Letter from Mel White in the Virginia Beach City Jail These are the questions everyone is asking and my brief reply. (Written on my bunk in cell 276, the Virginia Beach City Jail, Feb. 17, 1995) Q: Why did you come to visit Pat Robertson? Mel: Because he is a newsman and I have news about the terrifying rise of hate crimes in America against gays and lesbians. I wanted, also, to show Pat how his false and inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric (on the 700 Club, in his fund-raising letters, and in Christian Coalition materials) leads indirectly to those hate crimes. Q: Did you think you could change his mind about homosexuality or homosexuals? Mel: No. I wasn't even going to try, not this time. When I wrote first for an appointment in May, 1993, I did want to show him the data we have gathered about homosexuality from new biblical scholarship, from scientific, medical, psychiatric, psychological, pastoral, and historic research. The verdict is in. Homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is just another human characteristic like the color of our eyes that cannot and should not be changed. We gays and lesbians, like heterosexuals, should accept God's gift and live our lives with integrity. Q: Why did you come even after he said he wouldn't see you? Mel: I've tried now to get an appointment for 20 months. His fax, refusing my latest request, was so filled with the kind of misinformation that leads to discrimination and to violence that it made me all the more determined to try again. Besides, Jesus loves persistence. Do you recall the New Testament story about the widow and the judge? She wouldn't give up and neither will I. Q: Do you really think you have a biblical basis for what you are doing? Mel: Absolutely. I am here on Jesus' command. In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus, Himself, tells us how to resolve our disputes with each other. First, He told us to go directly in private and alone to resolve our dispute. I asked for an off-the-record meeting 20 months ago. Pat refused, asked me to join the 700 Club at $35 a month and call his 800 line for help. Second, Jesus said, go back, this time with 2 - 3 Christian friends. Again, Pat refused to see us. Third, He said, take the whole church with you and if he still won't meet with you, call that man an alien and a heathen. I don't believe in calling names, but if those Greek words were applied to this moment in time Jesus might label Pat's refusal to meet with Christian brothers and sisters as unChristian and unAmerican. Q: Were you surprised when Pat's security forces dragged you out of CBN Center on Feb. 14 and had you arrested for trespassing on Feb 15? Mel: Surprised and deeply saddened. The CBN chaplain, Mark Johnston, explained it to me this way, just before 5 large men dumped me out the door. "You (homosexuals) are in league with Satan in the cult of death. If Pat meets with you he will give your movement credibility." His comments illustrates the inflammatory rhetoric that flows in a constant stream from Pat's various enterprises. Meeting with us destroys the stereotype he has created of gay and lesbian Americans; we are gay and Christian and it is just too obvious. Q: Why did you just pay the small fine and leave town or at least get out of prison on bail and come back March 28 for the trial? Mel: Staying in jail is for me a matter of conscience. If I pay the fine, I admit guilt. And I am not guilty. If I get out on bail, it is on the condition I never step foot on the CBN campus again. That I cannot promise. Yesterday, while I was manacled, handcuffed, and chained to 12 other criminals en route to my first hearing, the 12 faithful, including a 70 year old Presbyterian pastor with a gay son, were blocked by security guards and stood in the rain for 3 1/2 hours hoping to make an appointment to see Pat. So, truth is marching on. Q: Do you think your "truth in love" campaign will escalate? Mel: We've had amazing results already. Phone calls to our MCC office here (804-855-8450) are coming in from people all over the nation who want to fly in or send money or promise prayer. Today, another 12 will go to CBN and tomorrow another. This is serious business, God's business, in the prophet Micha's words, the business of doing justice. Pat doesn't want or mean to cause suffering, but the flood of antigay rhetoric by Pat and his friends like James Kennedy, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and the host of others, has polluted the nation's moral environment and leads to suffering and death. Q: Why do you say you are NOT guilty of trespassing? Mel: If Pat owned CBN, he could order me off the grounds. But God and God's family own CBN, not Pat. My grandmother and grandfather, my mom and dad, even Gary and I have given generously to build that place, not for Pat's purposes, but for God's purpose. And I have served both Pat and his staff with skill and commitment. One of my seminary students, Terry Lindvall, is now President of Regent University, and another, Lyle Storey, is, I believe, a dean there. And the book I wrote for Pat, "America's Dates With Destiny," is still sold proudly in the lobby of the building where I was arrested and driven away in handcuffs. Q: Why are you fasting in prison and how long will you continue to fast? Mel: In civil disobedience, when you have to risk your own life on behalf of justice for those who are suffering, fasting is a tool of protest. In Christian history, fasting is a way of praying. I am protesting Pat's false and inflammatory rhetoric against innocent gay and lesbian Americans, and I am praying that God will help change Pat's mind and spirit in time! I will continue protesting and praying until I know in my heart God wants me to stop the fast, leave jail, and try to reach Pat another way. Q: Are you asking Pat to do anything specific as a sign of his "mind change"? Mel: Yes. I'm NOT asking Pat to change his biblical or psychological views of homosexuality. I am hoping that he will do 2 things: 1) Acknowledge publicly the tragic and terrifying rise of hate crimes against gay and lesbian Americans. 2) Condemn anyone who incites or commits those crimes. Given the undisputable facts, these 2 requests seem easy enough. In the last 5 years alone, hate crimes against us have increased 157 percent. In Los Angeles County, to name just one example, we were the number one victim of hate crimes in 1993. In my state, Texas, we have buried ten gay men in the last months who have been tortured, slashed and executed just because they're gay. Pat doesn't want this horrible violence to continue, yet he contributes to it every day with this flood of misinformation. Q: Is there anything else you want to say? Mel: Yes. In confronting injustice, Martin Luther King said that Jesus gave us the motive and the spirit (love), but Gandhi gave us the method (truth). I ask everyone to hope and pray that everything that happens here will be based on presenting the truth in love. No ANGRY demonstrations or demonstrators are welcome here. We come in love. Pat is not our enemy. Untruth is our enemy. King said always separate the person and the policy. Pat is just another victim of misinformation as you and I have been. We fast and pray for our brother Pat, even as we condemn and confront his misinformatoin. Q: Anything else? Mel: A small thing, in this jail, I can see Gary for just 20 minutes every week. Jail is a lonely place. I'd love to let my friends and family know how they can reach me: James Melville White (Mel) c/o P.O. Box 6098 Virginia Beach, VA 23456 God bless you all. Thanks for your concern.