I don’t know how the idea came about. It is not a common theme in the leadership teams of our congregations. Nor have I asked the pastor of the Tabernacle of Adoration Church, Santiago Ponciano, anything.
What I was deeply impressed when I read a luminous message placed strategically in one of the corner posts of the modern temple that houses this church that says: “Breastfeeding area”.
The signage itself did not surprise me, I had seen it without great display and brightness in some public offices and private institutions. Mere ornament to meet work requirements.
The surprising thing for me was to see these unusual spellings with a symbol of maternal tenderness in an evangelical temple where the sense of space is intimately related to the spiritual and sacred.
I do not deny that I was overwhelmed by a feeling of perplexity and astonishment, a state that later gave way before some more reasonable and reflective thoughts that came to my mind.
There I was in the temple, like a child trying to learn to read by heart, reviewing the letters that conveyed the message: “Lactation area.”
Although today a little more attenuated, I must admit that my notion of sacred spaces related to certain ritual acts did not stop being shaken.
Those of us who were trained in that exclusive sacredness of the temple, those of us who grew up under that rigor that cultivates a spirituality inspired by the iconic and visual, when we see something in the temple that does not emphasize our traditional conception of the “solemnly sacred”, we fall into that dichotomy that we drag and that sometimes puts us in the uncomfortable dilemma that runs between the holy and the profane.
That’s how I was, absorbed in a few intense moments that made me react in a tactical retreat towards other knowledge and experiences that gave me more light and insight to my astonishment.
There was no one in sight in the temple. Only the guide lights allowed me to move between the seats. From this trance state I continued to move towards a more thoughtful and reasonable reconstruction. I was situating myself in the instance of the theological.
This made it easier for me to remember that I was in a place that a little over two decades ago was the most popular and well-known entertainment center in the entire city of Santo Domingo, “Las Vegas”. Death zone, bloody sprees and countless tragedies. Zone of parties and drinks. Territory where what could have been milk or food for the family, exorbitant fathers and mothers lost it in the consumption of alcohol and irresponsibly and unbridled use of resources committed to the development and well-being of their children.
As I regained my lucidity, I memorized that just a few weeks ago the pastor of the Tabernacle of Adoration Church, Santiago Ponciano, told me how someone had made fun of him, because he said, in the power of the Spirit, that he was praying to conquer the place. where the Las Vegas nightclub was located to convert it into a church to worship Jesus Christ and proclaim his Word.
His prophetic dream was to conquer that place of death and perdition to turn it into a place of life and salvation.
There, in front of the bright sign: “Lactation Area”, I remembered an official activity that I attended. The activity was oriented towards children’s health care. On that occasion they said that breast milk is the basic food for children in their first six months because it contains all the nutritional elements they need for their growth and development.
They also added that the substances in mother’s milk protect children against infections and allergies and that it is not necessary to give them other foods.
They talked about the many diseases that mother’s milk protects children from. They specified that breastfeeding in the first hour of life reduces the risk of dying in the first month by almost 20%. It makes children more intelligent and greatly influences their emotional stability. It even helps mothers avoid many diseases, in addition to significantly reducing medical expenses both individually and collectively.
If this sign was really shining before my eyes, it was then that it began to shine in my heart. I began to relate it to everything with what I have called a theology of life. I constantly repeat that evangelicals must develop a theology of life.
I thought our notion between the sacred and the profane is more self-righteous and legalistic than biblical and theological. Jesus always privileged life over our religious conventions. In a world in decline that sinks into uncertainty and confusion we have to affirm life with the values of the gospel of Christ.
If we want to be heard when preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ today, we have to be creative, we have to delve into the essential values that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us, and we have to discern that the true life to which Christ called us is beyond our ability to elucidate our dilemma that dances between the sacred and the profane.
We have to opt for the affirmation of life, the abundant life that Christ conquered for us on the basis of love.
What we need, as my friend Harold Segura says, is an immense tenderness that humanizes faith and redeems life.
May the Lord grant that in the design of the architecture that defines the different spaces of our temples, from now on there is no lack of one that has the label: “Breastfeeding area”.