An Open Letter to Pat Robertson        February 15, 1995


Dear Pat:

       Yesterday, February 14, 1995, when our delegation of 12 Christian
leaders tried to meetwith you at CBN (as we have been commanded by Jesus in
Matthew 18:15-17), we were met at the gate by a small army of security
officers who informed us that we were not welcome.  And though they allowed
us to proceed to CBN's visitor center, after a few moments there,
your spokesman, Gene Kapp, asked us to leave.  Because the Virginia Beach
Police Department had warned us that they had been called to arrest us if we
insisted on waiting to see you, the delegation embraced and left quietly. I
refused to leave, went to the lobby bookstore, purchased the book I had
written for you, America's Dates With Destiny, and sat down to read.

       Your security officers sealed the area from the media and from my
friends. When Dr. Jack Aja came to bring me my topcoat, even he was hurried
away.  Your people were polite but firm, anxious to resolve this matter
without more confrontation.  I want to thank them for their courtesy. In an
effort to explain your unwillingness to meet with me for these past 20
months, your CBN Chaplain, Mark Johnson, explained it this way: "Homosexuals
represent the cult of death," he said, "because you don't procreate. If Pat
meets with you, he would give your movement credibility." It is that kind of
false and inflammatory claim against us that we have come to discuss.

       At 5:30 PM, after four and one half hours in your lobby, I was
forcibly ejected out the back door by your security personnel. Just before
I was physically removed from CBN Center, your corporate attorney warned
me that if I returned, I would be considered a trespasser. How sad. CBN is
not your property, Pat. It is God's property. Thousands of Christian
people like my Grandmother, Noni, and my Mom and Dad have given to money
to build that impressive campus.  Would Jesus have called the police to
keep us out? We came in His name, asking for one thing only, to talk to
you about the suffering of God's gay and lesbian children and how your
false claims against us help contribute to that suffering. 

       We don't come to change your mind about the nature or theology of
homosexuality. Wecome simply to talk to you about the plight of gay and
lesbian Americans who, because of their sexual orientation alone, are
abandoned by their families, excommunicated from their churches, fired from
their jobs, evicted from their apartments, robbed of their earned benefits,
discharged from the military service, cut off from their own children,
deprived of the rights guaranteed themby the Constitution, harassed in
public and private, terrorized, beaten and murdered.

       Our primary concern, Pat, are the hate crimes against us increasing
at an alarming rate innumbers and in brutality all across the nation. You
have a national news service at CBN. We thought you would be interested in
the anti-gay hate crime statistics we have gathered. And because we know
that you deplore violence, we wanted to demonstrate to you
how, inadvertently, your false charges against us contribute to that
violence as they are repeatedendlessly on The 700 Club, in your fund
raising letters, and in the materials of the Christian Coalition.


       We just want to talk to you, Pat, about the suffering of our
brothers and sisters and howyou might help us end the suffering. We believe
that you are a reasonable man and that eventually you will find one hour in
your busy schedule to see us. You wouldn't make an appointment to see us
yesterday. Maybe, today, you will see us or make an appointment to see us in
the days or weeks ahead. And though your attorney has warned us if we come
back today we will be considered trespassers, we must come back today and
tomorrow and for as long as ittakes until you find it in your heart to see
us. Lives are at stake. Please, in the Name of God, meet with us, hear our
case, and then decide for yourself what must be done.


       Sincerely,


       Mel White