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SLAM Performance Suggests an Allegory of the Church
by Kacie Cardwell
The congregation stares at the wall
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Imagine Plato's Cave as your church. That is how Christine Hernandez-Cuenco introduced her one-act play, God on the Wall, at SLAM on April 9th in Broyhill Chapel.
The performance consisted of an all-female cast including Hernandez-Cuenco as the main character, as well as Kasey Boston, Maryanne Brown, Reb Knight, and Joan Wilkerson.
The actresses portrayed church members who are chained to their seats and staring at a wall, unable to turn their heads. The restraints on the characters directly reflect Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Through the allegory, Plato describes how mankind is restricted from viewing reality. He surmises that we are metaphorically shackled in a cave, seeing only the shadows on the wall cast by the light of truth.
Suddenly, the characters played by Hernandez-Cuenco and Wilkerson are freed. As they rise from their seats, they look in amazement at the world around them. Hernandez-Cuenco almost immediately turns around, looking in the opposite direction of the restrained parishioners.
As she begins to examine the other church members, she realizes that she has never seen their faces and questions them. "Why are you staring at that wall?" she asks. "Don't you see it's just a picture?"
Soon Wilkerson speaks, "They've found us out. We need to go."
As Hernandez-Cuenco's emotions rise, she continues questioning the parishioners, "Are you my accusers?" she asks. "Is this about our relationship?"
Her frustration mounts and she continues, "You can't just sit there in silence!"
Their silence persists, and she attempts to reason with the church members, revealing that she and Wilkerson have served the church every day.
"Jesus didn't come to condemn," she says. "If he doesn't condemn me, then why do you?"
Her perseverance endures as she questions, "Can't you see that God brought us together?"
Eventually she says, "You're content to be blind about God…He died for all of us. He loves us all. He has never turned His back on us, but look at you, you are turning your backs on us, and Him."
Frustration transforms to anxiety when Wilkerson says that they should go. "My heart aches for them," says Hernandez-Cuenco. "They will be left here in the dark."
The play closes with Wilkerson and Hernandez-Cuenco walking hand-in-hand off stage, past the audience.
As applause filled the room, Hernandez-Cuenco circled around and returned to the front of the audience to explain her performance.
She attributes the play's original concept to a paper that she wrote for her Character class, taught by Associate Professor of Religion Marc Mullinax, who attended the performance.
"I have always been a huge supporter of Christine, a Christian minister in the best sense of the word," said Mullinax later in an email. "While her play would get little press or cause much controversy in heaven, the fact that it's given press and high attendance here, means that there is still more work for us Christians to do before we really get the fullest meaning of the phrase: full acceptance of those differently gifted from the mainstream. Christine should be commended for learning how to celebrate God's gifts to her in public. She is a model for us all."
She expanded the idea when she wrote a one-act play for Professor of English Noel Kinnamon. According to Kinnamon the script was "well written, with vividly realized characters and a clearly conveyed point of view that I expected to provoke serious thought and discussion among readers and viewers, whether they agreed with her or not."
The play is based on personal experiences. "This is a true story, a dramatization of the most difficult event in my life," said Hernandez-Cuenco.
The first church to expel her was the one in which she raised her two children. It was of the denomination, The Assemblies of God. She led the worship music, while Nina Cuenco played guitar. Before the women developed a relationship, they were kicked out. Their salvation was questioned and they were told that two women are not supposed to be dependent on each other.
The women began attending a new church, serving in the ministry and hiding their relationship. This did not last long because someone in their neighborhood revealed their relationship to the church and they were once again expelled. However, this time their salvation was not called into question. Instead, they were told that the church did not want to be represented by them.
Throughout the ordeal of being expelled from two churches, the women were part of a Christian organization called Women's Aglow. After having their relationship publicly exposed by someone from the original church, they were once again driven away.
Nina and Christine Hernandez-Cuenco
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Hernandez-Cuenco explains that she regrets how the church's treatment damaged her children, who are now twelve and fourteen. She also recalls participating in anti-gay counseling to appease a church. She even describes an instance after being expelled from a church when she was asked to leave music on the porch so church members would not have to confront her.
Nevertheless, her faith, she says, has emerged stronger than ever, and she has an unshakable sense of purpose. "If you know there's something you're supposed to do, do it."
The women eventually researched cities and moved from Florida to the Asheville area in order to attend a church where they could be open about their relationship. They are now members of Grace Biltmore in Asheville. On June 27, 2007, they were married in Toronto, Canada.
Reader Comment:
Christine Hernandez-Cuenco, 4/15/2008, 6:33 a.m.
Hats off to Kacie and the Hilltop. Thank you for taking the time to understand the message delivered.
*side note (The Women's Ministry is Women's Aglow, a Baptist founded non-denominational ministry.)
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