Soulforce Q lobbies for “right to marry”
Updated: 7/18/2007 4:51 PM
By: Bill Carey

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Their goal — to change minds. Their target — state lawmakers in Central New York and the Hudson Valley. Their method — face to face meetings to discuss the real life impact of the continued ban on same sex marriage.

“This is really about bringing it down to the level of people and how we seek to have loving, committed relationships and protect and care for our children,” said Haven Herrin, Co-Director of Soulforce Q.

“It’s a contract that you enter into with someone else and it’s a way that we as a society and we as communities hold each other accountable and we encourage and foster relationships between individuals who love each other in a healthy way,” said Curtis Peterson, a member of Soulforce Q.

Those favoring gay marriage in New York State have won their battle in the New York State assembly, but have hit a major roadblock in the New York State Senate. There, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has flatly refused to bring any bill to a vote.

Volunteers are targeting members of the State Senate in their travels. In Syracuse, democrat David Valesky’s office was the first stop.

Valesky supports civil unions but not same-sex marriage. Soulforce Q members, talking to a Valesky aide, hope to change the senator’s mind.

“These are issues that are just too real to ignore through politics or through bigoted religious stances or through just going by the polling. This is about people and their lives,” Herrin said.

Group members say that it is time to press for change. That recent polling shows lawmakers can take action without fear of a voter backlash.

Peterson said, “Sixty-eight percent of New Yorkers just said in 2006 that if their lawmaker were to vote to support and to allow same sex couples to marry, those 68 percent said that it would not affect their support or it would increase their support of these lawmakers.”

One stop down and many more to go. The volunteers are optimistic that hard work now will eventually break the logjam at the state capitol.

(Original posting at News 10 Now and related video).

Given the emphasis evangelical Christianity places on refraining from “tampering” or medically manipulating a developing fetus, Albert Mohler’s comments several weeks ago were that much more disconcerting. Through his personal website, Mohler (president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) conceded that were a biological “cause” for homosexuality to be discovered, “treatment” of the unborn child to prevent adulthood same-sex attraction would be a parent’s moral obligation. In effect, this is eugenics—the concerted effort to eliminate a group of people through a variety of measures.

Immediately after publishing these statements, Mohler received sharp criticism from a variety of human rights and LGBT organizations. Surprisingly, he also faced heat from many conservative Christians for implying that there even could be a biological cause for homosexuality.

Originally Union University was slated to be our stop after Mississippi College, but given Mohler’s inflammatory and bigoted remarks, we decided that SBTS was the place we needed to be. Our mission was quite simple—hold a sit-in at the seminary until Mohler recanted his statement and made a public apology.

We arrived that morning at about ten am, hustling quickly off of the bus and towards the campus’ main building which housed Mohler’s office. We didn’t know what to expect. Ultimately, twelve of us were arrested and spent the better part of the day in jail.

Baylor University is the largest Baptist university on the globe. Our fourth stop on the ride, we arrived not knowing just what to expect. The administration took a most effective position on our visit, from their perspective at least. In effect, they decided to ignore us—to put their heads to the sand like ostriches and hope we just passed on by. No police, no swat cars, but also no panels, no classroom visits. We were permitted to be on campus while forbidden from entering buildings or handing out literature.

Initially, I think a lot of the riders found our position on the Baylor campus incredibly frustrating. Sure, we could walk around, approach people and chat with them. However, the very nature of our interactions with students provided them with tactful means of avoiding or dismissing us (e.g “Sorry, I’m late for a class” or “Gotta make a meeting”). However, it seemed that as the day wore on, word got around to students and many of the riders found ourselves involved in meaningful conversations with many students.

What caused the shift? I believe part of it was thanks to the university, albeit they provided aid unintentionally. The morning of our visit a cryptic mass email went out to students. The purpose of it was to reassert the university’s viewpoint (i.e. that Baylor follows Biblical teachings on human sexuality, and thus imply that we do not). What it ultimately accomplished was sparking curiosity among much of the student body.

Late in the afternoon we moved from campus to a nearby park in order to hold a rally of sorts. I was part of a presentation group that was scheduled to speak. About half an hour before the rally was slated to begin, the group and the organizers of the Baylor stop decided that we needed to provide something different. This decision was a heartening one, and we made if for the best of reasons. We had encountered so many supportive students that to offer a presentation targeted at those who still view lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons as “sinful” was pointless. Instead, we used the time alloted for the presentation to talk with students about forming a gay-straight alliance. Hearing students talk about ways in which they were prepared to cohere into a unified community of affirmation was one of the best parts of the visit.