Six doors outside the Elon Community Church have started a discussion within the Elon community.
“I think it’s inspirational,” Robert Googe said.
Googe is a minister at Pinnacle Ministries in Burlington. He and his wife Joyce were taking a walk in downtown Elon when they saw the doors outside the Elon Community Church.
“Doing this opens up the door to say this is an inviting place, especially in the type of world and environment we are living in right now where so many people are fighting against each other," Googe said.
The message reads “God’s doors are open to all!" The doors are each painted a different color of the rainbow and are decorated with a different religious symbol.
While senior pastor of the Elon Community Church Randy Orwig said reaction to the doors has been mostly positive, Elon sophomore Daniel Dorociak just asks community members to also respect churches that enforce strict rules.
“Personally, although some hardcore Catholics might disagree with me on this, I think personally if you are LGBTQIA, if you are one of those members of the community, and you want to come in and celebrate mass with us you are more than welcome," Dorociak said.
"However, I do sometimes believe, I do believe rather that, you respect some of our more set and stone traditions such as marriage tradition between a man and a woman.”
For those who disagree with the message, Orwig has a response.
“We knew that there would be some disagreement because not all churches unfortunately welcome everybody," Orwig said. "They might welcome, but they expect change. We don’t expect that kind of change. We believe that people are who they are and that God loves them for who they are.”
“If they don’t agree that’s fine," Googe said. "You can explain to them why the doors are up so they can get a better understanding.”
“Once you get the knowledge of it, you can choose which direction you would like to go.”