Subject: Mel White Replies to the Critics of Soulforce Civil Disobedience in Cleveland
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 12:05:32 EDT

A Soulforce Alert
June 6, 2000

MEL WHITE REPLIES TO THE CRITICS
The Soulforce Civil Disobedience in Cleveland  

    We at Soulforce have been roundly criticized for our act of civil 
disobedience at Cleveland's United Methodist General Conference.  One critic 
dismissed our efforts as "media-driven street theater."  We accept that as a 
compliment.  For thirty years Protestant and Catholic leaders have debated 
the homosexuality issue.  That debate itself has become a primary source of 
suffering for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.  
Soulforce volunteers are using "media-driven street theater" at 
denominational gatherings this summer to send a clear message that for us 
this endless debate must end.

    No longer will we sit silently in church conferences, conventions, 
assemblies or congregations where the Bible is used to caricature and condemn 
us.  No longer will we stand by in anger and grief while our relationships 
are demeaned and our ministries denied.  No longer will we appear on church 
panels or media broadcasts with people from ex-gay "transforming" ministries 
who believe our sexual orientation is a sickness and a sin that can and 
should be changed.  The debate is over.  The verdict is in.  Homosexuality is 
not a sickness, not a sin.  We, too, are the children of God, created, 
redeemed, sustained, and accepted without reservation by our loving Creator. 

    Our nonviolent demonstration at Cleveland is just the first step. These 
acts of "media-driven street theater" signal the launch of a long-term 
Soulforce program of civil disobedience and non-cooperation at other national 
and regional church conferences, conventions and assemblies.  Call it what 
you will but plan for it at your denominational headquarters, at your 
seminaries and colleges, and even at your individual churches across the 
country that still see our lives as "incompatible with Christian teaching," 
that refuse to bless our relationships or honor our call to service.  

    We are committed to the nonviolence teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, and King. 
 We refuse to demonstrate violence of the heart, tongue, or  fist. We will 
bring truth in love relentlessly to those who misunderstand and condemn us.  
We will love our adversaries and take on ourselves any suffering that our 
direct actions may cause. (In Cleveland, for example, those of us arrested 
were honored with a permanent police record.  We spent a day in paddy wagons, 
jails, and courtrooms across the city and at $150 each paid collectively over 
$30,000 in fines.)  And we are willing to pay a whole lot more in time, money 
and energy to see the suffering end.  We invite your readers to join us or at 
least to hear our side of the story at www.soulforce.org.
      
    By the way, those who  the 191 people of faith who were arrested in 
Cleveland at our "banal protest" included everyone of the "genuine" United 
Methodist heroes proclaimed in your editorial.   We stood proudly with Jimmy 
Creech, Gregory Dell, Don Fado and many of the "Sacramento 67" as well as 
heroes from the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s including Dr. Jim 
Lawson (the man who trained the students who integrated the lunch counters 
and rode the Freedom Busses) and Arun Gandhi, the steward of his 
grandfather's legacy in nonviolence.  

     I'm grateful that your editorial mentioned "Dr. King's Letter from a 
Birmingham Jail."  The primary thrust of that amazing document was not to 
define civil disobedience or to proscribe its use as a tool of spiritual 
resistance in future civil rights movements.  At the heart of that historic 
letter is the author's terrible disappointment with the "white church" for 
its refusal to do justice for racial minorities.  At our Soulforce event in 
Cleveland, Dr. King's eldest daughter, Yolanda, expressed a similar concern 
that white and black churches alike refuse to do justice for sexual 
minorities and quoted deeply moving passages from her father's writings that 
apply directly to our cause. 

    "The contemporary Church," Dr. King writes, "is so often a weak, 
ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound.  It is so often the arch-supporter 
of the status quo.  Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, 
the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's 
silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of 
God is upon the Church as never before.  If the Church of today does not 
recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose its 
authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an 
irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century."  
 
    We at Soulforce say, "Amen and amen!"

    Mel White, Co-Chair, Soulforce

    PS: There's still time to join us in taking your stand for justice:
        Orlando, the Southern Baptist Convention, June 13-14.
        Long Beach, the Presbyterian General Assembly, June 24-25
        Denver, the Episcopal General Convention, July 8-14 (final date TBA).
    Sign up (or get more information) at our web page: www.soulforce.org

Soulforce, PO Box 4467, Laguna Beach, CA. 92652 (949) 455-0999 [email-masked]
www.soulforce.org
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