The Layman covered Soulforce’s actions at the recent PC(USA) General Assembly. Here is an excerpt from the article.

MINNEAPOLIS – Deliberations at the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) were interrupted Friday afternoon by members of Soulforce, an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights advocacy group.

Approximately 20 protestors, some wearing badges identifying themselves as GA commissioners or observers, walked through the area restricted for commissioners only, surrounded the platform and sang “Lord Hear Our Prayer.”

After refusing requests to end the protest from PCUSA staff, GA Moderator Cindy Bolbach, building security and finally police officers, 11 protestors were arrested and escorted from the Minneapolis Convention Center. They were issued trespassing citations and released. Some protestors left the convention center voluntarily and were not cited for trespassing.

Read the full article at The Laymen

What do you think of the news coverage and of other reactions to the events at the General Assembly? Why is non-violent resistance necessary and what are some other creative ways we might speak truth to power?

This article is a guest post from John Shuck and was originally posted at Shuck and Jive

There was a bit of excitement at the Presbyterian General Assembly yesterday. Members of Soulforceparticipated in a demonstration during the proceedings. They held signs and sang a few tunes and were arrested for trespassing.

(Soulforce demonstration at GA. Photo by Erin Dunigan.)

I wish I had been there. I have been watching the proceedings on livestream and tweeting along with other members of the Peanut Gallery Advisory Delegation (those twittering with the #ga219 hashtag). But it is hard to get a feel for the mood when you are not physically present.

Last night, there was twitter talk about this demonstration and I picked up on some energy of LGBT activists who didn’t appreciate the action by Soulforce. I felt a little funny about it myself. I used the analogy of an uninvited neighbor interfering and taking sides in a family spat.

There was some question whether or not Soulforce and the other advocacy groups who are within the church (TAMFS, More Light Presbyterians,Covenant Network) were on the same page. Yet I was challenged by others who thought Soulforce did a good thing. After a night’s sleep and more reflection, I now have more appreciation for the demonstration.

If the PCUSA is a “family” we are an abusive, dysfunctional one. This family has treated its own LGBT family members like crap for a long, long time. Maybe it has been going on so long that it takes intervention from someone outside the family for us to realize how we are perceived from the outside.

Of course, the PCUSA is not a family. It is a religious corporation. It is an institution. It is an oppressive institution. The PCUSA participates in and contributes to spiritual violence against LGBT people through our policies and our inaction. Obviously, there are many who have been devoted for decades to justice and equality. I mean no slight whatsoever on individuals and groups who have been working and sacrificing for equality within the church and doing so from their own particular stance of conscience and strategy.

Nevertheless, as a whole, the PCUSA is oppressive. The effects of this oppression, this spiritual violence, go beyond our denomination. The General Assembly silenced Committee twelve and did not even hear the recommendations regarding marriage equality. We can talk about that in terms of Presbyterian family dynamics, procedures, and whatever. Fine. But Soulforce reminded us that this silencing shows our true colors as a denomination. We need to be reminded of that. Sometimes it does take a group from the outside, like Soulforce, to show us and to shame us.

Some of us have been at this for a while and so we tend to know all the players and the arguments and the strategy and we tend to think along those lines. We don’t want to anger the opposition unduly. They are after all, family. We are happy when we get small victories. We need to celebrate them, claim them, and work from them. We should never forget, however, that these victories also remind us of what we do not have. There is no reason, none, that we shouldn’t as a denomination embrace full equality now.

In today’s Johnson City Press, an Associated Press report reads,

Delegates to the Presbyterian church’s convention in Minneapolis voted Thursday for a more liberal policy on gay clergy but decided not to redefine marriage in their church constitution to include same-sex couples. Approval of both measures could have made the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) one of the most gay-friendly major Christian churches in the U.S.

“Could have” means “didn’t.”

As Soulforce reminds us, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” More Light Presbyterians reported on thedemonstration and arrest. Other news reports arehere and video here. Also a report fromPresbyterian Outlook, and GLAAD.

In terms of what happened at GA:

1. The GA passed a revised G-6.0106b that will now go to the presbyteries. Get your game on!
2. The GA approved directing the Board of Pensions to Same-Gender spouses and Domestic Partners. No ratification is needed by the presbyteries.
3. The GA did not approve any changes to the definition of marriage or make any statement regarding clergy who officiate at weddings in states where same-gender marriage is legal.

Two for three.

This post is by Antony and was originally posted at I, Too, Sing

As Minneapolis police completed arresting Soulforce protesters on the floor of General Assembly, I spoke with two commissioners on my way off the plenary floor. As a press person at the General Assembly, I had filmed the whole direct action. The first commissioner grabbed my arm and asked, “Who are those people?” I explained to him that Soulforce was an organization that used the nonviolence taught by Ghandi and King to stop spiritual violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. He replied, “Maybe we should show them some violence, then we’ll see if they stay nonviolent.” I explained to him that both Ghandi and King had also experienced violence for their stand for justice.

The conversation about doing violence to the Soulforce protesters was not the one that troubled me. A second commissioner said to me, “I don’t understand, we just passed the pensions overture extending domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples.” I explained to her that Soulforce was protesting the refusal of the General Assembly to consider the overtures that would include LGBT people fully in marriage.

In the second conversation, I was not speaking with someone wanting to do violence, but with someone who did not see the position of power that heterosexuality provides. She spoke from a privileged position that assumes marriage is between a man and a women and that heterosexuals have the right to extend marriage to others at their own discretion. In other words, it was perfectly fine to throw LGBT persons a few legislative crumbs and expect them to be happy with progress in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

This conversation revealed the core bigotry that LGBT people face, that of heterosexism.

Heterosexism can be defined as:

A self-justifying system of homophobia that:
1) perpetuates stereotypical categories of what is essentially “masculine” and what is essentially “feminine,”
2) provides a privileged status for people who identify as culturally defined heterosexuals, and
3) discriminates against persons who, regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity, do not appear to fit within the particular category defined as appropriate for their gender.

This privileged status was everywhere present at General Assembly. The very act of dissecting and voting on the lives and futures of LGBT people, while necessary for change, is a profound act of privilege.

Here are a few other examples of how heterosexism manifested at the General Assembly:

Before the arrests, Moderator Cynthia Bolbach told the protesters, “This act of nonviolence will harm their being able to hear what you have to say, not help.” She pointed out to the commissioners watching from the position of privilege heterosexuality provides (some had just booed the protesters). Was the Moderator saying that LGBT people need to respect the heterosexual privilege that creates their oppression in order to have justice?

After the Civil Unions and Marriage Committee passed the overture that would change the definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people”, it was widely reported in the media that the Presbyterian Church (USA) could become the largest denomination in the United States to provide same-sex marriage.

The potential loss of heterosexual privilege by the redefinition of marriage and its fallout must have scared the General Assembly.

In a parliamentary maneuver, the special report on civil unions and marriage became the answer to all the marriage overtures in Committee 12. There would be no discussion of extending marriage to LGBT people.

The reporting on the success of this parliamentary maneuver in both the Presbyterian News Service and the Civil Union and Marriage FAQ is most revealing:

“The 219th General Assembly (2010) voted Thursday night to maintain the current definition of marriage — between a man and a woman — in its Constitution.”
Presbyterian News Service

“By this action (sending both reports for study) the Assembly maintained the definition of marriage as “a man and a woman.” With the action to send the reports for study, no change has occurred, or is pending.”
Civil Union and Marriage FAQ

There was absolutely no consideration of changing the definition of marriage by the General Assembly, just the request that the special report on civil unions and marriage be studied by the Presbyteries. Why did the protection of marriage between a man and a woman become the central talking point in reporting?

The Soulforce protest challenged heterosexism just like the protests of the Southern Leadership Conference challenged racism. Not only did it challenge heterosexism, but it challenged the very systems that sustain heterosexism: “doing things decently and in order” and “unity at all costs.”

Activist, writer, speaker, technologist. Antony dreams of a world where all are free, especially his lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family. To get in touch, follow Antony on Twitter or become a Facebook friend.

This article is by Gil Caldwell, a retired United Methodist minister and member of Soulforce’s Advisory Board. He was active in the Massachusetts unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and participated in the civil-rights movement throughout the nation.

As I read with great enthusiasm the Associated Press story; “Presbyterians leaders Approve Gay Clergy Policies”, I was pleased to read a quote from Cindi Love the Executive Director of Soulforce. She said; “Stay Current”. Karl Barth said, “The Christian lives life with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” It is encouraging that the Presbyterians chose to live in the present for the future, rather than seeking to retreat to a past that was noted not only for its exclusion of gay clergy, but also for its exclusion and separation of persons because they were black, and/or because they were women.

Dr. Love also said to the Presbyterians, “Enter the next generation”. I am often amused that so many persons who pride themselves on being technologically current and future oriented, see no contradiction in their holding on to traditiions, practices and attitudes that belong to “back in the day”, that are “old school” and are generationally challenged.

And the third quote attributed to Cindi Love, “Let go of this debate”, is what I would describe as a pastoral, prophetic and priestly word addressed to Presbyterians, but also to those of us who are United Methodists. We have wasted so much time, done so much damage to the depth and breadth of Scripture, made a mockery of our words about inclusivity and openness, and mission and ministry, as we year after year, Assembly and Conference meeting after meeting, in words, legislation and deed, violated the God-created humanity of Lesbians and Gay men.

Reading of the presence of Soulforce at the meeting of Presbyterians reminded me of 10 years ago when Soulforce was such an important presence at our United Methodist General Conference in Cleveland in 2000. My prayerful hope is that at our 2012 General Conference Soulforce will be present to celebrate with United Methodists when we “stay current”, “enter the next generation”, as we “let go” of our language and legislation that currently distorts “Christian teaching” by saying that actualized same gender love is a violation of that teaching.

Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar was writing about black people when he wrote. “We wear the mask”. The Presybterians have begun the process of making it unnecesary for their gay clergy to have to wear masks to conceal their sexual orientation. The Creator who created us all, must be pleased.

Gil Caldwell
Asbury Park, NJ

ps The AP article said that Soulforce was “a gay Christian group”. Those of us who are allies and advocates of gay rights who are proud to stand under the Souforce umbrella, do not want to be “invisible because some do not want to see us.” (From Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man). “The people united, can never be defeated”

If you wish to support Soulforce’s actions at the PC(USA) General Assembly and assist us in continuing to resist religious based oppression of LGBTQ people, we invite you to make a donation toward our actions at the PC(USA) General Assembly.

We are currently in Minneapolis at the Soulforce action involving the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).  We have a great team here including very tenured and wonderful Soulforce volunteers and staff, Bill, Cris, Doug, Helene, Jeaneane, Kara and LuAnn and people brand new to our work, including our new Board Member elect, Peter Drake.  Jason Conner and David Coleman, Equality Riders, are also here on the ground doing a fantastic job rallying volunteers from throughout the city.  As of 5 p.m. yesterday, we have contacted more than 30 organizations representing more than 5000 people with an invitation to send representatives to the action. Joe Rattan did a fantastic job designing the materials for the Pray In and Brian Murphy has done a stellar job with our web site in providing current information.   I want to express my deep appreciation to everyone who worked so hard on this action.

We want you to be able to visualize what we are doing and ask you to pray for us and for those who have been invited to join us.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, July 8 and 9, we will gather from 7:00 A.M. to 5 P.M. at the Wesley United Methodist Church and an area directly across from the church called the Plaza. Beginning at 7:30 each morning, as noted, we have invited people from all over the city to send representatives to sing, pray, play, mime and give faithful witness to the reality that discrimination does not belong in a Church with the theme, “Reformed, Always Reforming.”   We have chosen Isaiah 43:19 as our inspiration, “God is doing something new!”

In the event that the PC(USA) does not erase its discriminatory policies against ordination of LGBTQ people and its practice of heresy trials for pastors who perform legal same-sex marriages, we will engage in civil action on Saturday.

I recently read a book by Paul Hawkins entitled Blessed Unrest in which he asks the question, “How do we sow our seeds when large, well-intentioned institutions and intolerant ideologies that purport to be our salvation cause so much damage?”  I love his answer.  He says, “One sure way is through smallness (small groups), grace and locality.  Individuals start where they stand and, in Antionio Machado’s poetic dictum, make the road by walking.”

We are here making a road here and we know that you are with us in spirit.  Thoreau said, “there are no inconsequential acts, only consequential inaction, for it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be, what is once well done is done forever.”

I believe that you can feel very proud of your Soulforce friends this week for they will have done this work with the PC(USA) very well.

Please do your very best to support this work by sending any amount that you can by the end of this month to help offset the costs we are incurring.

Thank you!

Blessings and Peace,
Rev. Dr. Cindi Love

“We don’t even need to talk about why being gay is wrong, right?” our youth pastor asked the 10th grade guys Sunday School class.

The classed nodded in agreement.

My friend, Tom Langford, added, “And it’s not a choice. There is no gay gene.”

The conversation moved swiftly on to another topic. I remember nothing else about that day, or even that year, other than those forty five seconds when smiling, well-intentioned guys in khakis and polo shirts unknowingly condemned me to hell.

Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, an Evangelical Presbyterian Church, was one of the central pillars of my life. I was there multiple times a week, many of my good friends were from church, and my teachers and pastors there continue to influence my spiritual life today. And yet, if I am honest, there is and always has been a divide between me and that community. I am and have always been an outsider, intentionally and unintentionally excluded.

Four years later, I was sure that I was gay and no longer convinced it was so clearly wrong; I came out while attending the University of Southern California. We had multiple LGBT organizations, free counseling and support groups, a dedicated floor in one of the dorms, and trained RAs–many openly LGBT–in every building. It was the ideal place for me to come out and I had designed it that way. Unlike other queer people I’ve since met, I purposefully avoided Christian colleges and universities knowing that they would be unsafe for me. Still, at my secular school, all of the Christians organizations I had access to were staunchly anti-gay. It was safer to be a Christian without support in gay circles than gay without support in Christian circles. So while I had figured myself out, I still didn’t quite know what that meant for the Christian faith which had been so important to me for my entire life.

An unexpected series of circumstances and connections brought me to Soulforce’s 2007 Equality Ride and it was during our training that I read Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers. Out of every piece of affirming theology I had read up until that point, this was the first piece that I found compelling and which I believed. Rogers, a former moderator for the PC(USA) General Assembly exploded everything I thought about homosexuality,the Bible, Christianity, and justice. Though I was raised in an EPC church and Rogers was from the PC(USA), his words were healing balm from a family member on my bruised soul.

Not only that, he laid out specific recommendations for the Presbyterian Church–my denomination!–to take in order to right the wrongs of Christianity-fueled homophobia and transphobia. It is not merely that homosexuality is allowable, justice for queer people is fueled by the Gospel.

In the years since my participation with the Equality Ride and reading Jack Roger’s book, my faith has soared to new heights. I remember back to my days at Fourth Presbyterian Church grasping for faith and I realize that I was thinking as a child. Now that I am grown, I have put childish things aside. Jack Rogers, a Presbyterian minister, was a catalyst for me to embrace my own faith and understand it in a bold, new way.

Today, I attend Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. Marble is the oldest Protestant church in North America and the founding member of the Reformed Church in America, a denomination which, like the Presbyterian Church (USA), still does not treat LGBT people as equals. My faith, and passion for justice, has been kindled at Marble, mostly by my pastor David Lewicki, who is ordained in the PC(USA) church. I recognize now that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, the Christ we worship, the early Church, and Christians throughout the ages have been voices for an ever-widdening circle of inclusion and acceptance and of justice for the oppressed. We are convinced that the circle must include queer, trans, and gay people.

I would not be where I am today if it were not for the inspiration of Jack Rogers, the guidance of David Lewicki, and countless other saints and sheroes. I do not know where I would be, but I am almost certain that I would not be a Christian. It is also under Rev. Lewicki that I have returned to many traditional aspects of Christian teaching: prayer, ritual, original sin, repentance, action, and the importance of church communities.

And so I look with expectation to the upcoming General Assembly in Minneapolis. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a remarkable opportunity before her. She can join with voices throughout the ages who have struggled for justice, she can boldly speak the truth even if it is unpopular or costly, she can be a light for the world, and she can save the lives of untold young people who are sitting in their churches and classrooms wondering “Is there something wrong with me?”

The beautiful, and miraculous, part of this process is though it seems costly and unpopular to boldly proclaim “God loves and honors LGBTQ people just as they are,” it is essential to the Gospel, and the Gospel never takes risks that it contain sustain. The fruits of affirming theology testify to its rightness–a return to faith, a healing of relationships, and a vibrance and resurgence in church life. This is what awaits the Presbyterian Church (USA) when it fully includes queer and transgender people in all aspects of the church.

I look forward to the day when the PC(USA) embraces queer people as full and honored members and leaders. I am thankful that Soulforce will be present to speak truth to power and–for those who choose–to pray without ceasing along with the many Presbyterian pastors, elders, lay leaders, members, organizations, and members-in-exile and pastors-in-exile.

If you can get to Minneapolis, be a part of this important action. If you cannot attend in person, there are more ways to participate: send us a story or a prayer, invite friends, spread the word, talk to your friends, get even more involved with your church if you attend one, contribute financially, pray, buy a copy of Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality for a friend, or your library, or your church library.

Brian Gerald Murphy is a filmmaker, media designer, and social activist. Brian participated in the 2007 Soulforce Equality Ride and went on to co-found Sanctuary Collective. He recently re-joined the Soulforce team as webmaster & web developer. You can connect with him on Twitter or his personal blog, Work In Progress.

While there has been a great deal of coverage regarding the situation of the couple in Malawi, almost nothing has been addressed to the situation that this couple does not fit the label of gay couple.  The following two articles bring a new understanding of the couple and what they face.  We have not seen anything written concerning this previously.  Our thanks to to Jim Burroway for the research involved as well as his capacity to allow people to self-identify as they wish and the refusal to impose our own cultural understandings on others.

“The Malawi Couple: Gay or Transgender? Or Something Else?”
from Box Turtle Bulletin

“Once again the ‘T’ in LGBT is silenced”
from Guardian UK

This post is by Equality U director Dave O’Brien. You can connect with Dave on Twitter at @dave_obrien

In March, 2006, equality hit the road and I got to be there with a camera. At over 200 colleges in the US, students face disciplinary action or even be kicked out simply for being gay. At these mostly private Christian colleges, policy states that because homosexuality goes against church teachings, any student who engages in homosexual behavior, who identifies as gay and in some cases who simply advocates a view of LGBT people that is different from what that school teaches, can be expelled from school. As director of the documentary EQUALITY U about the first ever Soulforce Equality Ride, I got to see what goes on at these schools first-hand, and what happens when a bus-load of young, mostly LGBT activists show up for a visit.

I went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A huge, mid-western public school that’s all about Badger football, Madison also proved to be a relatively great place for me to come out as gay. I volunteered on Tammy Baldwin’s historic first race for Congress, helped develop a curriculum for what is now the school’s LGBT studies program and met my first boyfriend, all within three years of coming out. While coming out was then, and still is for most people a scary thing to do, I found myself embraced by a community of LGBT people and friends who helped me come to understand that it was ok to be who I am. I never dreamed that there were colleges that not only didn’t have an LGBT Campus Center, but instead required students who were questioning their sexuality to undergo “reparative therapy” in an effort to convince them they actually weren’t gay.

When I came out to my parents about a year and a half after telling my friends, my father cried because, as he said, “I always assumed I’d see you in heaven.” He and I had both grown up in Catholic households, and since the Catholic Church believes gay people are “disordered” then, it must follow that living one’s life as an openly LGBT person must distance them from God and the ability to go to heaven. As I became more and more comfortable with myself and met more LGBT people, I came to believe that there couldn’t possibly be truth in that. I saw more of the traits that demonstrated to me what it is to be a Christian among many LGBT people of all faith backgrounds than I did in the hateful words of people who preached intolerance. I also knew deep down that I was loved by God and that I had been created as I am because he wanted me to be that way.

I learned about the Soulforce Equality Ride in the summer of 2005. A group of young people were planning to get on a bus to travel to nineteen colleges across the US with policies banning homosexuality to talk with students and administrators about why they believed those policies were wrong. In speaking with then 23 year old organizers Jake Reitan and Haven Herrin, I heard a passion I thought might translate into an incredibly moving film. They planned to visit many of the big names in Christian colleges, schools like Fallwell’s Liberty University, Pat Robertson’s Regent University and Brigham Young University in Utah. At schools that welcomed them, they planned workshops and informal discussions with students and staff. If they were not welcomed, they planned to go to campus anyway and face arrest if university officials refused to allow them on campus.

Many of the riders identified as Christian themselves, and some had attended or been expelled from the very schools we were to visit. I met David Coleman who had attended North Central University in Minnesota because he wanted to become a minister, only to be expelled from that school at the end of his junior year because he confided in an administrator that he was gay. I met Pam Disel, a tough girl with a heart of gold who had been gay-bashed by two strangers. Seminarian Kayla Bonewell’s struggle to maintain a tenuous relationship with her father, even during the Ride, reflected my own experience in the period after I came out to my own family.

As we travelled all over the US, my crew and I got to know the Equality Riders as we filmed them connecting with thousands of young people. I watched as they talked with students who had been taught that gays were sick, sinful creatures who mocked God, as they were faced with caring, whole people, many of whom shared their sense of faith, and all of whom had stories to tell about acceptance and love. Schools where the mere concept that gay people might not be committing a sin by living openly had been a taboo topic suddenly became places of open dialogue about gay people, gay rights and the possibility of a place for LGBT people in God’s design for humanity. I also watched as the Riders disobeyed campus administrators at schools that refused them entry and were arrested in civil disobedience, creating in many cases, even more meaningful discussion with students who saw for the first time the lengths their leaders would go to to silence opposing voices. What was most incredible to me was watching the hearts and minds of so many students open up for the first time to the possibility that we might not be so different from them after all. That we too, are a part of God’s plan.

A few months after I got home from the Ride and we were heavily in the throes of editing the documentary, I got a call from my father. It was November 2006 and a gay marriage ban was up for a vote in my home state of Wisconsin. My dad had told me that priests in the diocese of Madison would be required to play a recording on the Sunday before the vote of a message from the Bishop asking parishioners to vote in favor of the ban. He knew the message would contain discussion of the Catholic teaching that being gay is sinful and that gay marriage was a threat to the family as we know it. My father, who less than eight years earlier had told me he was sad he wouldn’t see me in heaven, didn’t hear the entire recording that Sunday. A few minutes into the sermon he stood up and walked out of church. A small group joined him in his unplanned moment of activism. “I just couldn’t sit there and listen to them preach something that I know isn’t true,” he said.

Equality U comes out on DVD today!

Ray Boltz, an award-winning with 2 RIAA Gold Certified albums, recently announced a new project on his blog. Two songs on this new project, TRUE, give nods to Soulforce.

You can listen to “Who Would Jesus Love?” and “Don’t Tell Me Who To Love” embedded in the article announcing the project launch.

We are delighted and humbled to join in celebration with the Episcopal Church USA and welcome their newest bishop, Rev. Mary Glasspool, to her post. Rev. Glasspool is the church’s first openly lesbian bishop and the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated since Bishop Gene Robinson’s controversial installation in 2004. Congratulations Rev. Glasspool! And congratulations to the Episcopal Church USA for your open embrace of God’s love for all people!

Read more on the Episcopal Church website