In the past few weeks, fundamentalist Christian organizations
have escalated their attacks on lesbian and gay Americans.
Millions of dollars are being spent to convince the nation that
we are "sick" and "sinful," that we can and
should be "cured," that our rights and protections should
be denied, and that any political or religious leader who supports
us should be condemned and any business or city that comes to
our aid should be cut off.
We are tempted to answer these misinforming voices with equally colorful soundbites of our own; however rushing to do battle with angry words and clenched fists will not help our cause. Doubting their integrity or debating their motives is another dead end. We must not react, but we must respond.The anti-homosexual rhetoric leads to intolerance, suffering, and death forgay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Americans. It must be confronted and the Soulforce principles of relentless nonviolent resistance of Gandhi andKing show us how.
First, when untruth threatens, we respond with truth.
There is a positive side to this series of full page anti-homosexual ads in America’s major newspapers. One of my non-religious, heterosexual friends was enraged by their blatant untruth. "How can they say these things?" he asked. In fact, they’ve been saying these things for years but saying them virtuallyin secret on their TV and radio programs, in their direct mail campaigns and fund-raising appeals.
Now, the untruth is out there where our friends and neighbors can read it for themselves and though the untruth confuses many it will also win allies to our cause. We have one task only: respond to the untruth with truth. Before you respond to the ads, read them carefully. Find the statements that are clearly untrue, and answer them with truth. And where they speak the truth, even if painful, we must acknowledge it. They have invited us to "a new national discussion of homosexuality." Let’s accept!
Second, when untruth threatens, we respond with truth in love.
Soulforce is founded on Jesus’ words: "Love your enemies." Gandhi defines that love as refusing violent actions, violent words, even violent thoughts against our adversaries. King said love must control fist, tongue, and heart. To win the minds and hearts of the nation, our community must take the moral high ground. We must learn to out-love those who caricature and condemn us. We should consider giving up our angry chants and nasty gestures, our mean-spirited banners and inflammatory T-shirts, our belligerent marches and fieryspeeches. These are acts of violence and meeting untruth with violence only escalates the war.
I know the men and women behind these ads - Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Gary Bauer, D. James Kennedy, Beverly LaHaye. Whatever their motives, they truly believe that we are sick, sinful, and a threat to the nation, that we can and should be "cured." They have not taken seriously the scientific, historic, and biblical research that demonstrates clearly that God created us and loves us exactly as we are. It is our job to help them discover this new truth.
Just decades ago, many of our current adversaries were misusing the Bible to support segregation. The folks behind these anti-homosexual ads are as ignorant about homosexuals as Governor Wallace and Sheriff "Bull" Conner were ignorant about African-Americans. King didn’t yell back at his enemies. He didn’t call them bigots or liars. He didn’t waste time hating them or plotting their destruction. Dr. King demonstrated the truth about African-Americans by his loving response to the untruth. We must demonstrate the truth about homosexuals by the way we respond to the war of words being waged against us. We must not hate or fear those who misunderstand us. We must lovingly liberate them from the untruth that holds them hostage.
Third, when untruth threatens, we respond with truth in love relentlessly.
We will not confront the untruth effectively until we have responded with relentless determination. For too long it’s been a war of words. They launch their missives. We counterstrike. They take out ads. We respond with ads of our own or we hold a rally, a demonstration, a benefit, or a one day march on Washington; then thinking we have advanced the cause, we all go out to party. Soulforce calls us to a far more difficult and demanding task.
Look at the fifteen organizations listed at the bottom of these anti-homosexual ads. These are the nation’s primary sources of misinformation, not just about homofolk but about other minorities, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the separation of church and state. We must surround these organizations with truth in love relentlessly, not just for our sake but for the future of this nation. One day protests will not do it. Ad campaigns will fail. No one cares if our one day march on Washington is bigger than their march. In South Africa and India, Gandhi led his people in relentless direct actions to demonstrate their sincerity and to win friends to their cause. Refusing to give up until their truth prevailed, King’s "children" faced water hoses, police dogs, beatings, jail terms, and lynchings. Our time has come. We are second class citizens in our own country. Our freedom is at stake. Our lives are on the line. It is time for a new strategy of relentless nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi and King both began their civil rights campaigns by training their allies in nonviolence. Marchers signed vows that carefully proscribed behavior or they weren’t allowed to march. Direct actions, once begun, were not ended until the goal was accomplished even if it meant imprisonment,suffering and death.
We must re-discover and apply their Soulforce rules. I don’t know what will happen to us and to our allies when we take nonviolence seriously. Gandhi says "Just take the first step and the rest will follow." It is time to try. Thinking ourselves safe in our closets, we are sleeping through a revolution. The Soulforce guidelines are clear. Truth cannot prevail until those who hold that truth are willing to live and die for it.
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