After visiting all our MCC Districts and dozens of our local
MCC churches, I am convinced that you and your people do justice
POWERFULLY just by being there for God’s outcast children.
Keeping your doors and open and your
programs in place are acts of doing justice (making things fair
for all).
So, don’t worry. I’m not proposing extra work for you
or another item for your budget. You don’t have enough staff
(let alone enough money) to take on a whole new justice program.
And you certainly don’t have any extra time to lead a justice
team on your own. I am suggesting a way to increase your justice
ministry and decrease your own work load in the process. Consider
the following:
Step One:
Find and Recruit a Volunteer to Be Your Local
Minister of Justice and Reconciliation
Every local congregation could have a volunteer, unsalaried justice
minister (just like the UFMCC has me.) You know the type, an activist
or potential activist with a special concern for justice issues
who reads the papers, watches the evening news, and spends hours
every week at her or his computer, sending and answering e-mail,
reading the breaking news, and writing letters or making phone
calls on behalf of justice. Most congregations, no matter how
large or small, have someone who fits the bill. Find that person
and ask her or him to serve as your local volunteer justice minister
for three
months without pay or budget.
That justice minister could become a valuable member of your team,
assisting you and your congregation in the work of doing justice
even more effectively. All you have to do is find someone who
fits the job description and ask that
person if she or he is willing to take on the job.
What Are The Three Primary Tasks of A Local Justice Minister?
1. To keep up with the local, statewide, national and international
justice issues that might effect the people of your congregation.
2. To help you and your congregation keep up with those issues.
3. To help you and your congregation respond to those issues more
effectively.
How Does A Local Justice Minister Accomplish Those Three Tasks?
1. Keeping up with the justice issues:
Ideally, a local justice minister needs to have access to e-mail
and the Internet. That requires a computer with a modem. Many
local libraries, college or university communication centers,
even downtown Internet Cafes provide access to these services
until your local justice minister can get on line. If you just
can’t find someone who is ‘on-line’, it is still
possible to keep up with the issues through the media.
2. Helping your congregation keep up with the justice issues:
Once ‘on-line’ (or even with regular visits to the public
library periodical rooms) your justice minister will find ways
to keep up with the breaking issues, for example, the local school
board meeting that has been called to disband Project Ten on your
high school campus, or the statewide law that has been proposed
to access a $1,000 fine of clergy who perform same gender unions,
or the Employment Non Discrimination Act being debated in the
U.S. Congress to protect lesbians and gays in from on the job
discrimination. Your local justice minister wades through the
avalanche of breaking news and
finds the most important items. Besides providing you a regular
"Justice Briefing Paper" (those items neatly bundled
in a manila folder and left in your box), your Justice Minister
might have a regular place to post the items, a brief column in
your weekly paper, a monthly bulletin insert, or even a Sunday
Justice announcement included in the morning or evening
service.
3. Helping you and your congregation respond to those Justice
issues more effectively. We can’t respond to the breaking
news unless we know where and how to respond. The Justice Minister
should include with every item, a way to respond effectively.
For example, if the school board is about to meet about Project
10, where and when is the meeting? If a law is being debated,
who is our local official and how do we contact that person with
our loving advice?
Step Two
Using your local justice minister to create an Ad Hoc Justice
Team
Sometimes, there are justice issues that demand a collective response
from your entire congregation. For example, a statewide, anti-gay
ballot initiative that you want to respond to as a congregation.
Having a local justice minister in place means having someone
you can call to pull together the activists or potential activists
in your congregation to help you
accomplish your justice goals.
Step Three
Using your local justice minister to create a more permanent Justice
Team
Several MCC congregations have Justice Teams that meets regularly
and takes on justice projects approved by you and your board.
Team members might each represent your congregation on different
justice groups across the city or
around the state (or even the nation). For example, one member
of your justice team might represent you at P-FLAG meetings, or
at your Lesbian/Gay Center, or with your local AIDS service organization,
or at any other community justice group, for example, at chapter
meetings of the ACLU, People for the American Way, NAACP, SCLC,
NOW, or whatever justice group with which you feel affinity, including
the solidarity groups with other churches (Dignity, Integrity,
Affirmation, etc.) or the Open and Affirming Congregations.
Your local Justice Team meets monthly (or more regularly during
a crisis) to discuss the breaking news, to consider various ways
the congregation might be involved, and to create a plan they
bring to you for your input before presenting it to the congregation.
Step Four
Getting involved with our national justice groups
This is one of my own dreams (fantasies) for UFMCC. There are
only a handful of national gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered
organizations working for justice nationally on our behalf. I
am convinced that UFMCC could have a powerful impact on these
organizations just be joining them.
For example, if your justice minister or someone on your justice
team would join the Human Rights Campaign in the name of your
congregation, get on the HRC mailing list, keep up with HRC news,
and share that news (for example, on a justice table set up every
week in your church), it would really impressive the HRC and at
the same time provide a steady flow of information and justice
opportunities to your congregation.
If you went even a step further by having another person join
NGLTF, the National Gay And Lesbian Task Force, and another join
LLDEF, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, and another GLAAD
(Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), your congregation
would become a clearing house for justice news and opportunities.
It would also be beneficial for your Justice Minister or your
Justice Team to subscribe to several major sources of justice
news. Besides the gay and lesbian papers we all read, these are
my three favorite sources of news and thoughtful discussions of
justice issues: The Other Side, Second Stone, and Freedom Writer.
I’ve enclosed their addresses on the JusticeNET resource
bulletin that follows (where I’ve also listed the organizations
discussed above).
Step Five
Use your national Justice Minister to help inspire and inform
your local Justice Minister
1. Get your local Justice Minister to look up my JusticeNET web
page immediately [www.melwhite.org] and after reading through
the various items, to e-mail me his or her questions.
2. I will respond immediately with any help I can give.
Resources For Your Local Justice Ministry
Justice Organizations:
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1734 14th St., N.W., Suite
607, Washington, D.C., 20005 (202) 332-6483
(The NGLTF is effective at training and organizing at the grassroots
level. They will help your community defeat state and local antigay
initiatives and Constitutional Amendment campaigns. Their annual
Creating Change Conference in the fall would be a perfect conference
for your local Justice Minister to attend. Every conference I
have attended has inspired and informed my own justice ministry.
The NGLTF is also a wonderful source of statistical
reports on issues that effect your people.)
Human Rights Campaign Fund, 1012 14th St., N.W., Suite 607, Washington,
D.C. 20005. (202) 628-4160
(The HRC is our largest gay/lesbian lobby in Washington, D.C.
They have proven their skills at stopping unjust legislation and
promoting laws that help do justice. By joining HRC you will get
resources through the mail to assist you in a variety of important
justice tasks.)
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., 120 Wall St., Suite
1500, New York, NY 10005 (212) 809-8585. LLDEF is our largest,
legal support team. Their Evan Wolfson has led the entire community
during the current fight for same-gender marriage. They are worthy
of our support and their regular mailings and e-mail bulletins
are very helpful in keeping up with the justice issues. They also
have a large assortment of pamphlets to inform our congregants
about how they can help guarantee certain rights and protections.
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, 80 Verick St., Sutie
3E, New York, NY 10013 (212) 966-1700.
GLAAD has recently combined their field offices/organizations
in a national office that monitors and report the good news and
the bad regarding our community and the media. GLAAD alerts by
mail and e-mail help us respond to sponsors who are being attacked
by religious extremists for supporting our community.
Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, 1012 14th St.,
N.W., #700, Washington, DC 20005.
P-FLAG is a treasure and P-FLAG ‘moms’ and ‘dads’
are our most faithful allies. Be sure to find the local P-FLAG
chapter in your area. Attend a meeting. Get acquainted. See that
your Justice Minister joins or appoints a member to be your P-FLAG
liaison. Invite P-FLAG folk to your church. In my experience,
P-FLAG members support our local congregations and are present
on every special occasion to which they are invited.
American Civil Liberties Union, 132 W. 43rd St., New York, NY,
10036.
The ACLU is a controversial organization, to be sure. But I don’t
know any organization that has fought and suffered on our behalf
any more than they. Find the local ACLU chapter and visit at least
once. Get acquainted with the ACLU activists. Let them know how
grateful we are for their support over the decades. Offer your
services to pray or speak at an ACLU meeting. Be sure your Justice
Minister knows their leaders and attends at least an occasional
meeting
People for the American Way, 2000 M St., N.W., Suite 400, Washington,
DC 20036 (202) 467-4999.
Besides their services to our community, PAW’s archives in
Washington, D.C. (with the best collection I’ve seen of print
and media examples of the anti-gay rhetoric), their mailings and
annual reports (for example, their annual Hostile Climate a study
of the anti-gay initiatives state by state in the past year) are
excellent.
National Organization for Women, 1000 16th St, N.W., Suite 700,
Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 331-0006.
NOW is another controversial justice seeker. But they have worked
so hard for our equal rights. Women still face terrible injustice
in America. When we help NOW, we help our own.
JUSTICE PERIODICALS
You have your own favorite lesbigay papers (national, regional,
local). Your Justice Minister could clip the news sections and
special articles and post them for all to read.These are the three
other sources of justice news and information I find helpful.
The Other Side, P.O. Box 2007, Hagerstown, MD 21742.
Frankly, I don’t know any other Christian periodical that
has worked so hard or taken so many risks on our behalf. Every
issue contains articles and art, bulletins and ads that inform
and inspire our justice efforts. I’ve saved every issue for
the past 8 years for preaching and writing ideas and support.
Subscribe to this one, for your own sake.
Second Stone, Box 8340, New Orleans, LA 70182.
I read and enjoy all the lesbigay periodicals from Advocate and
Out to Frontiers and Voice. But this is the only lesbigay periodical
that I know of with a Christian editorial perspective (and no
900 number ads). I am proud of their editor and the risk has taken
to drag us kicking and screaming into
the 21st Century.
Freedom Writer, Institute for First Amendment Studies, P.O. Box
589, Great Barrington, MS. (413) 528-3800.
Editor Skip Porteus, his wife and team of volunteers have been
standing for us in the frontlines of the war extremists are waging
against us. His Freedom Writer is a treasure trove of fast-breaking
news and in-depth reports
from those same frontlines.
At this moment, thousands of Protestant and Catholic clergy
in North America and around the world, feel angry and frustrated
about the anti-homosexual decisions being made by their denominational
leadership. It is safe to assume that there are mainline clergy
(liberal and conservative) in your town who are tired of this
tragic, silly, endless debate and who are ready to take their
individual stand for truth about God’s lesbian and gay children.
All they need is someone to give them that opportunity. Here’s
another way for our UFMCC clergy and laity to be ministers of
justice and reconciliation in their hometowns.
A Case Study in Madison, Wisconsin
In last month’s Keeping in Touch, I mentioned the "Madison
Miracle." On Sunday, April 6, 1997, Gary and I held a citywide,
interfaith ‘Soul force’ workshop at the First Congregational
U.C.C. in Madison. During the lively Q&A session, a clergyman,
concerned about the recent decision by his own (Presbyterian)
denomination that effectively denies gay and lesbian candidates
the right to be ordained, asked what he could do to help God’s
lesbian and gay children more aggressively. I invited him and
any other interested clergy to have breakfast with me the next
morning. To my surprise, thirty-five clergy appeared (on Monday
morning no less). A frank and lively discussion followed. It was
immediately obvious that these clergy (like others in your town)
were in almost total agreement:
· that homosexuality is neither a sickness nor a sin;
· that their denominations are being well-served by gay
and lesbian Christians;
· that homosexuals are members in-good-standing of their
own local churches;
· that this denominational double standard is causing great
suffering for their lesbian and gay members, their friends, and
families;
· that their denominations are making these tragic, anti-homosexual
stands
because they are afraid of the potential loss of members and money
if they stood against the extremists;
· that someone has to take a stand against this tragic
injustice.
. that they were willing to put their own careers on the line.
"What Can We Do to Help?"
When these pastors asked what they could do to help, I suggested
the following:
1. Gather their own lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered members
together to ask them how their local church can minister more
effectively to their own unique and often desperate needs.
2. Appoint a ‘blue ribbon’ committee to make their own
church-wide study of homosexuality and come up with their own
decision about accepting lesbian and gay Christians into full
membership. [I gave them samples of the studies by All Saints
Episcopal and Pullen Memorial Baptist to show what happens when
local churches decide for themselves. If you would like copies
of these seminal studies, I’ll be glad to send them to you.]
3. Work towards making their local congregation an official "open
and affirming" church. [See the addresses that follow for
resources for five major denominational "open and affirming"
programs and their OPEN HANDS magazine.]
4. Display resources (books, videos, pamphlets, including our
own UFMCC brochures) in their churches that will help inspire
and inform their congregations.
5. Get together as an interfaith, ad hoc, citywide committee to
create a Declaration of Solidarity with God’s lesbian and
gay children.
The Madison Affirmation For the next four weeks, those same courageous,
committed clergy met weekly to create a statement of support for
the full acceptance of homosexual Christians. They enlisted a
total of eighty local clergy and lay leaders to sign their Affirmation.
They held a press conference to present it proudly to the public.
Their Madison Affirmation made headlines across the nation and
its impact is still being felt. I’ve sent every UFMCC pastor
in North America a copy of the Affirmation and the names and denominations
of the 80 Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish leaders who signed
it. [If you would like a copy, it’s own our Web Page or Gary
will mail you a copy upon request.] Can you imagine what would
happen if these local ‘Affirmations’ began to appear
in towns and cities across North America and around the globe?
Why don’t you consider inviting gay/lesbian friendly (or
potentially friendly) clergy to a breakfast in your town. Share
the stories of lesbian and gay Christians who are victims of ignorance
and bigotry in their home churches. (You might even have 1-2 ‘wounded
but articulate souls’ present to tell their true stories.)
Pass out the Madison Affirmation and the list of 80 signatures.
Ask if those gathered would consider writing an affirmation in
your town. Then, leave it in their able hands. You, too, may be
happily surprised by what happens next.
There are excellent resources available from these denominational
sources: Reconciling Congregations (Methodist): 3801 N. Keeler
Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60641 Open & Affirming (UCC): P.O. Box
403, Holden, MA 01520 Reconciled in Christ (Lutheran): 2466 Sharondale
Dr, Atlanta, GA 30305 More Light Network (Presbyterian): 5525Timber
Lane, Excelsior, MN 55331 Welcoming & Affirming (Baptist):
PO Box 2596, Attleboro Falls, MA 02763 The OPEN HANDS magazine
is another important source of information for congregations "…affirming
sexual diversity." Order a copy from OPEN HANDS, 3801 N.
Keeler Ave, Chicago, Ill 60641. This helpful periodical also lists
the almost 1,000 local congregations that are officially ‘open
and affirming.
Find the mainline churches in your own town who have taken their
stand or who are on the verge of taking it. Invite their clergy,
your colleagues in local ministry, to meet with you to discuss
the possibilities of joining together in a citywide affirmation
that will make headlines in your town and bring hope and healing
to thousands of lesbian and gay Christians in your community who
feel cut-off and condemned by their churches. Reach out to our
sister and brother clergy. Share the need for positive words of
love and support in the midst of all this false and inflammatory
rhetoric. You may be surprised by the number of mainline clergy
who are ready to embrace our cause. The media will have a field
day and you will help advance our quest for justice for God’s
lesbian and gay children another giant step.
Last Updated: 11/01/98