Letter Received by Atlanta Religious Leaders Re: Equality Ride

[revtj]

NCBI founder and exec director Cherie Brown, NCBI International LGBTQ caucus, NCBI Atlanta LGBTQ caucus, NCBI International constituency caucus leaders, Soulforce Atlanta leadership, local Atlanta spiritual leaders, and NCBI Atlanta chapter board,

I wanted to share my EXTREME pride and admiration for the LGBTQ activism work this spring done by two NCBI leaders, Tommy Atz (NCBI Philadephia) and Bill Carpenter (NCBI Tampa Bay) and others on the Soulforce 2006 Equality Ride.

Tommy and Bill are both simultaneously Soulforce members and have successfully concluded the Soulforce 2006 Equality Ride here in the U.S., Tommy, as one of the 33 youth leaders on the frontlines, and Bill, if I understand this correctly, as on-the-ride support. Their travels took them to 20 U.S. conservative Christian and military campuses including Liberty University in Virginia, Lee and Union Universities here in the southeast, Oral Roberts in Oklahoma, Texas A&M, California Baptist, Brigham Young in Utah, Colorado Christian, US Air Force Academy, Wheaton in Chicago, and the West Point U.S. Military Academy. They crossed the U.S. engaging in dialogue and non-violent peaceful protest at these campus bastions for conservative Christian and military education. In the process, they honored the heritage and modeled the non-violence teachings of Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. King, as is Soulforce's tradition, and the model of the Freedom Riders in the African American civil rights struggle in the U.S. South during the 1960s (http://www.equalityride.com/article.php?article_id=6), who were the particular inspiration for this strategy and journey.

These teachings are very familiar to us at NCBI! Tommy and Bill, I hope and believe that your training in NCBI listening skills, "minis", sessioning, controversial issues process, and prejudice reduction served you well. And that you walked in love, dignity, and respect for yourself and all others, using the skills, moves me!

For those of you wanting to know more about their courageous and distinctive leadership:
http://www.equalityride.com/ details of the ride, the campuses visited, the actions, the riders, photos and so on

Here's a summary article in my local LGBTQ newspaper, the Southern Voice, published yesterday:
http://sovo.com/2006/5-5/news/national/ride.cfm

Bravo,Tommy, for a ride well-done! Your courage, patience, discipline, brilliance, and activism through non-violent dialogue, teach-ins, pamphleting, demonstrations, and arrests, on conservative Christian and military campuses and with students across the U.S. is a model for us all! Thanks, Bill, for your love and support of the youth leaders and the work! Tommy (& Bill), may your work prove to deepen our imaginations and realities for what can be done by communities of conscience everywhere.

In the spirit of loving community,
your NCBI sister,
Joanne Demark

Note NCBI & Soulforce have everything in common! Check out their website at http://www.ncbi.org/

[Vanessa White]

Thanks for that copy of the letter. I did check out their website, and their philosophy/action seems to be much the same as Soulforce without naming it in the same way. It seems like it has received some credibility as well and is nationally and internationally supported. It has me wanting to go to yet another workshop and find out more, and meet more people!