Subject: Mel White Resigns UFMCC To Launch "Soulforce Siege" on Antigay
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 14:09:58 EDT

DR. MEL WHITE RESIGNS UFMCC JUSTICE MINISTRY
Will Focus on Applying Soulforce to Primary Voices of Intolerance

July 19, 1999 (Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles, CA.)

Mel White has resigned as the volunteer Justice Minister for the Universal 
Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. "I'm almost sixty," he said. 
"In another sixty years they're going to bury me.  Until then, I want to 
spend my time helping people of faith to discover and apply the principles of 
relentless nonviolent resistance, not just on behalf of sexual minorities, 
but for all God's children who suffer injustice."

White, his partner, Gary Nixon, and a distinguished group of Co-Founders and 
advisors are launching Soulforce, Inc. to help mobilize and train people of 
faith to do justice guided exclusively by the principles of truth, love, and 
voluntary redemptive suffering as taught by Jesus, Gandhi, and King.  

Dr. White fears that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered activist 
community is nearly exhausted from fighting two wars at the same time: the 
political war being waged against sexual minorities and the personal war 
against HIV/AIDS.  "Soulforce offers us a new way to renew our own tired 
spirits," White explains.  "And at the same time, it offers us a powerful old 
way to bring truth to our adversaries."

"We spend most of our time healing our wounded and defending ourselves 
against the avalanche of antigay actions at the ballot box, in the 
legislatures and the courts," White said sadly. "We must continue fighting 
the antigay political actions. We must continue helping those who suffer.  
But we must also work to cut off that suffering at its source."

"Speech has power," White says, quoting Rabbi Abraham Heschel. "Words do not 
fade.  What starts out as a sound ends in a deed."  

For six years, White has monitored and archived the antigay rhetoric. "The 
toxic words flows endlessly into the nation's minds and hearts," he explains. 
"Most of them from misinformed religious leaders. These false and 
inflammatory words that poison the national discourse lead directly and 
indirectly to divided homes and churches, ruined families and wasted lives.  
We must do our best to stop that flow of poison at its source and the 'soul 
force' rules of relentless nonviolent resistance show us how."

Already Soulforce, Inc. has two "direct actions" in process.  White is 
currently training five thousand people of faith in nonviolent resistance 
through an eight-week, seventeen-email Journey into Soulforce.  The focus of 
this first email journey is to bring truth to Jerry Falwell.  Mel and Gary 
are inviting people of faith to sign up for the complimentary email Journey 
and to consider joining them in Lynchburg, October 22-24, 1999.  In 
preparation for that visit, Mel is writing a series of Open Letters to Jerry 
Falwell.  Those letters and Mr. Falwell's replies are posted at 
www.soulforce.org.  

In Los Angeles, Soulforce, Inc. is working to bring truth to Pat Robertson 
and the Fox Family Channel. This Soulforce direct action is led by an 
executive committee of nearly a hundred clergy, co-chaired by Mel and the 
Rev. Dr. James Lawson, the distinguished African-American civil rights leader 
who trained the young people who integrated lunch counters, rode Freedom Ride 
busses, faced police dogs and fire hoses.  Clergy and lay people of faith 
across the nation are encouraged to contact Mel for more information about 
confronting the 700 Club rhetoric heard twice daily on Fox.
  
White, and his partner, Gary Nixon, describe themselves as "accidental 
activists" who found themselves "in the front lines" after the publication of 
White's autobiography Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay And Christian In 
America.  Once a ghostwriter and filmmaker for leaders on the "religious 
right," White has become a primary spokesman against their antigay rhetoric 
and antigay political activism.

On Friday night, Dr. White and his partner received the "Distinguished 
Service Award" at the Nineteenth General Conference of the Universal 
Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches in Los Angeles.  "We are 
celebrating Mel and Gary's six years of service," said the Rev. Elder Nancy 
Wilson who presented the award. "Together, they have traveled to forty states 
on our behalf, speaking, organizing, and demonstrating for justice.  We thank 
them for helping to change minds and hearts across the nation and we promise 
them our love and support in their new Soulforce ministry."

"We aren't ending the relationship with our UFMCC friends," White explained 
in an interview after the ceremony, "We're just taking our message of 
relentless nonviolent resistance to the larger ecumenical and interfaith 
communities. Ending the flow of antigay rhetoric and reconciling with its 
primary sources will take all of us working together."

White's new Soulforce web page offers a "Four Step Journey into Soulforce" 
and a wide variety of other resources, including three "almost free, OK to 
copy" Soulforce videos.  To sign up for the more extensive but still 
complimentary email Journey into Soulforce, contact Mel and Gary at 
[email-masked].  Dr. White is also available to teach Soulforce workshops and 
seminars, to speak in churches and synagogues, on college and university 
campuses, and at pride and justice events.  

OK to Forward, Post, Publish, or Reprint without Permission.

TO CONTACT MEL WHITE 
Email him directly at [email-masked] or [email-masked].
Write him at Soulforce, Inc., P.O. Box 4467, Laguna Beach, CA. 92652; or 
Phone: (949) 455-0999  Fax: (949) 455-0959.  
    
<www.soulforce.org> & <www.melwhite.org>.