It's Soooooooulforce!

I hit the road at 1:15 pm on Friday, October 22, 1999, for Lynchburg, VA and arrived at First Christian Church, aka Soulforce Central, at about 5:30. I recognized Mel White from his photos and he greeted me with a warm hug. There were many smiling volunteers from First Christian who registered us and matched us up with our hosts for those of us staying with Lynchburg folks. Initially we were to stay with Jerry Falwell's people, but he had decided he couldn't ask them to do that. While I was willing to stay with them so that they could really talk with and get a sense of me, I have to admit, I was relieved. I ended up staying with a delightful Episcopalian couple and their son who were very excited about Soulforce and the meeting with Jerry. 

Greetings, Laughter and Tears

At 7:00 pm we gathered in the sanctuary for the evening's events. David North and the Gospel Celebration kicked off the evening and literally had the place jumping. We were greeted by the mayor of Lynchburg who welcomed us with open arms to Lynchburg and to his church along with First Christian's pastor, Rev. Zimmerman. Mel White introduced us to Civil Rights worker Dr. Rodney Powell, who drew on his experience in the Civil Rights Movement to apply them to GLBT justice today. We met a retired Army officer who had been the senior chaplain of the Southern Baptist Conference in the Army. We met the mother of a young woman who had killed herself after her mother had rejected her for being gay. We held a candlelight vigil for the 100 men and women who have died violent deaths during the past year and their pictures were seated with us in the pews: Matthew Sheppard, Billy Jack Gaither, the students from Columbine, the teens from Wedgwood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, James Byrd of Jasper, TX....

We were a wonderfully diverse group of 200 GLBT, straight, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, from 30 states and one from England, Christians, Jews, and Buddhists. I don't think I've ever met a more spirited and kind group of people in my life.  After the service I followed my hosts back to their home and talked at length with them about life in Lynchburg, Jerry Falwell and the meeting. I met their dog, their son and his pet rat, Pepe. Nice little rat he was, too...

A Course in Non-Violence

We gathered again at 8:00 am for a morning of training in Gandhi and Dr. King's principles of non-violence. We drove through anti-gay protesters bright and early but luckily they stayed on the sidewalk. We had plenty of police protection at the church the entire weekend and I plan to send a note to the police chief for their vigilance and courtesy. We were unable to do the Adopt-a-Road street cleaning as planned due to our safety concerns and an already exceptionally clean street. We did raise $22,000 for the Habitat for Humanity project there along with $1,000 for the Lynchburg food bank. 

We gathered at 2:30 to carpool over to Jerry's Church, the renowned Thomas Road Baptist Church, and learned that Jerry Falwell had just had to ask Mel if we could skip dinner b/c his critics were harassing him for offering to break bread with known heathens and the sexually immoral. There is a passage in Corinthians 5 which says something to that effect and Jerry said he was now learning all about Fundamentalism from his own camp (Interesting that Jesus ate with "known sinners" --- the WWJD thing was in my mind a lot over the weekend). He said he had his caterers ready and waiting but he'd rather have them gripe at him for meeting with us rather than eating with us and the decision was ours. Hands down we agreed to go and share water with them. A reporter asked me on Sunday if I was outraged b/c Jerry didn't keep his offer of eating with us. I explained the above and said it merely shows how deeply the animosity out there runs: "Don't even eat with such people" according to the Bible. (Thanks a lot, Paul...Robert <my pastor>, I think we need to do some exegesis on that passage!) Jerry gave us a choice and we let him off the hook --- it was a positive compromise. The man's got thousands of hate letters from his own people to deal with now as it is. He had far more to lose than gain in talking to us. What he did by meeting with us was simply doing the right thing in trying to promote peace and understanding on both sides. I respect him for that. Some will say he's only doing this for political gain. After this weekend I'm fairly convinced he's really not. 

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (sort of...)

We held hands in the car as we passed the protesters with their signs, and again we made it to the school gymnasium next to Jerry's church safely. David North's group got us all singing "This Little Light of Mine" outside and a photo of us was front and center on Sunday morning. Pastor Wayne looked fabulous <MCC pastor from MD>...

We were seated in groups of about 8 around round tables and I had the chance to talk to a man who worked with the police department. Our conversation was fairly ordinary, but several of the Soulforcers had in-depth and even a few wrenching conversations. Some tears flowed when we got back. Jerry spoke well and again officially apologized for not loving us as people. He said he would never change his mind about homosexuality, but he did promise to love all men and women and continue to try to lead them to Christ and "out of the lifestyle" (I've come to loathe that "L" word). Mel spoke and introduced the same folks from Friday night along with a now openly gay former student of Jerry's school, Liberty University. Things began to get a little tense from there, from my perspective. 

The most difficult part of the evening came during the press conference next door after our meeting. It was grueling to watch really. As we watched on closed-circuit television, Jerry was considerably more hard-lined, a sharp contrast in tone from our meeting just moments before (where there were no media allowed). Then, in what initially felt like an ambush, he allowed an ex-gay to talk on the panel, which from what Mel said, was not planned. We had agreed not to allow a Liberty student on the panel at Jerry's request, yet the man he had on the panel was a man full of anger and condemnation. He was in fact, none other than Michael Johnston, the man of the blueberry pie in the head incident in San Francisco on National Coming Out Day. He's obviously still upset. We had all agreed not to go tit for tat on who did the most to whom, and this man broke every agreement. We were not pleased. Not to mention, we had about 20 former ex-gays who were also not on the panel so it seemed unbalanced. But as we had agreed to merely try to bridge the gap and begin a dialogue, Mel and Jimmy Creech spoke up that Michael's speech was part of the problem when dealing with "hate language" from which Jimmy coined a new phrase: "spiritual violence". I'd have to agree. Fortunately though, the press has put a very positive spin on the conference, though in this era of Jerry Springer show antics, I'm not sure exactly why. While the press conference was strained, the meeting was very positive. I now believe the reason why we didn't get that much press coverage even though 140 press agencies were present, is because it was peaceful. No pies, no name calling, no bloodshed. Thank God. But it doesn't "sell", does it...

Michael Johnston is Preaching at Sunday's Service?!

We heard this just after the press conference and were fairly outraged. None of us wanted to be subjected to him again, especially not during a worship service. Mel spoke to Jerry and said, "If he preaches, we're not coming." We mulled over the situation back at Soulforce Central and awaited Jerry's call. He called and promised us Michael would preach at the 9:45 service and Jerry would preach at 11:00. We were cordially invited to both. Guess which one we attended? I raised my hand and asked Mel if we could trust that Jerry would keep his word, since we'd already felt betrayed at the press conference. If Michael preached, would should we do? Mel laughed and said, "Follow me out the door!" It raised a good point in non-violent negotiations: we are not to question our opponent's motives but to follow through and address their actions. Clearly I was struggling with this one, as were many of us. We decided to sleep on it, but by the end of the debriefing, I decided I would go to the 11:00 am service. 

Thomas Road Baptist Church

The place was packed. Around 4,000 there from reports. Jerry's church has 22,000 members. As promised, Michael Johnston preached in the earlier service, and Jerry preached at 11:00. It was a beautiful service, and if you like a big choir with all the trimmings, you'd have loved it. 

I was very surprised at the warmth of the service and Jerry preached a very positive message with 3 main ideas about the weekend. He again apologized for what he has said and done to us over the years. He said he had demonized us all by 5% of our kooks and had not loved us as people. He also encouraged parents *not* to kick their gay kids out and to never write a child out of their lives and hearts. He told the congregation that each and every person was equally loved by God. Now those are words I would never, ever have expected to hear from that man's lips. Of course he still said the party line of it's a sin, blah blah blah, but it was a start. Before the final stanza of "Only Trust Him", Jerry stopped and said a few words, thanking everyone for attending, for a peaceful weekend, and that no one had disrupted the service. I think he almost expected it...I was afraid it would have been by a Phelps person who would try to pin it on us...thankfully, it was a wonderful service. Overall I'd say the trip was wonderfully successful. I actually sent him an email this morning thanking him and I apologized for the years of anger I'd held towards him and that I'd work to promote peace in my community as he continues to do so in his. A weekend with Jerry Falwell --- truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Amen.  More on Soulforce

Soulforce's goals are to renew our spirits and to transform society. I don't know about the rest of society just yet, but I was not only renewed in spirit, I felt God at work with us and in us. Our next direct action is to stop the trial of Jimmy Creech for blessing holy unions in the United Methodist Church, which is scheduled for November 19, 1999. I would encourage everyone to go to SoulForce.org and sign up he up for the email journey into Soulforce. There is no fee and I have never been approached for money. Mel White does not want to be seen as "the gay leader of America", nor does he want Soulforce to be a "gay Christian group". After this weekend I believe he is sincere in his ministry, and that he and his partner Gary Nixon have started something wonderful in which everyone who believes in justice for the GLBT community can take part. In our future dealings with each other, I would also encourage everyone to recall Jerry's own words: "Is it true? Is it loving? Does it need to be said?" 

Thanks for your prayers this weekend!

Love and blessings, Julie