News Coverage of the 2006 Soulforce Equality Ride

[pnggrad79]

I hope it posts, but probably won't. I wrote a reply to Anita Fish's article to the religion editor dhartman@edmondsun.com. She said that Soulforce tweaked Scripture and hoped the public wouldn't notice. I said Soulforce didn't tweak anything-they just stood up for the rights denied us by this country.

[schoolboi]

To Be Gay...and Christian? Mel White's Bizarre Campaign
A prominent gay activist is taking his Equality Ride campaign to America's Christian campuses—to call for schools to change their policies on homosexuality.

At one time in his career, Mel White served as a ghostwriter for the most influential Christian leaders in the country including Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. At the same time he was working for these evangelical institutions, White—who was married with two children—struggled with his sexuality.

He finally decided to divorce his wife and enter into a gay relationship, a process he described as “taking the first steps toward integrity” in his 1994 biography Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America.

Today, White and his partner, Gary Nixon, are waging a propaganda war from their California headquarters. They want America’s Christian college students to embrace homosexuality as a normal lifestyle.

White’s campaign is called the Equality Ride, and it is driven by an organization he founded called Soulforce. The campaign involves 35 young adults who began a national tour of 19 Christian colleges and universities on March 10, including a number of Pentecostal schools. The activists have already stopped at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., (where school officials and police barred them from the campus) and at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., (where riders were denied a public forum).

On March 31, Soulforce planned to stage a protest outside the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities convention in Dallas. And riders will stop at North Central Bible College, an Assemblies of God school in Minneapolis, on April 17.

Soulforce’s goal is clearly stated on its Web site: “Never before have young activists banded together to challenge homophobia at the institutions that are largely responsible for GLBT discrimination.” (GLBT, by the way, stands for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.)

Soulforce has employed intriguing tactics to get out their message. At Lee University, they scheduled a concert with the pop group Jason and DeMarco. The musical duo includes Jason Warner, a Lee graduate who freely talks about his Pentecostal upbringing. He and his partner DeMarco DeCiccio have appeared on the cover of the gay magazine Advocate and have performed at numerous pro-gay events including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Awards.

Get the message? “You can be gay and Pentecostal! Come join us!”

White and his young disciples have targeted Christian schools because they don’t tolerate homosexual behavior. Haven Herrin, co-director of the event, told Charisma: “We do not question a private institution’s right to choose to enforce a discriminatory policy. Making these choices is fully within a school’s right, but we do see the choice to discriminate as a decision with moral weight.”

That is a slick argument. Soulforce uses terms such as “rights,” “discrimination” and “moral” to twist reality. Wrong becomes right. Right becomes wrong. A lot of Americans fall for that kind of doublespeak.

Thankfully, administrators on these campuses have been gracious in their dealings with Soulforce. At Azusa Pacific University, officials allowed the protesters a limited time for discussion and then used the dialogue to reinforce their conservative position. Nobody threw rocks or hurled epithets—which would have only created sympathy for the Soulforce riders.

Officials at Wheaton College in Illinois told Charisma that they will host a forum on homosexuality. They will then use the platform to stress “why Wheaton’s stance will not change from the historical stance of the church,” said campus spokesperson Tiffany Self.

Jerry Falwell, founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., said the Soulforce riders will not be welcome on his campus, and he accused them of not acting in good faith. Soulforce, he said, “is simply trying to use such encounters on Christian college campuses as a media attraction and for their ultimate purpose of fundraising.”

How should we respond? These gay young people don’t need to be vilified, and campus officials are smart to avoid ugly confrontations. If anything, we should use this as an opportunity to demonstrate that Christians don’t hate gay people because, after all, many Christians have struggled themselves with that sin—and found grace to overcome it through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But we also need to make it clear to Mel White that he is fighting a losing battle. I can say this with authority because I have two daughters who attend a Pentecostal college in Georgia. Nobody is going to impose immoral standards on my kids while I’m paying their tuition.

Earth to Mel White: Christians are not going to rewrite the Bible or our campus moral guidelines just because you decided one day that it was “a step toward integrity” to leave your wife for a man. Shame on you for luring impressionable young adults into this deception.
J. Lee Grady is the editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist.

[schoolboi]

Lynchburg News & Advance
April 1, 2006

While homosexuals are endorsed by the mainstream media and liberals of the day, those who disagree with this lifestyle are labeled homophobics and treated as if they are the ones who should be in hiding.
According to Corey Hildebaugh’s letter of March 10, Jerry Falwell is the sinner, while homosexuals are holy. It’s not enough for those who approve of homosexuality to have the practice legalized, they want to turn religion on its head by forcing the church to subscribe to that which is contrary to Biblical doctrine. So, who’s doing the hijacking here?
To pretend that evil is good and that Biblical Scripture, hence God, condones of homosexuality is immoral and offensive. It is socially destructive, contrary to human nature, and against the law of God. Homophobia by its very definition implies that those who are opposed to homosexuality are afraid of it. Not so. They simply oppose it and make no apologies for doing so. This opposition does not include nor condone violence.
Isaiah and Paul warned of days to come when evil would be paraded as good and good as evil. The ethical ideals of our society have become so warped that moral vice is openly defended against virtue.
Shame and sin can only be defined by God. Homosexuality is contrary to Scripture, and there is no way to speak of any kind of acceptable or “Christian” homosexuality.
Paul also says in Romans Chapter 1 that a society which approves of homosexuality will be “given over to their reprobate minds.” In short, if men persist in such activity, God will simply leave them to themselves.
Our love for God and our obedience to him must supersede all other loves and loyalties.
So the real menace of society is not those who oppose immorality, but those who promote it.
LINDA VAN TASSELL
Rustburg

[Jamie McDaniel]

I was watching Eyes on the Prize a while back and what struck me was the historical footage and newspaper clippings of politicians, preachers, and religious people speaking without the slightest reservation, and in plain view, against equality for black Americans. Today, such statements would only be presented in the public square by someone looking to immediately send their political or ministerial career into a death spiral. But 40 years ago, there they were, out in the open.

Now thanks to the Internet, every one of these anti-gay articles can be found and saved. And I do want us to save every last one of them. Forty years from now when our Eyes on the Prize is in the nation's libraries, I want the next generation of Americans to know exactly who it was who said these things.

[Jennifer5]

I agree with you Jamie...

[themattperry]

Jamie,

I think I see where you are coming from, and I certainly feel the same way sometimes. However, I hope that we can achieve reconciliation, repentance and forgiveness with eachother. Perhaps if the people who say stuff nowadays become enthusiastic participants in justice one day and join us in supporting what is right, then there will be no need to dredge up old articles. This is my vision at least ... a grand one I know.

[Jamie McDaniel]

Originally Posted by themattperry

...I hope that we can achieve reconciliation, repentance and forgiveness with each other. Perhaps if the people who say stuff nowadays become enthusiastic participants in justice one day and join us in supporting what is right, then there will be no need to dredge up old articles. This is my vision at least ... a grand one I know.

And a good vision it is, Matt! Thanks for reminding me. I guess I wouldn't be too thrilled myself if every thing I said and wrote in the past was dredged up.

I agree, I went too far with my comment. Still, I do think that power should be kept from those who have a long past of siding with injustice. And America and the church both suffer from amnesia when it comes to keeping tabs on that.

[themattperry]

Jamie --

I definitely agree ... and I think sometimes I am a bit idealistic about things, which is probably why I'm not a frontline activist.

-Matt

[schoolboi]

Being Christian and Gay Aren't at Odds, Group Says

[Jennifer5]

Being Christian and Gay Aren't at Odds, Group Says

I had just read that... I liked most of it... but didn't care for that ending.... but people are listening we have a pretty good start, I think

[closetcougar]

This is an article covering the church services yesterday in Provo at the SF BYU stop. It was a great experience. The article, although surprisingly ... not negative, is pretty superficial. Haven is an incredible person and has such calmness and peace about her. Many of use are still in the bitter and cynical phase, but she seems to realize that that approach will do no good.

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/174388/