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 to the liberation of sexual minorities."
White and his partner, Gary Nixon, are launching Soulforce, Inc. to help mobilize and train people of faith to do justice guided exclusively by the principles of nonviolent resistance as taught by Jesus, Gandhi, and King.
Dr. White fears that the activist community is nearly exhausted from having to fight two wars at the same time: the personal war against HIV/AIDS and the political war being waged against sexual minorities. "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. That’s why we are launching Soulforce, Inc. The toxic rhetoric flows unabated, primarily from misinformed religious leaders. It is poisoning the national discourse, dividing homes and churches, ruining families and wasting lives. We must do our best to stop that flow of poison at its source and the "soul force" rules of 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 powerful 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 Rides, and 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 melwhite@soulforce.org. 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.