Subject: The Trial of Jimmy Creech: An Act of Spiritual Violence (by Dr. Mel
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 18:03:03 EST

THE TRIAL OF JIMMY CREECH: NOVEMBER 17, 1999
AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST GOD'S GLBT CHILDREN
The Rev. Dr. Mel White (www.soulforce.org)

I will never forget the expression on Jimmy's face as he left the Trinity 
United Methodist Church in Grand Island, Nebraska, to face a wall of 
reporters and camera crews.  Two hours earlier, a jury of his peers had found 
our friend, Jimmy Creech, guilty of conducting the holy union of two men in 
Raleigh, North Carolina.  The November 17 trial had just ended with the 
jury's penalty decision.  I met Jimmy as he and his wife, Chris, exited the 
sanctuary.  Blinking back tears, he smiled a brave, sad smile and hugged me.  
But the look in his eyes haunts me still.

Jimmy Creech had served the United Methodist Church faithfully for a quarter 
of a century.  He had preached powerfully and pastored with distinction.  And 
though he knew that conducting a same-sex holy union had just become a 
"chargeable offense" for United Methodist clergy, he had broken that "unjust 
law" as an act of conscience.  

The jury could have decided on a token penalty, a slap on the wrist, a 
warning.  Instead, they chose to end Jimmy's career as a United Methodist 
cleric.  For following his heart and doing justice for sexual minorities, the 
jury withdrew Jimmy's ordination to Christian ministry and revoked his 
license to preach and pastor.

As Jimmy and Chris walked down the stairs into the arms of his shocked and 
grieving friends, our Soulforce team went into action.  One hundred-fifty 
volunteers had spent the last twenty-four hours in Grand Island, Nebraska, to 
support Jimmy and to protest this act of spiritual violence against all gay, 
lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people.  Carrying lighted candles and 
wearing our matching "Stop Spiritual Violence" sweatshirts, we formed an 
honor guard around the Creech family.  Just behind them, Sara Sherrard, a 
transgendered Soulforce volunteer from Charlottesville, Virginia, carried the 
tall purple candle of the Holy Spirit as she led our procession away from the 
church where Jimmy Creech had been tried.  Jimmy explained our symbolic act 
to the waiting media.  "How can the Holy Spirit be present anyplace," he 
asked,  "where all God's children are not welcome?"

The day before, November 16, Soulforce volunteers from twenty states had 
gathered in Grand Island for advanced training in civil disobedience guided 
by the principles of nonviolence as taught by Gandhi and King.  Because no 
local church in Grand Island would provide us sanctuary, the local Holiday 
Inn became our "Soulforce Central."  

That evening before the trial began, we invited the media to see the same 
holy union for which Jimmy Creech was being tried. The grooms, Larry Ellis 
and Jim Raymer, had agreed to this "renewal of vows" as a witness to the 
world.  A dozen television crews filmed the service.  Nebraska papers carried 
front page, full-color photos of the grooms with Jimmy and their witnesses.  

That night we gathered on the steps of Trinity United Methodist where the 
trial would take place for an all-night candlelight vigil.  We had bought a 
full-page ad in the Grand Island Independent to explain why the trial was an 
act of spiritual violence against sexual minorities.  We promised to block 
the doors of the church one hour before the trial began and invited bishops 
and jurists to join us in our act of conscience.  At least a dozen UMC clergy 
and their families from Nebraska joined us on the steps that night.

The next morning at 7:45AM, motorcycle police escorted the bus carrying 
bishops and potential jurists to the door where the Soulforce delegation 
stood waiting.  Camera crews and reporters rushed into action as we locked 
arms and blocked the entrance in an act of civil disobedience.  Bishop 
William Grove approached us, thanked us for our act of conscience, then asked 
us to step aside so that he and the jury could "do their duty."   

We didn't move.  No one said a word.  Bishop Joel Martinez, the United 
Methodist bishop for Nebraska, looked out on a sea of determined Soulforce 
faces including at least twelve of his own Nebraska clergy and their wives.  
After several minutes of absolute silence, Captain Bill Holloway of the Grand 
Island police spoke his first warning.  "Move away or be arrested."  No one 
moved.  No one spoke.  The first sound we heard after "You are under arrest" 
was the sound of our Soulforce friends applauding in support as we were led 
away.  

One week has passed since our Soulforce Journey to Grand Island.  I am still 
stunned by the arrogance of the United Methodist Church in their 
mean-spirited treatment of one of their best and brightest.  With almost ten 
million members, the United Methodists are America's third largest Christian 
community (after Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.)  I had hoped that 
the United Methodists with their history of social concern would have 
realized by now that we are God's children, too, worthy of full, unqualified 
membership in Christ's church.  They have not.

With every passing day I get more convinced that most of the Christian 
churches (Catholic and Protestant alike) are no closer to granting GLBT 
people full acceptance than they were twenty or thirty years ago. In many 
ways it's gotten worse.  Except for the United Church of Christ (who have led 
the way in acceptance and understanding) there is a general crackdown in most 
denominations on clergy and laity who support us.  Investigations are under 
way.  Charges are made.  Trials are conducted.  Studies are commissioned and 
tabled.  The debate goes on endlessly.  And in the process, God's lesbian, 
gay, bisexual, and transgendered children continue to suffer the endless acts 
of spiritual violence against us.

When someone calls you a "fag," you are a victim of psychological violence. 
When he calls you a "fag" and hits you with a baseball bat, you are a victim 
of physical violence.  But when he calls you a "fag," hits you with a 
baseball bat, and quotes the Bible (or the United Methodist Church) to defend 
his act, you are a victim of spiritual violence. 

I'd rather suffer psychological or physical violence any day than be told 
over and over again the untruth that my sexual orientation is a sickness and 
a sin; that my Creator doesn't love me as I am; and that my fifteen year 
relationship with Gary Nixon isn't blessed by God so the United Methodist 
Church can't bless it either.

We've waited decades for the churches of our childhood to end their debate 
about sexual orientation.  They have ignored the evidence of science and 
history.  They've misused the Scriptures to support their prejudice and 
they've refused to take our own stories seriously.  Now they're even putting 
our friends and allies on trial.  We've been too polite and too patient for 
too long.  Or we've walked away and left the struggle for others.

The Soulforce principles of relentless nonviolent resistance show us a 
powerful way to resist injustice.   Check our web page at www.soulforce.org.  
Take the Four Step (or the Seventeen Step) Journey into Soulforce. Get in 
touch.  We are building an interfaith, ecumenical network of people of faith 
determined to do justice for sexual minorities (and for all others who suffer 
injustice).  And in the process of working to transform our society through 
nonviolence, we're finding our own spirits being renewed and restored.  We 
would love to have you join us.

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For more information on Soulforce check www.soulforce.org. 
Photos on line or by mail: Soulforce, Inc., PO Box 4467, Laguna Beach, CA. 
92652.
To contact Mel White: Email: [email-masked] Fax: 949-455-0959