ALLENDALE, Michigan (LifeSiteNews) — College student Noah Mullins is continuing to call on Grand Valley State University to permanently remove a blasphemous, pro-LGBT exhibition that mocks the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mullins, who hails from the Detroit area, was interviewed by LifeSite journalist Stephen Kokx this past week to discuss the latest developments. He said that anti-Christian expressions are all too common on college campuses today.
Mullins has repeatedly met with officials from Grand Valley since last year attempting to explain to them the sacrilegious nature of the image, which the school had bought from alumna Irlanda Beltran.
Beltran claims that her “artwork” “explores cultural and contemporary issues, addressing topics such as gender-based violence, mental health, gun control, and homophobia.”
Grand Valley’s initially installed the images in its Kirkhof Student Center on its Allendale campus. Last week, after pressure from Mullins, state lawmakers, and lay Catholics, it ordered it to be “relocated” to a place where its “context” could be better understood.
Mullins told LifeSite that the claim that the image’s “context” could be better understood elsewhere is nonsense and that he is calling on the school to sell the piece instead of putting it up somewhere else.
Although the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids has not issued a public statement about the situation, lay Catholics in West Michigan have not been shy about rebuking Grand Valley’s decisions. This past weekend, 100 Catholics descended upon the school’s Allendale campus to pray 15 decades of the Rosary in reparation. Fr. Patrick Crane of the Society of St. Pius X led the group in prayer.
Mullins said that he attended Saturday’s rally as well. He explained that a person who identified themself as a videographer attempted to interview him. He said the person was working for Beltran and that it seems she is trying to make a documentary of sorts about the reaction her piece has engendered.
The Catholic group Tradition, Family, and Property has launched a petition demanding the school’s president Dr. Philomena Mantella order the display to be permanently removed so it does not see the light of day again. The petition has already garnered over 10,000 signatures.
Mullins told LifeSite that he intends to keep pressure on Grand Valley so that it will part ways with the display, which he argued is also anti-Semitic and offensive to Muslims, seeing how Mary was Jewish and seeing how the Islamic religion holds Mary in a certain level of esteem.
To join Mullins in his fight, consider reaching out to the following officials and calling on them to permanently remove the display. Dr. Philomena Mantella, president, Grand Valley State University, (616) 331-2100, [email protected]; Chris Knape, (616) 331-2953, [email protected]; Mr. Nathan Kemler, Director of Galleries, (616) 331-3638 or (616) 331-8122, [email protected].