should welcome everyone and not make people feel like they don’t have people that they can worship with,” sophomore Allison Poythress said. “But then they took it way too far, in my opinion. [Pilgrimage] turned into a political statement instead of a worship atmosphere.”
NCUMC apologized for the actions of the students following the incident. Although some students feel like this apology wasn’t effective.
“The way the North Carolina United Methodist Conference handled it wasn’t very good; their apology wasn’t really an apology,” sophomore Harper Johnson said. “They said, ‘We’re sorry that some people got offended or some people thought that this was a bad thing.’ They never said that what happened on the stage was wrong or anything of that sort.”
Despite these events, students hope their peers feel welcome to Pilgrimage.
“I would tell them [those who may not attend next year] that this just happened to fall on a political season that was very tough,” Clouse said. “A lot of people have very strong opinions, and unfortunately they were brought into that place. But I would say to come back because next year is going to be a lot better.”
– By Madison Clark
