Justice Candle

Show your support! Put a Justice Candle on your homepage!

To put a justice candle on your page copy the Tag below into your webpage and you should be set. Or you can download the .gif file above and add it to your webpage be sure to link to http://www.melwhite.org so that JusticeNet can spread the word!

"It is better to light one little candle than to curse the darkness."

The Justice Candle

From the moment we received an invitation to attend one of the 1997 Inaugural Balls, Gary and I knew that we couldn't dance at this Inauguration. But we also knew that we should be in Washington, D.C. to signal our respect for the Presidentís high office and to remind Mr. Clinton that he is called by his Creator to use his powerful office to do justice for all.

The next four years could bring great good or great harm to millions of us singled out by political and religious extremists for ësecond-class-citizenship. We must unite with other concerned Americans to urge the President to stand against poverty, racism, sexism, injustice and intolerance in every form. But as UFMCC clergy and laity we must also be relentless at keeping before him the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Americans.

Pat Robertson and the other anti-homosexual extremists have already launched campaigns to silence us and to see us stripped of all our ëinalienable rights.í They don't want our light to shine for justice, for ourselves or for anyone else. In fact, they are working day and night to snuff it out. Lighting our Justice Candles is just one small way to help keep it burning.

On Inaugural Eve, Gary and I lit our Justice Candles with a crowd of MCC congregants and our allies in Dupont Circle, the heart of the lesbian and gay community in Washington, D.C.

Early that day, the Rev. Candace Shultis and I lit the first Justice Candle during both Sunday morning services at MCC Washington. Ken Martinís MCC Austin and other congregations joined us that same Inaugural Eve Sunday. E-mail messages are pouring in (RevMel@aol.com) assuring us that others are lighting their Justice Candles from P-FLAG chapters and other people of faith groups (including a gay and lesbian synaogue, chapters of Dignity and Integrity and other solidarity organizations, ëOpen Door-More Lightí congregations and UUA churches.

The Justice Candle idea is spreading rapidly across the nation. We hope you will consider lighting a Justice Candle with us. If you have an AIDS candle or other commemorative candle burning, consider lighting a Justice Candle and blending the flames. The Rev. Nori Rost (Pikeís Peak MCC) has written a response of reading to use with your lighting ceremony. Contact her or me for a copy of that wonderful litany. Hereís why we are lighting our Justice Candles.

We Light Our Justice Candles To Remind President Clinton: that we are sincerely grateful that he has done more to support and include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Americans than any President in history; but that by signing The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), he has denied our community the very rights he will swear to provide and protect on Inauguration Day; and, in some cases, because of what he has done or left undone, we continue to be second-class-citizens in our own country; that we light our Justice Candles that the President will see the light and use his power with Congress, the courts, and the people to do justice, not just for lesbians and gays*, but for all who endure racism, sexism, poverty, or discrimination and intolerance in any form.

More specifically:

*Öto provide courageous leadership in the war against HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases,

Öto continue his support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act,

Öto initiate legislation to gain lesbian and gay partners the 175-250 rights that go with marriage,

Öto defend our rights to child custody, adoption, and foster care,

Öto review the shameful results of his military policy and to end the military ban,

Öto include us in hate crime protections and to help end the ësodomyí laws,

Öto help win for us the same rights (not ëspecial rightsí) that the U.S. Constitution promises all Americans.

As We light our Justice Candles, We Promise: to pray for the president that he might have the wisdom and the courage to work for justice during his second term, not just for lesbians and gays, but for all people who suffer second-class-citizenship; that we will back our prayers with actions (letters, faxes, phone calls, e-mail, petitions, press conferences, public actions) that support and praise the President when he does justice and confront and condemn him when he remains silent and does nothing to oppose injustice; that we, too, will invest more of our time, money, and ideas this year in the cause of justice, not just for our own community, for all who face injustice, bigotry, and discrimination.

Light Your Justice Candle And Keep It Burning That We All Might See The Light! (To prevent our cat, Sara, from setting our apartment on fire, Gary found an old electric candle that we will ëkeep burningí 24 hours a day for the next four years. Join us, for a day, a year, or for the term!)

On January 20 we also celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We remember his commitment to justice by renewing our own. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!" Dr.King

I am grateful to our national Justice Candle task force for their work: Will Dennis-Brennan, Executive Director of the National Association of Black and White Men Together; The Rev. Ken South, Executive Director of the AIDS National Interfaith Network; Deacon Maccubbin and Jim Bennett, partners and owners of the Lambda Rising bookstores; Wayne Turner and Steve Michaels, AIDS activists in ACT-UP D.C.; Mike Nichols, Amy Ziegenfuss, and my partner, Gary Nixon. And I am grateful to you for being faithful to the Biblical command to "Öto do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it."

Last Updated: