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We at Soulforce have been roundly criticized for our act of civil
disobedience at Cleveland's United Methodist General Conference. One critic
dismissed our efforts as "media-driven street theater." We accept that as a
compliment. For thirty years Protestant and Catholic leaders have debated
the homosexuality issue. That debate itself has become a primary source of
suffering for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.
Soulforce volunteers are using "media-driven street theater" at
denominational gatherings this summer to send a clear message that for us
this endless debate must end.
No longer will we sit silently in church conferences, conventions,
assemblies or congregations where the Bible is used to caricature and condemn
us. No longer will we stand by in anger and grief while our relationships
are demeaned and our ministries denied. No longer will we appear on church
panels or media broadcasts with people from ex-gay "transforming" ministries
who believe our sexual orientation is a sickness and a sin that can and
should be changed. The debate is over. The verdict is in. Homosexuality is
not a sickness, not a sin. We, too, are the children of God, created,
redeemed, sustained, and accepted without reservation by our loving Creator.
Our nonviolent demonstration at Cleveland is just the first step. These
acts of "media-driven street theater" signal the launch of a long-term
Soulforce program of civil disobedience and non-cooperation at other national
and regional church conferences, conventions and assemblies. Call it what
you will but plan for it at your denominational headquarters, at your
seminaries and colleges, and even at your individual churches across the
country that still see our lives as "incompatible with Christian teaching,"
that refuse to bless our relationships or honor our call to service.
We are committed to the nonviolence teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, and King.
We refuse to demonstrate violence of the heart, tongue, or fist. We will
bring truth in love relentlessly to those who misunderstand and condemn us.
We will love our adversaries and take on ourselves any suffering that our
direct actions may cause. (In Cleveland, for example, those of us arrested
were honored with a permanent police record. We spent a day in paddy wagons,
jails, and courtrooms across the city and at $150 each paid collectively over
$30,000 in fines.) And we are willing to pay a whole lot more in time, money
and energy to see the suffering end. We invite your readers to join us or at
least to hear our side of the story at www.soulforce.org.
By the way, those who the 191 people of faith who were arrested in
Cleveland at our "banal protest" included everyone of the "genuine" United
Methodist heroes proclaimed in your editorial. We stood proudly with Jimmy
Creech, Gregory Dell, Don Fado and many of the "Sacramento 67" as well as
heroes from the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s including Dr. Jim
Lawson (the man who trained the students who integrated the lunch counters
and rode the Freedom Busses) and Arun Gandhi, the steward of his
grandfather's legacy in nonviolence.
I'm grateful that your editorial mentioned "Dr. King's Letter from a
Birmingham Jail." The primary thrust of that amazing document was not to
define civil disobedience or to proscribe its use as a tool of spiritual
resistance in future civil rights movements. At the heart of that historic
letter is the author's terrible disappointment with the "white church" for
its refusal to do justice for racial minorities. At our Soulforce event in
Cleveland, Dr. King's eldest daughter, Yolanda, expressed a similar concern
that white and black churches alike refuse to do justice for sexual
minorities and quoted deeply moving passages from her father's writings that
apply directly to our cause.
"The contemporary Church," Dr. King writes, "is so often a weak,
ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter
of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church,
the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's
silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of
God is upon the Church as never before. If the Church of today does not
recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose its
authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an
irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century."
We at Soulforce say, "Amen and amen!"
Mel White, Co-Chair, Soulforce
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Maurine C. Waun Leanne McCall Tigert
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Also In This Issue:
How Dare They Call it Christian,
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