There are ordinary pastors, and then there are pastors like Stephanie Arnold.
Last week, Arnold, the senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, created a TikTok video along with her colleague Katie Gilbert in protest of a new, unprecedented Texas law that effectively bans abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy. The two church leaders donned the iconic red clothing and large bonnets of handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The video, which has been viewed nearly 10,000 times across First Church’s social media platforms, ends with Arnold and Gilbert forcefully shedding their head coverings.
“Texas is leading us to become more and more like Gilead every day,” the text in the video says. “Unjust, patriarchal laws strip women of their agency and rights. As people of faith, we believe in reproductive rights. We won’t take this anymore.”
