Subject: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER IN CLEVELAND
From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 13:47:37 EDT

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER IN CLEVELAND
My experience at the United Methodist General Conference

Oped by Laura Montgomery Rutt

"You're under arrest!"  This phrase echoed in my mind as I rode silently in a 
taxicab from the Police Station to Soulforce Headquarters 20 blocks away.  I 
was not one of the 191 arrested the morning of May 10 outside the United 
Methodist General Conference in Cleveland, but I wanted to be.  I felt on the 
"outside" of the action. However, my job was to be on the outside, to act as 
the media liaison, to answer questions the press had about what was going on 
and what was going to happen in the next few days.

I felt utterly alone in that taxicab, as people such as Arun Gandhi, grandson 
of Mohandis Gandhi, Bishop Joseph Sprague, Rev. James Lawson, friend of Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Mel White, co-founder of Soulforce, Rev. Jimmy 
Creech, the minister who was defrocked by the United Methodist Church for 
performing a holy union for two men, and other ministers, members and friends 
of the United Methodist Church sat in jail cells for taking part in a 
peaceful act of non-violent civil disobedience to protest exclusionary church 
policies.

My mind drifted back to what led me to that point and the decision to join 
Soulforce, a movement based on the principles of Jesus, Gandhi and King. For 
the past two decades, the United Methodist Church, the church to which I 
belong, has been implementing policies that dehumanize and exclude gay, 
lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from the life of the church. I could 
not remain silent and watch the church destroy people in the name of God, 
claiming to love all people, claiming to be one body.  The church may think 
it is one body right now, but it is a deeply wounded body and bleeding 
profusely.

Early in the morning on May 10, approximately 400 Soulforce supporters, 
including Arun Gandhi, Yolanda King (daughter of MLK), several leaders of the 
60's civil rights movement, and bishops, ministers, and friends of the United 
Methodist Church had gathered on the mall next to the convention center to 
walk together, arm in arm, around the convention center.  "Marching in the 
Light of God" resounded through the crowd as the line of marchers encircled 
the convention center, partially drowning out the cat calls by Fred Phelps 
and a dozen or so other people who were carrying signs and shouting, "GOD 
HATES FAGS".

After the march, 191 courageous people, gay and straight, stood their ground 
outside the convention center blocking the exit, still arm in arm, refusing 
to move until police placed them under arrest.  At the same time, several 
United Methodists inside the convention center interrupted a speech by the  
Bishop of Canterbury to show solidarity with those standing outside the 
convention center and with those who have been forced out of the church 
because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  Approximately 100 
people, half in the balcony and half on the floor, sang out a back-and-forth 
litany "Wide is God's Welcome! - Extend the Table!"

Twelve hours later, all those arrested had been charged with persistent 
disorderly conducted and fined $100 plus court costs.  It was a long day 
indeed.  The next day was to prove just as trying.

As I sat in the Convention Center on May 11 and heard the debate and watched 
27 people get arrested inside the Convention Center in a peaceful protest of 
non-violent civil disobedience by the coalition A.M.A.R., it dawned on me 
that the past 36 hours had been history-making. No longer would we sit 
silently by and watch the church send messages of antipathy and apathy as our 
brothers and sisters are defrocked, dehumanized, and devalued by the church.

The United Methodist Church claims to "love the individual".  But on May 11, 
delegates voted to retain policies that state: 
1) "Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching"
2) "Self avowed practicing homosexuals" can not be ordained as
ministers, and
3) Ministers can not perform holy unions between two people of the same sex.

Not only do these policies affect those inside the church, but as the largest 
mainline denomination, the decisions of the church affect how society 
perceives all of God's children. The Church may not use the same language as 
Fred Phelps, but the message the church sends is the same. 

So many talented people have been forced out of the church because they could 
no longer deny a part of themselves. So many people have been forced to hide 
and lie about who they are to be able to answer their call to ministry in the 
United Methodist Church. So many people have left and gone to other 
denominations like the United Church of Christ or the Unitarian Universalist 
Church, or have given up on God and religion all together.

Thank God for people like Bishop Sprague, who are willing to stand up and 
speak out for justice and inclusion, for people like Rev. Mel White, who 
co-founded and leads Soulforce, and for people like Rev. Jimmy Creech, who 
was willing to perform a holy union for two men and was defrocked by the 
church.

On June 25, Soulforce will be at the Presbyterian General Assembly, and so 
will I. Changing society and winning hearts and minds through relentlessly 
speaking the truth is never easy.  But as history shows us, a small group of 
committed citizens can change the world. And Soulforce is doing just that.

Laura Montgomery Rutt
[email-masked]
May 22, 2000

copyright 2000 Laura Montgomery Rutt
Permission to reprint or quote upon notification of the author