Faith at the intersections: A collection

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Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................3 Writings by Rev. Gil Caldwell...............................................................................................................................................4 Writings by Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey...............................................................................................................................108 Speeches by Bishop Melvin Talbert..................................................................................................................................122 Biographies..........................................................................................................................................................................129

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Introduction James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson sometimes described as the "Brothers Johnson" have written, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" that is known by some as an anthem of African American people. It is Hymn number 519? in our United Methodist Hymnal. It has these words; "We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered."

The three of us have been nurtured and nourished by our experiences as African Americans.

Our history and the history of our forebears has not only informed our commitment to challenge racism, particularly its anti-black expression, but our history has also informed and inspired us to challenge sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, and classism as well.

Through his writings, Rev. Gil Caldwell civil rights activist and foot soldier who walked with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has frequently identified black, same-gender loving persons as important to the work of liberation. Bishop Melvin Talbert, another civil rights activist has been the leading episcopal voice reminding us that biblical obedience means full inclusion of LGBTQI persons in the worship and ministry of our denomination. Rev. Dr. Pamela R. Lightsey, a queer lesbian ordained elder and scholar works within the academy, the church and as an activist on urban streets protesting racism and homophobia. Each of us, in our work and writings have consistently argued that our ministries are made better by the teachings and examples of such Black LGBTQI persons as James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, and Audre Lorde. We have seen no conflict in our racial justice activism and our activism in challenging the discrimination LGBTQI persons, same gender loving persons and couples face in church and society.

We share these writings with the hope that the unfinished justice journeys of persons of African descent in the America's, Africa and the rest of the world, will be linked to the justice journeys of LGBTQI persons, same sex couples, women, the poor, and all people who are yet to experience complete freedom, justice and equality.

We believe with every bit of our lives, that, "None of us are free until all of us are free.”

Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightest Bishop Melvin Talbert Rev. Gil Caldwell

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Section I Writings from Rev. Gil Caldwell 2008 - 2017


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55 years together, and finally the right to marry!

June 21, 2008 I am sure the proponents of our United Methodist legislation that forbids United Methodist clergy from officiating at marriages or unions of same-sex couples had no idea that couples like Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon existed. Nor do I imagine that the writers of Scripture, whose words have been used to support our Book of Discipline language, were acquainted with relationships like that of Martin and Lyon. If they had been, I cannot imagine either their spirituality or their reason permitting them to write/speak the words of judgment and condemnation that have been responsible for the "long night" of resistance to same-sex couples who want to openly affirm and proclaim their love for and commitment to each other.

The 50 plus years that Grace and I have spent together as a married couple have been filled with much joy and some struggle. There have been many mountaintop experiences. But there have been valleys as well, some personal, some because of bigotry. On December 1, 1957 after our marriage on November 30, 1957, we arrived at the Mt. Airy Lodge in the Pennsylvania Poconos to begin our honeymoon. Although I had reservation in hand, when the desk clergy saw us, he said, "we cannot accept your reservation, your presence would upset our guests.” Much more was said, and it soon became obvious that the Lodge was unwilling and unprepared to accommodate a newly-married African American couple.

But, we could marry! We were married in a small country Methodist Church in Greensboro, N.C. by a Methodist Bishop. After our rejection in the Poconos, we traveled to New York City to complete our honeymoon. Same-sex couples, because of legislation passed by General Conference after General Conference, are not permitted to have their marriages or their unions confirmed in United Methodist Churches! And, United Methodist Pastors are denied the right to officiate at the services of same-sex couples. In 1957 the Church said "yes" to the marriage of Grace and Gil Caldwell, but a secular institution, a Lodge, said "no.” Today, The United Methodist Church says "no" to the marriage of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon while the government of California says "yes.”

Not all of the same-sex couples that Grace and I know want to marry. Some of them, as they observe the patriarchal history of marriage and the current state of marriage, are reluctant to marry. They remember the words of James Baldwin who said of the racial segregation in the USA, "Who wants to be integrated into a burning house." But, Althea Gibson, the first African American to win a major tennis championship said of the segregated balconies of movie theaters where once we were forced to sit; "I prefer to sit in the balcony because I can see the screen better. But, I don't like to be told that is the only place where I can sit."

How much longer will The United Methodist Church say "no" to United Methodist same-sex couples, senior citizens like Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon and those who are not? When will we cease engaging in the juvenile practice of negatively stereotyping same-sex persons who

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love each other? 50 years ago the desk clerk who turned Grace and me away, blamed his actions on the unwillingness of the white guests to accept us. I believe that in 2008 there are thousands of United Methodists who would have been proud to host the wedding of a samesex couple who have been together for 55 years! They would have wanted their United Methodist minister to officiate at the service. And, upon reflection they would say that to be an authentically "Open Door Church," all same-sex couples ought to have the right to marry in a United Methodist Church with A United Methodist minister officiating.

My prayer is that those leaders in our denomination who have been the self-appointed "gatekeepers,� like that desk clerk in Pennsylvania, who have led others to vote against samesex unions and marriages at General Conferences are beginning to be "born again.� They cannot help but see that while our Church prohibits and excludes, an increasing number of Courts and Legislatures and Governors are convinced that true equality means inclusion of same-sex couples.

History is repeating itself! Once the state legislated segregation and denied interracial marriage, and the Church followed the lead of the state. Today the state is beginning to understand that the equality provisions granted by the national and state Constitutions apply to same-sex couples.

May The United Methodist Church understand that the equality provisions of Scripture and our Book of Discipline long ago gave us permission to lead. But, since we did not lead on matters of race, but rather followed the state, let us do the same on same-sex unions and marriages. In the past the state gave the Church permission "to be the Church" in response to race. Today, may the still-timid Church, follow the state in its response to same-sex couples. 

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The Fourth of July; A Reminder, that Historically, Civil Rights precede Religious Rights July 04, 2008 There were two major emotional responses that were mine as I read about the official beginnings of same-sex marriages in California. Joy, as I read the New York Times as it described the excitement, energy, and enthusiasm of same-sex couples who married and their family and friends, who shared in a significant moment in history. Sadness however, as I read of a United Methodist clergywoman in California who grieved over her inability "to be in ministry" with persons as they prepared for and participating in their "marriage moment.�

Some of my most important ministry has taken place as I have done marriage counseling, led a wedding rehearsal and participated in the marriage ceremony of a man and woman. But, actions of our United Methodist General Conference in 2008 and General Conferences before, United Methodist clergy because of church legislation are denied the right to be in full and complete ministry to and with same-sex couples!

But while The United Methodist Church, year after year has denied the legitimacy of civil and marriage unions of same-sex couples, in state after state, there is a growing recognition of the meaning of Constitutional democracy. Some persons cannot be more equal than others and none should be denied equal access to the rights and responsibilities decreed by state Constitutions.

History reminds us that after a "long night" of denial and avoidance, Constitutional equality triumphed over racial prejudice and bigotry in the USA! State after state rescinded its legislation that excluded black persons from participating in the rights and privileges granted to all citizens. EVEN, the many states that once had laws prohibiting interracial marriage were "born again" and eliminated that legislation. If, we as a nation claim to be a Constitutional people, then we must be.

The fourth of July celebrates a nation that came into being by believing in the establishment and the protection of the rights of minorities of all kinds. The idea that the voters of California have the right by voting, to exclude same-sex persons from access to marriage contradicts that we celebrate on the 4th of July. If states, southern and northern had been given the right to vote on eliminating interracial marriage, we know what would have happened in many states.

If the nation had voted on maintaining "separate but equal" public schools, state after state would have voided the 1954 Supreme Court decision.

Martin Luther King asked the question; "Why is the church so often the taillight and not the headlight?" I suggest that even though we in The United Methodist Church speak of "openness" and "making disciples of Jesus Christ,� we have allowed our Bible to be a source of exclusion while Constitutions proclaim a nation of inclusivity. History indicates that Constitutional authority has pushed the Church to do what the Christ of the Church has been unable to do.

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Affirm in word and deed, the God-given sacredness of every human being. Thank God for Constitutions.

Happy July 4th!

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An Open Letter: The Lord is using the California Pacific Conference to preserve our church July 12, 2008 Letter Context: Resolutions passed by California-Pacific Annual Conference as quoted below: "While we recognize that we are governed by the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, we support those pastors who conscientiously respond to the needs of their parishes by celebrating same-gender marriages, and we envision compassion and understanding in any resulting disciplinary actions."

"The California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church acknowledges celebrates the Supreme Court decision regarding marriage equality."

"The California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church support samegender couples who enter into the marriage covenant and encourage both congregations and pastors to welcome, embrace and provide spiritual nurture and pastoral care for these families."

"The 2008 Session of the California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church OPPOSES the California Marriage Protection Amendment, and calls upon all United Methodists, in favor of defeat of this act to work with all their might for its defeat, and We call upon the laity and clergy of our churches in the California-Pacific Annual Conference to answer the call of General Conference by providing a witness against heterosexism and any discrimination based on sexual orientation, and in so doing, to be actively involved in protecting the civil rights of all Californians as they pertain to the right to civil marriage, working through correspondence with elected officials, through public venues such as newspapers, periodicals, radio and television, and the venues offered by the internet, and through other opportunities as they arise."

To: Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, The California Pacific Conference and The Western Jurisdiction One of our United Methodist brothers, after delegates from Africa at the recent General Conference helped to preserve our "Incompatible with Christian teaching" Book of Discipline language concerning homosexuality/homosexuals said this: "The Lord is using the Africans to preserve our church."

The recent actions by the California-Pacific Conference in their 2008 Annual Conference session have done more to preserve the history and heritage of Methodism than our 30 plus year history of discriminating against same-sex loving persons has. The actions of the Conference in response to the now-legal same-sex marriages in California will be noted by

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historians as an important turning point in the life of our denomination.

A background comment that illustrates our United Methodist understanding of the ministry of the church and of clergy: Many United Methodists are in radical disagreement with our current war in Iraq. Our Council of Bishops and other sectors of the denomination have said so. Yet, no United Methodist clergyperson or church is expected to withhold ministry from those who got us into the war, those who lead the war, those who fight the war, those who are veterans of the war and certainly not the families of those who lost loved ones in the war, nor those who have been injured in the war. If our ministry is not withheld from those associated with a war about which we disagree, why would we be expected to withhold ministry from same-sex couples who are preparing for marriage and desire United Methodist clergy to offer ministry before, during and after their marriage ceremonies in California (and Massachusetts)?

Many of us pray and hope that the Western Jurisdictional Conference, in its discernment in response to the leading of God, will affirm the actions of the California Pacific Conference and other Conferences as they have sought to preserve the inclusivity and integrity of ministry in The United Methodist Church.

The passion that I express in this letter and in some of my other writings is shaped by my 74 years of living and engagement with race, as it has shaped both the church and society. We have wasted so many, many years debating, dividing and coming together in response to race.

My length of life has given me reason to be in despair that on matters related to same-sex loving persons, we are again as a denomination wasting God's good time; this time by separating and segregating persons because of their sexual orientation. As different as matters of race and sexual orientation are, to allow either of them to distort our ministry by denying ministry to some because of legislation and Book of Discipline language, is a distortion of Scripture, Experience, Tradition and Reason. We learned this in the long nightmare of racebased slavery, segregation and discrimination—all at one time supported by Methodist legislation. The California-Pacific Conference actions enable us to end the long nightmare of withholding ministry from same-sex couples.

George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist is identified with these words that have been preserved in paraphrase fashion by many of us: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I remember the past through the stories my paternal grandfather told me about slavery. I remember the past because I was born into and lived much of my life in racial segregation. I remember the past as I have read in Methodist history, the discussions and debates that divided the church because of slavery. I was 5 years old when my preacher-father came home to tell us that in Kansas City in 1939, three branches of Methodism held a "Unification Conference" to end the long debate and division over slavery by establishing the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction.

The white Methodist preacher/Bishop for whom I am named, Gilbert Haven, in the midst of

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the vile and vicious debate in the church about the humanity of blacks in the 19th century, dared to become an outspoken proponent of interracial marriage. Some Methodist Annual Conferences dared to speak out about racial equality and integration, even as General Conference legislation at that time, declared the opposite. Always there have been Methodist clergy and laypersons who have been on the side of God's inclusive intent, while their sisters and brothers allowed their prejudices to shape a God of exclusive and biased intent. History has proven that the former were right, and the latter were wrong!

The California-Pacific Conference and other Conferences, through their actions have remembered the past of racial slavery and segregation. They love the denomination so much that they do not want it on matters of sexual orientation and same-sex loving couples to repeat the separation and segregation of the past. State governments in their judicial, executive and legislative branches are ahead of The United Methodist Church in their understandings and actions regarding the constitutional meaning of equality and equal access. May we as United Methodists at least have the courage to be in ministry to those whom the state has now granted the right to marry.

As Martin Luther King suggested, "The Church has been a taillight rather than a headlight" in its slowness to lead on matters of racial justice. Legislation enacted by Annual Conferences to affirm same gender commitments and support of those actions by the coming Jurisdictional Conferences will begin to make our Book of Discipline "Called to Inclusiveness" words a reality, rather than a public relations slogan.

Gil Caldwell "May God Bless The United Methodist Church"

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The "Kisses" in the movie MILK February 16, 2009 I am writing this on Valentine's Day, 2009. It is an appropriate time for me to share one of my responses to the movie that I saw this week. As I sat in the darkness of the theater, I wished that I had thought to bring a notebook in which to write my many observations. I am sharing one observation that evoked memories of the once-held taboos against black persons kissing white persons on the screen. February, that has been designated Black History Month, is an ideal time for "Grandpa Gil" to remember many of the parallels between the Black experience and the experience of gays. (In another blog I will write of a wonderful article that I have just read that addresses the areas of sensitivity that should be noted as we compare the struggles of Blacks and the struggles of gays who are not Black).

It would have been an impossibility to film Harvey Milk without scenes depicting his personal and intimate relationships with other men. And of course, if the movie had not shown Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) kissing one with whom he shared love, the movie would have been inauthentic. Yet, there is a history and probably a current reality of some persons who react negatively first, to the idea and then secondly, to any depiction of interracial or same-sex kissing.

The history of forbidding scenes of interracial kissing in movies is known by many of us.

Many times that section of a movie was deleted when it was shown in certain sections of the USA. I contend that many of the inner forces that caused/cause some persons to experience a rise in blood pressure when they observe interracial kissing are at work among some people when they observe same-sex kissing.

I propose with appropriate tongue-in-cheek, this idea. Seminars that are designed to help persons identify and then be liberated from their racism and/or heterosexism (latent or overt), include depictions of interracial and same-sex couples kissing, as a way of identifying and transforming our prejudices.

All of us might benefit from such a stress test.:-)

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The Academy Awards and Lent February 27, 2009 The 81st annual Academy Awards provided me with substance that will provide reflection material as I participate in my 75th Lenten Season. (Of course in my 75 years the meaning of Lent did not "take" until I was in my teenage years). But, I celebrate how blessed I am to have lived to experience 75 years of Lent! What is the "substance" that will be part and parcel of my Lenten journey?

First, as Dustin Lance Black responded to the Oscar he received for doing the screenplay MILK, he spoke to gay and lesbian young people everywhere. He reminded them that they were loved and accepted, despite the stands of some churches; "They were loved by God.� He said this because the life and commitment of Harvey Milk was a source of inspiration for his own life and encouraged him to accept himself.

Second, as Sean Penn received an Oscar for his portrayal of the role of Harvey Milk, he spoke of the few anti-gay protestors outside the event. He expressed the hope that they and those who voted for California's Proposition 8 that forbid same-sex marriage, would reflect on what their vote said about the humanity and rights of gay people and what that communicates to their grandchildren.

Third, the words of Dustin Black and Sean Penn made me think of some other words. Alex Haley in ROOTS, The saga of an American family, (The story of his African family that became a TV classic) describes a naming ceremony. The first child of Omoro and Binta Kinte was named Kunta. Haley describes Omoro, "Carrying little Kunta in his strong arms, he walked to the edge of the village, lifted his baby up with his face to the heavens and said softly, 'Behold - the only thing greater than yourself.'"

Fourth, the above caused me to return again to those words in the 139th Psalm: "For it was you (God) who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Verses 13-14) My hope for this Season of Lent is that I and my sisters and brothers of faith, will allow the movie MILK, the story told in ROOTS, and the words about the God of creation in Psalm 139, to find a place in our Lenten reflection. May we prayerfully re-visit the legislation of The United Methodist Church that denies the "Christian compatibility" of persons whose love is expressed in same-sex relationships.

If we believe that all humans are "fearfully and wonderfully made,� how do we dare legislate that this does not apply to LGBTQ persons who express their love in same-sex ways? We say that some persons, because of their sexual orientation and same gender identity are outside the circle of Christian teaching. Does this mean that after Omoro had held the baby Kunta up to

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God and later discovered that Kunta was same-sex loving, he could assume the role of God and cast his son out of the family and the religious circle?

We know that "God works in mysterious ways.� Are there some Lenten messages that God would have us hear that are to be found in the 2009 Academy Awards? God only knows.

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Why do some Christians accept/affirm an inclusive Constitution, but feel it necessary to reject/deny, an inclusive Bible?

March 29, 2009 Years ago, Grandpa Gil was influenced by the title and contents of a book by Robert A. Raines, "Living the Questions.” As our United Methodist Judicial Council prepares to meet to discuss and rule on the inclusivity and exclusivity of Church membership, these questions come to mind.

1. When Governor Sarah Palin was nominated as the Republican Party nominee for Vice President, some conservative Christians were asked this question. How could they accept her as a potential Vice President, and a possible President, when they believed that the Bible forbid women to be Pastors of their Churches and should not lead in the same ways that men led? They responded by saying that the Bible defined the nature of leadership in the Church but not the nation. Were they saying that the Constitution proclaimed gender equality, while the Bible did not?

2. The U.S. Supreme Court decreed in 1954 that racially segregated public schools were in violation of the equality provisions of the Constitution, yet many Methodist Churches and Church-related institutions as well as the denomination (The Central Jurisdiction) continued their policies/practices of racial discrimination. But, after the 1954 Supreme Court decision, racially segregated Churches and Church-related institutions slowly began to integrate. The racially- segregated Central Jurisdiction was not merged into geographically-designated Jurisdictions until 1968. How do we explain why/how a Scripture-based and centered Church denomination was led to racially integrate by a new interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, rather than being led by its understanding of the inclusivity of Jesus and the Bible?

3. While we in The United Methodist Church debate whether a Pastor is justified in excluding from Church membership persons who do not view their same-sex relationship/ commitment as being "incompatible with Christian teaching,” and deny the right of samesex couples to participate in civil unions or marriages, states are being led by their Constitutions to include rather than exclude. And, many in the military are re-considering the validity or necessity of their "Don't ask, don't tell policy.” Are we going to continue to diminish the power of Scripture by continuing to "use" the Bible to support our prejudices?

When will we as United Methodists accept the fact that although Scripture has not changed, we have changed on matters of race and gender, as we have allowed the totality of Scripture and the love made manifest and visible in Jesus, to move us from Bible-based exclusion to Biblebased inclusion?

I have been influenced by the writings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Jewish

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Reconstructionism. Rabbi Kaplan writes this in "Judaism in Need of a New Approach” (I suggest that the reader substitute Christian/United Methodist and Christianity/United Methodism, where appropriate):

"In sum, those who look to Judaism in its present state to provide them with a ready-made scheme of salvation in this world, or in the next, are bound to be disappointed. The Jew will have to save Judaism before Judaism will be in a position to save the Jew." My fear is that we who are the daughters and sons of John Wesley are fearful of and failing to be, the agents of Church Renewal as was our founding father. We have not allowed our history of re- interpreting Scripture to include rather than exclude, to provide us with "heart(s) strangely warmed.” If we allowed ourselves to be led to understand that the Scriptures that moved us from exclusion to inclusion in relation to some persons, could also lead us to include persons whom we now reject because of whom they love, the heart of United Methodism would experience a new "heart warming.”

Are we fearful of a United Methodist repeat/replication of Wesley's 18th century heart warming experience, in the 21st century? If we are, why?

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When persons become persons, rather than abstractions June 3, 2009 Years ago, a white ministerial colleague of mine, shared this story about his white congregation and their experience with their young organist who was black.* My colleague said that at first there was resistance in the congregation to their new and young organist because of his race. But in time, their negative attitudes were transformed by his musical gifts and by his personality. Many of the older persons in the congregation "adopted" him as their grandson. He as a person became more important to them, than his race. I missed seeing my colleague for a few months. The next time I saw him I asked about the organist and the congregation. He said this; "Gil, he developed a serious illness and died suddenly. The grief in the congregation was a kind of grief I had not experienced before. I realized that for many persons in the congregation, getting to know and love the black organist was the first time they had known a black person as a person and not as some-less than person created by years of prejudice.� Then he said; "Gil, when he died, this was the first time many persons had ever grieved over the death of a black person whom they had come to know. His life and then his death transformed the bigotry and, "the hate that they had been taught by the time they were 7 or 8.� (From South Pacific) The "protection" of marriage as an institution, has become for some, much like the "protection" of segregation as an institution, that I experienced in North Carolina where I was born and Texas where I spent my teen-age years. Apparently for some, it is easier to maintain the status quo of institutions than it is to affirm the God-given humanity of LGBTQ persons and same-sex loving couples. How many of them must live and die, before church and society affirm them?

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The UMC and the Black Community, The UMC and the Gay Community, More of the Same June 12, 2009 My memories of the slowness of the Methodist/United Methodist Church to embrace the Black community have surfaced as I observe the slowness of United Methodism to embrace the gay community. The current state of racial inclusiveness in The UMC makes us reluctant to remember the history that has brought us to this moment. We look at ourselves today and see leaders at every level who are Black, but the presence of Black persons as members of The United Methodist Church has not increased. The slowness of the Methodist/United Methodist Church to embrace the southern Freedom Movement in the past stood in the way of Blacks joining The UMC. Today, the resistance of our denomination to embrace the gay rights movement must cause many gay persons to be reluctant to affiliate with United Methodism.

James Lawson, Civil Rights Movement icon, now a retired United Methodist minister, wrote these words in 1993 about the reluctance of the Church to join the march to racial justice that was taking place in secular society in 1964: "The 1964 General Conference in Pittsburgh showed me again the shame and glory of the Methodist Church. I saw the Church at its very best: the hundreds of non-delegates who attended expecting racism to be confronted with prophetic zeal and compassion...some of us wanted to confront the General Conference in some style that would provoke the sort of discussion and realism that could produce serious change. I...saw my expectations and hopes dashed...when the last effort of the (Black delegates) from the Central Jurisdiction failed, I wept openly outside the hall...I knew that Black Methodists needed another vehicle for renewal of The Methodist Church. I left Pittsburgh with the certain knowledge that nonviolent action and work were necessary...We did not see our Church taking seriously the escalating movement for freedom as symbolized in Martin Luther King, Jr." * Today there is an "escalating movement for freedom as symbolized" by the successful efforts to gain same-sex civil unions and marriage rights in state after state. There are now 18 thousand married same-sex couples in California, and the efforts to overturn Proposition 8 are increasing. Yet the "sound of silence" of The United Methodist Church is deafening. Those who have expressed a willingness to provide ministry for and to same-sex couples have been told the Book of Discipline forbids that ministry. Even as some of us believe and seek to live the words of Karl Barth, "The Christian lives life with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other," we act as though our newspapers and other media carry no stories that the state Constitution-based gains to marry same gender couples have been achieved. The "official" voices of the denomination have been muted at best or silent at worst, giving the impression that while society is changing, the denomination never will.

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After the 1954 Supreme Court decision that invalidated the concept/practice of "separate but equal" public schools, many of my black colleagues in Black denominations asked, "Why is the Methodist Church moving so slowly in its efforts to eliminate the racially-segregated Central Jurisdiction?" When in 1968 the denomination began the process of merging the Central Jurisdiction with the geographical Jurisdictions, they asked, "What took so long and why is there still so much reluctance to include those who were excluded?"

My preacher-father once told the story of the preacher who preached an emotion-packed sermon urging young people to consider the ordained ministry or to become missionaries.

When the preacher gave the altar call inviting the young people to come forward as a public expression of their commitment, he noticed a teenage girl whom he knew well, leaving her seat to come and kneel. She was the preacher's daughter. As she knelt he walked over to her and said; "Mary, honey, I didn't mean you.�

Despite all of our United Methodist proclaimed "openness" and our desire to "make disciples," there are so many people who are aware of our legislation and action who know, "The United Methodist Church does not mean me."

I was ordained a Deacon in 1956. During my ministry, time and time again, I have met Black persons who are not United Methodist who are not sure that our denomination-which was so long and so reluctant in embracing, as Jim Lawson says, "the movement as kairos"--is able to authentically embrace them not only racially, but also historically and culturally. They believe that for them, there is a "don't ask, don't tell" ethos in the Church that would stifle their candor and honesty about who they are racially.

Do any of us honestly not understand why some same-sex couples and LGBTQ persons are reluctant to join a denomination that both fails to officially stand in solidarity with the gay rights movement and has legislation and attitudes within the denomination that proclaims gay persons do not belong?

There is yet a final observation that has shaped by my experience as pastor of predominantly white and black churches. I have been pastor of white persons (and some black persons) who, as they acknowledge their resistance to or apathy about the racial justice-focused Civil Rights Movement, now wish they had been participants in, or at least proponents of, a Movement that transformed the nation for the better.

My prayer is that those United Methodists who now are resistant to or apathetic about the Gay Rights Movement would have a change of mind and heart so they will not later regret they were barriers rather than bridges within United Methodism as it moves to affirmation of both the humanity and Christian "compatibility" of those whom it now rejects.

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Happy Father's Day, Richard Bruce Cheney June 24, 2009 In recent years, it has been my custom on Father's Day to write about a father who has been open in his support of a member of his family who is lesbian or a gay man. A few years ago, I wrote about a father who at the time was a seminary president and was dismissed from his position because he presided at the marriage ceremony of his lesbian daughter. Richard Bruce Cheney is, of course, Dick Cheney, our former vice president. Although I have disagreed with his worldview and some of his political positions, I have sought to not allow those differences to get in the way of my applauding the open support he has given to his daughter Mary, her long-time partner Heather Poe, and their child.

In his chapter entitled "Confession and Communion" in the work Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer addresses Christian fellowship: "The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner...Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous." As one who has never pretended to be pious, nor judged others in the fellowship because they too are un-pious, I have found sustenance in Bonhoeffer's suggestion that we should learn to "fellowship as the undevout as sinners....The fact is that we are sinners."

Both in church and society, we sometimes find it difficult to celebrate anything that is positive in those with whom we disagree. It is as though if we acknowledge that we deem an idea or conviction is positive, we automatically embrace all that the person has been and is. I do not want anyone to embrace all that I have been and might be, but I do hope they will not refrain from embracing that within me that they agree with and support, despite some differences.

In a recent appearance at the National Press Club, Dick Cheney said, "One of my daughters is Gay....I believe she and others should have the freedom (granted by the state) to enter into a union or marriage" (paraphrase). One of the ironies of this moment is that while President Barack Obama supports same-sex unions but not marriages, former Vice President Cheney believes same-sex marriages, if affirmed by the state, are appropriate.

Barack Obama is a president whom I supported and support, but I disagree with him on same-sex marriage. A Vice President whom I did not support and do not support on some issues, nevertheless, I am in agreement with in his support of his daughter Mary and samesex marriage.

I believe that it is time in church and society for us to transcend right and left thinking and judgment. Ariana Huffington has written; "The seismic shifts in our society have rendered rights vs. left thinking as archaic as a flat earth map." I believe that when we in The United Methodist Church no longer view acceptance and affirmation of LGBTQ persons and samesex unions and marriages as a "left" issue and not a "right" issue, we--to our surprise--will discover "communion" (Bonhoeffer) as we have not known in recent years. More and more

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persons whom some describe as conservative are now openly expressing their support for same gender marriage as a Constitution-granted civil right. If this is happening in secular society, why not in The United Methodist Church?

"Former Vice President Cheney, I offer you a belated 'Happy Father's Day'--not because of your justifications of the war in Iraq, or enhanced interrogation of suspected terrorists, or your critiques of the current Administration's defense against possible terrorism--but because you as a father have not been silent in your support of your daughter Mary to be who she is, and to love and commit herself to whomever she pleases. May all of us as fathers, whether our children are gay or straight, be as open and as bold in our support of them as you are of both of your daughters."

(A bit of history: The George W. Bush administration, I have learned, was the first administration when a President and Vice President in office at the same time shared the same denominational affiliation: The United Methodist Church).

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The "Doors" of the Episcopal Church are opening while some would close the "Doors" of The United Methodist Church August 4, 2009 "Confessing Our Faith Together" is the name of the document that United Methodists and Episcopalians are working on together. The document will guide the efforts to establish "communion" between the two denominations through legislation at the 2012 United Methodist General Conference.

It appears that regardless of the current state of conversations between the two denominations, the Episcopal Church is being faith-driven to become authentically inclusive while The United Methodist Church is being fear-driven to become more exclusive.

The recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church enacted legislation that affirms the right of same-sex loving persons to participate and hold leadership positions at every level of the Episcopal Church. While early and premature, reports from the voting on 23 re-structuring amendments indicate that many United Methodist Conferences defeated them.

In an expression of concern about the premature announcements of the voting that will not be official until the Winter/Spring of 2010, Bishop Gregory Palmer--President of the Council of Bishops of The UMC-- issued a statement that ended with these words: "However the amendments go, our mission is unchanging."

What is the mission of The United Methodist Church? It seems that whatever that mission is, it is fear-driven by those who write and speak of a pro-homosexuality lobby that they believe is seeking to "take over" The United Methodist Church. They boast that the apparent defeat of the amendments, particularly Amendment 1 that would declare "faith in Jesus Christ" as the only litmus test for membership in The United Methodist Church, would be a sign of "victory" for their version of "the mission of The United Methodist Church."

Some "Caldwell Commentary:" I believe the Spirit at work within me compels me to offer these words. There are more similarities between the actions of some of my brothers and sisters in The United Methodist Church and those on the political scene who are called "Birthers" and "Tea Bag Party Devotees" who describe our President as an "Undocumented Alien," and declared that a gorilla that escaped from a Columbia, South Carolina Zoo as a "harmless ancestor of Michelle Obama," than I believed was possible! I am discouraged as I read the words and observe the actions of some who demean in personal ways President and Mrs. Obama and those in The United Methodist Church who demean LGBTQ persons and same-sex loving couples.

My prayer is that some of my gifted colleagues in The United Methodist Church, many of them long-time friends, will now understand that their silence in the presence of those who would deny LGBTQ persons who profess "faith in Jesus Christ," equal access and

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participation in the denomination, have given over leadership to those who link their bias to the Bible, and have given them legitimacy in their efforts to "make small and narrow" the denomination that we love. 


Linda Bloom of United Methodist News Service wrote an article on May 17, 2007 about the exploration of a new relationship between The United Methodist and Episcopal Churches. She began her article with these words: "United Methodists and Episcopalians have a new way to know each other." May The United Methodist Church begin to "know" and replicate the Christ- driven openness of the Episcopal Church, rather than continue to close its doors, hearts and minds to some of God's people. The fear-mongers who once frightened faithful Christians to fear the complete inclusion of black people in the Methodist/United Methodist Church are being replicated by those today who use fear to frighten United Methodists so that they will participate in the exclusion of LGBTQ persons from the Church. The racial fear-mongers lost.

So, too, will today's fear-mongers.

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Rejection/Reception August 26, 2009 Mark 7:25-29: "A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he was saying to her, 'Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered and said to Him, 'Yes Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs.' And he said to her, 'Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.'

This is the text for a sermon preached by Shaundra Cunningham, the winner of the first prize at this year's Billings Preaching Prize Competition at Harvard Divinity School.* She entitled the sermon "Remember Your Daughters," and in the sermon she asks these questions: "How do you respond when Jesus acts like a jackass? How do you react when the one who is supposedly without sin shows a stunning reprehensible side?"

I was so startled by her words that I had to read on. Ms. Cunningham says, "The Matthean account of this story is even more explicit. In Matthew 15:24, Jesus says, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' Jesus didn't want to be bothered in the first place, but now the woman finally has his attention and can make her petition. Jesus shows his ugly side. He calls this woman a dog!'"

Ms. Cunningham then says, "When Jesus calls her a dog, the first words out of her mouth are: 'Yes, Lord.' Even though Jesus tried to dismiss her, she couldn't let his temperament offset her mission. The woman knew what and who she came for" (her daughter).

Some may be so offended by this depiction of Jesus that they cannot find meaning in the sermon intent of Ms.Cunningham. The sentence in the sermon that "spoke" with special power to me is this: "The problem this woman faces is common to each of us - that is, rejection. How do we handle our rejections, and not just any rejection, but rejection from the lips of Jesus?"

The rejection that many of us wrestle with at this moment is rejection by the followers of Jesus. This summer the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America received rather than rejected those whom so many have kept "outside of the gate." My prayer and hope is........... * From the Summer 2009 edition of Harvard Divinity Today, volume 5, number 2.

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An "Open" Letter to an African American Congresswoman, now dead, whom some thought was Lesbian October 11, 2009 Dear

,

You mesmerized the nation with your distinguished and significant service as a member of Congress. The precision of your articulation, the courage you exhibited to "swim against the stream" and your many accomplishments, caused friend and foe to give tribute to you. One of the newspapers that carried your obituary spoke of your 30 year relationship with your female partner/companion. Yet, one of your biographers has suggested that there is no conclusive evidence that you were same-sex loving.

Sunday, October 11 in Washington, DC, "National Coming Out Day" will be celebrated by many LGBTQ persons, same-sex couples, and their allies. I have wondered if you were still alive, and in Washington as a Congressperson, whether you would join the celebration?

I marvel at so many of my many friends in church and society who for many reasons have chosen to "pass" as heterosexual. The outer and inner pressures upon them, I know, are more enormous than I could imagine. I use the term "pass,� because you Congresswoman , as an African American know that this is the common term used to describe black persons who because of their physical characteristics are able to blend in with the white population.

There are persons in my family who have done this and I must admit their doing this caused some stress and strain in our relationships. While I, during the Civil Rights Movement was a "foot soldier" involved in protests, marches and getting arrested in the cause of racial justice, they had some reservations about identifying with me because of their fear of being "outed,� racially. My physical appearance and my activism, made them uncomfortable whenever I was with them.
 Their fear was that one of their white friends would look at me with them, and then add 2 and 2 to make 4.

Congresswoman , I wish that you had been able to "come out" openly when you were alive. The City Council in Washington is on the verge of enacting legislation that makes possible same-sex marriage, yet, there is opposition from some African American clergy and others. You, during your life, transcended all of the negative stereotypes that many persons in society as well as the church use to demean LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples.

If you had been able to be open about your sexual identity, some of the fear tactics that are being used today that are unworthy of those who claim Christ as Lord, Liberator and Savior,

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would be revealed as what they are: "full of sound and fury signifying nothing.�

My prayer is that the National Coming Out Day event, will find a way to acknowledge persons now dead, who during their lifetimes could not express openly, the totality of who they were. 


Those who gather in Washington, will for many of us, be giving a posthumous tribute to you Congresswoman . You were a source of profound inspiration to me and so many.

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Lessons for United Methodists from Mayor-elect Annise Parker and Strom Thurmond December 16, 2009 I am asked so frequently, "Gil, why are you such an active advocate for the rights of LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples in the church and state?" that I will repeat here my response. "I am a 76-year-old man. I was born in North Carolina and grew up in Texas. I have seen and experienced first-hand the foolish, irrational, unreasonable and the spiritually-demonic reality of separation, segregation, and punishment of persons solely because of their race. I cannot be silent now as I observe the same thing happening to persons and couples because of their sexual orientation. Yogi Berra once said, 'Its dĂŠjĂ -vu all over again' and at this moment that is exactly how I feel."

On Saturday, December 12, 2009, the voters of Houston elected Annise Parker as their Mayor.

The media described her election as "The first election of a Mayor in a major city, of someone who is openly gay.� Almost four years earlier on November 8, 2005, the voters of Texas, "overwhelmingly approved a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage." Mayor-elect Parker was worthy of being elected Mayor of Houston, but because Houston is in Texas she cannot marry her partner of many years because they share the same gender. Their children are unable to say their parents are married, because they are not legally allowed to be married in Texas.

The late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is the father of Essie Mae Washington who was born from his relationship with Carrie Butler, a servant in the home of his parents, who was black. Thurmond, although over time altered his racist views, is remembered as the Senator who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Before that, Thurmond had been the presidential candidate of the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party in 1948.

What commonality can we draw from the stories of Strom Thurmond and Annise Parker?

Thurmond could demean blacks and vote against legislation that would grant them civil rights because blacks as a group were anonymous and without personhood or personality. But Carrie Butler, with whom he fathered a child, was not anonymous. She was a person; with a personality and humanity known by the Thurmond household as well as by Strom Thurmond.

Thus, Thurmond would support Essie Mae Washington financially and otherwise until his death.

There can be no question that some of the voters in Houston who voted for Annise Parker as their Mayor voted earlier against same-sex marriage. In 2005 voters denied the rights of samesex couples who represented "them": an unknown segment of humanity undeserving of the same rights heterosexual couples deserve. But, in December 2009 Annise Parker was supported by persons who believed that her experience, gifts, commitment and other personal attributes made her worthy of being Mayor. The contradiction between the vote of Texans in 2005 and

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the vote of persons in Houston in December 2009, when considered, provides a "learning opportunity" for our denomination.

There is a proposal that a special session of a United Methodist General Conference be held to discuss internal structural and financial issues. I suggest that the Council of Bishops and others who will be developing the agenda add an item on how The United Methodist Church in the USA can be in effective ministry to LGBT persons considering the existence of legal same-sex unions, marriages, and the election of public officials who are gay. If we cannot be in full ministry to same-sex couples, what does that say about the quality of our ministry to other couples? And, with our present language and legislation about homosexuality why would any elected official who is gay respect United Methodist ministry?

Many of us believe there is wisdom in applying the Quadrilateral: Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason to our practice of ministry in The United Methodist Church. Some would say our legislation and words about same-sex loving couples are unreasonable, even irrational.
 We are living in a time when attitudes and actions toward LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples are changing all around us. We have all heard the phrase, "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.� The history, heritage and hope of The United Methodist Church is too valuable to squander as we fail to use our minds, maybe even lose our minds in our un-reasoned attitudes/ actions toward same-sex loving persons. If we continue to misuse our minds on one issue can our insights on Scripture, Tradition and Experience be trusted?

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76 Ash Wednesdays and 76 Lenten Seasons February 18, 2010 I have sought, with the assistance of the words attributed to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, "To live until I die.” I, like many of my colleagues ran some risk of life and limb as I participated in the southern and northern racial freedom movements. I, like many of them have known arrest and detention. In my case because of my acts of civil disobedience at the headquarters of a national chain of Super Markets in 1971, protesting apartheid outside the South African Embassy in 1985, and protesting legislation of The United Methodist Church that punishes same gender loving clergy and those who perform unions of same-sex loving persons; at the Cleveland General Conference in 2000.

All of the above flashed through my mind as I read the rich and powerful Ash Wednesday prayer of Leland G. Spencer, IV. At the end of this prayer, I read his brief biographical information and found out that he "withdrew from ministerial candidacy in The United Methodist Church because of its opposition to the ordination of LGBT persons.”

It is because of this bit of his biographical information that I take the liberty of paraphrasing a portion of his prayer as a way to be in solidarity with Leland and to say that his prayer has become my prayer. This is how the inspiration of Leland shapes my prayer life as I begin my 76th Lenten Season: Creator God, many, many times I have asked that you forgive the Methodist/United Methodist Church for its sins of racial exclusion and close-mindedness and hardness of heart. It did not exclude me from ordination because of my race, but it did make it necessary for me to begin my ministry in North Carolina in a racially segregated church, district, Conference and Central Jurisdiction. But although persons like myself were separated and segregated, we were on the "Methodist Bus,” even though we had to sit in the back of that Bus. But today in 2010, there are persons who because of whom they love, are not even allowed on the "United Methodist Bus,” and clergy who are on that "UM Bus" are penalized if they enable same-sex persons to celebrate their love and commitment in a United Methodist Church.

God, I was recently reading again those words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that remind us that "we are all sinners and how foolish it is for self-acknowledged sinners to keep other sinners off of the Church Bus." (If Bonhoeffer is one of the angels now in heaven, please apologize to him on my behalf God, for my paraphrase of his words). God Creator, help all of us to acknowledge that an honest awareness of our imperfections makes us beggars. And that we are called to be "Beggars telling other beggars where the bread line is and that Jesus is passing out the bread."

Therefore God, I with your unordained but God-endorsed minister Leland, pray; "Continue to call your church to embrace the inclusive heart of its Creator." God, you wrapped yourself in flesh and bones and came to us in the one called Jesus. 54 years ago when I was ordained a

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Deacon in the Methodist Church I would never have imagined that in 2010 I would have to join with Leland and pray that The United Methodist Church stop kicking people off the Bus because of sexual orientation and gender reasons. I thought that in 1968 when the denomination declared that I no longer had to sit in the back of the Bus, separation, segregation and exclusion were over. But since I was wrong, I pray that during the Lenten Season of 2010 some hearts will be warmed and some of the folk who have stood in the Church door to keep some folk out as Governor Wallace sought to keep some folk out of the University, will begin to pray and prepare for a United Methodist Church that is not afraid to be an authentically Open Church. Let the Church say, Amen and Amen.

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Don’t ask, don’t tell, and the Church July 26, 2011 On Friday, July 22, 2011, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen and President Barack Obama sent a notice to the Congress declaring that, “...military readiness would not be hurt by a repeal of the 17 year old Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy." This new policy will be in force in 60 days.

The debate about whether the Church should change culture or follow culture has been longstanding. Sadly, the Church has sacrificed much of its justice credibility over the years by "screening out" those whom culture has in time, "screened in.” Thus, the Church has been in the forefront of proclaiming exclusion when, after much struggle, society has become inclusive. The history of colonialism, racism and sexism is a history of much of the church playing "catch up" with a changing history.

It is difficult for many of us to comprehend why The United Methodist Church since 1972 has held to its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy vis-a-vis same-sex loving clergy. The military, the President and the Congress have decided that maintaining the DADT policy would compromise the values and commitments of the military as well as the values it expects of those who serve in the military.

The United Methodist Church in its Book of Discipline language and legislation expresses the belief that affirming clergy who acknowledge that they are in committed same-sex relationships are "incompatible with Christian teaching.” There was a time when "Christian teaching" justified colonialism, racism and sexism. The words of the Scriptures that were used to justify these isms have not changed, but the teaching and practice of Christian faith on these isms has changed!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (The Mormons) disavowed polygamy in the 1890's when Utah's statehood was at risk. The Church in 1978 eliminated its policy of refusing to ordain "black men of African descent" into its priesthood. This was done because of a new "Divine Revelation" that proclaimed the policy of racial exclusion in error. What will it take for The United Methodist Church at the 2012 General Conference to proclaim a "Christian teaching" that includes rather than excludes? Will it be the growing inclusiveness of society, a Divine Revelation, or both?

The God who is at work in and beyond the Church is still at work. May The UMC follow God's lead.

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Foundation for a Better World January 17, 2012 Now that we have moved beyond another Martin Luther King Observance, the first celebrated with the presence of the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, I invite you to join me in what will be a re-reading for some of us and a first reading for others. The Reading: Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero by Vincent Harding, Orbis Books, 1996. This book provides a number of informative, prophetic, and soul, heart, and mindstretching essays that serve as a counterpoint to the poem of Carl Wendell Himes that Dr. Harding includes in the book: Now that he is safely dead, Let us praise him and build monuments to his glory and sing hosannas to his name.

Dead men make such convenient heroes. They cannot rise to challenge the images we would fashion from their lives.

And besides, it is easier to build monuments, than to make a better world.

And after re-reading the book, rather than immediately pointing a finger at others, I will remember that when I do that, I am pointing three fingers at myself. These moments will not be well-served in memory of Dr. King if we fail to acknowledge that each one of us must join others of us, no matter how different their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or politics.

"A better world" requires all of us to contribute to its making, by discovering, and then giving, the best that we have.

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Christian Persecution in the 21st Century: A Call of Conscience to Defend the Lives of LGBT People May 17, 2012 Two weeks ago The United Methodist General Conference reaffirmed 40 years of anti-gay prejudice, voting to continue to bar lesbian and gay people from ministry and marriage while faithful gay United Methodists had to endure speeches accusing them of bestiality, calling them drug dealers, and worse. In April, a North Carolina minister used his pulpit to urge parents to beat their young children if they showed any signs they might be gay. In March, the Kansas House approved a bill allowing people to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people based on their religious beliefs. And last year, Christians in Michigan fought to include an exemption from Michigan’s anti-bullying law for people with “a sincerely held religious belief.” In their view, it is OK to torment kids as long as you believe God wants you to.

Christians, I am very sad to say, are at the forefront of oppressing LGBTQ people all over the country.

But scapegoating LGBTQ people in the U.S. is not enough for some Christians. They have begun an export business – peddling homophobia and suggestions on how to further criminalize gay people to legislatures all over the world, from Russia to Africa.

“Homophobia…is being imported to the [African] continent by neocolonialists with an agenda to spread U.S. culture wars worldwide,” Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma recently wrote in an analysis in the American Prospect.

If you’re a Christian reading this, by now you should feel very uncomfortable. How can it be that followers of Jesus Christ – who championed the outcast of his day and castigated religious leaders for not welcoming “the least of these” – are leading the efforts to suppress the rights of minorities? And how can we let this go on in the name of our religion?

There is one case above all that should rock the conscience of every Christian, and that is the case of Rev. Scott Lively, the head of Abiding Truth Ministries in Springfield, MA and the man who has worked for at least a decade to deprive LGBTQ people in Uganda of their fundamental human rights. His book Redeeming the Rainbow is a how-to guide on demonizing and criminalizing LGBTQ people.

And he has done all of this in the name of the Prince of Peace, the one who said blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the merciful.

Since Scott Lively and other U.S. evangelicals showed up in Uganda, repression and violence have been on the rise. Meetings have been raided, activists detained, abused, forced into hiding, and more oppressive laws have been proposed. The media have called for further repression, and one newspaper called for lynching LGBTQ leaders. “Hang them” the headline

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said above their photos.

The situation is so bad that Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is suing Lively for his efforts to further strip away their rights. The legal basis of the lawsuit (filed under the Alien Tort Statute) is the fact that what Lively is doing in Uganda constitutes persecution as defined under international law.

Persecution. That word associated with the actions of Christians ought to make every Christian’s blood run cold. It conjures up the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Salem st

witch trials. We do have a bloody and shameful history. In the 21 century, we would like to think that we have evolved beyond that. But there it is in black and white in CCR’s legal complaint: A Christian clergyperson accused of a crime against humanity “for the decade-long campaign he has waged, in coordination with his Uganda counterparts, to persecute persons on the basis of gender and/or sexual orientation and gender identity.”

As Christians who understand that homophobia, and not homosexuality, is a sin, we must respond to the rising intolerance carried out in our name in our own country and the violence and repression in Uganda and elsewhere. If we do not, then we will have blood on our hands as well – the blood of those beaten and killed for their sexuality or gender identity and the blood of children bullied to the point of suicide. Our silence is complicity – we must speak out.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, so I would like to suggest that we honor this day by each making a commitment to redouble our efforts to end religious bigotry against LGBTQ people. I ask you to begin by reposting this article and identifying yourself as a CHRISTIAN AGAINST CHRISTIAN HOMOPHOBIA in your Facebook status and elsewhere. Then ask your Christian friends to share that message and do the same.

And on Sunday, will you join me in standing up in your church and asking everyone in your congregation to take up this fight against the scapegoating and persecution of LGBTQ people in our name?

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Pentecost Did Come to Tampa!

June 14, 2012 Despite my "presence" at the Tampa General Conference via live streaming and the writings that I shared in response to General Conference, not until I read the blog of Lois McCullen Parr, "A Call to Biblical Obedience," did I grasp where and how the Spirit was most present at Tampa.
 The Spirit was clearly present in the Love Your Neighbor Tabernacle.

As I read the blog, I could "see, hear, feel and have my heart, 'strangely warmed" by the description of that last day at General Conference in the LYN Tabernacle. Present with Bishop Talbert, I read, were some of the active and retired Bishops of the Church. And after Bishop Talbert said, "I declare to you that the derogatory language and restrictive laws in the Book of Discipline are immoral and unjust and no longer deserve our loyalty and obedience" as the centerpiece of his words, Lois Parr wrote, "The LYN Tabernacle crowd rose to its feet, applauding and shouting, 'Amen' and 'Yes'...."

In my old age, tears come to my eyes more frequently and are less restrained than when I was younger. I came close to weeping at my computer as I read the words of Bishop Talbert and the description of how those present responded to his words. In my mind's eye, as I "saw" those active and retired Bishops, some of them my friends, all of them known to me, who were present at the event, I lifted up my personal "Amen" and "Yes." I could not help but believe that Bishop Talbert in his words had a "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...." moment as he spoke with prophetic and pastoral clarity. The well-known Luke 4 passage with its power is particularly instructive for The United Methodist Church in 2012. We read in verse 22 that after Jesus sat down, "All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth."

The United Methodist Church has said of same-sex loving persons that they with all of us are "persons of sacred worth." But we have cheapened the meaning of those words because of "the derogatory language and restrictive laws in the Book of Discipline."

Sadly, some of the persons who initiated and continue to support that language and those laws do not understand, or do not want to understand, that they represent our United Methodist way of saying what the protestors from Westboro Baptist Church were saying outside the General Conference in more openly vulgar ways.

In verse 25 of the Luke 4 passage, when Jesus offers some specific examples of the reading by saying, "But the truth is....." we read, "When they heard this all in the synagogue were filled with rage." (28). I have not and probably never will understand the "rage" that is provoked in

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some United Methodists when the full humanity and rights of LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples are affirmed through words and actions -- actions that sometimes become protests.

There is a negative emotional response that often comes forth from some persons in response to gay persons and those of us who are in solidarity with them in our efforts to achieve justice and affirmation that is difficult to understand or explain. The only comparison I can make is that of the ways some Methodists/United Methodists responded to black persons and our efforts to achieve justice and affirmation. There is not much "separation" ("6 Degrees?") between those who have allowed racism and/or heterosexism to shape their rage. Any persons who proclaim the differences without understanding the similarities may have a "blind spot" that requires examination and introspection.

Pentecost did come to Tampa! It was experienced and felt in the Love Your Neighbor Tabernacle. Let all of United Methodism say, "AMEN & YES!"

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Events of this week compel me to remember a friend, Greg Dell January 11, 2013 The runner in a relay race is my model for my writing. I seek in my writing to pass the baton of a thought, an observation an idea, a conviction and a suggestion for change, to other runners who will run with my baton in ways I never could. However, my experience has been that the batons I have sought to pass on to others have been taken, most of the time, by people who disagree with me, and are not timid in their writing responses that sometimes demean and dismiss the thoughts, observations, ideas, convictions and suggestions that I have shared. (I learned long ago as a participant in the Civil Rights Movement to "keep on keeping on" in my activism and my writing, regardless of the naysayers).

But my hope in writing this is that there will be those who read this who will allow what I have written to complement and/or encourage them to be bold, brave and bodacious as they "run" with what I share in this essay.

I write this with Greg Dell in my mind, heart, and spirit. Most of us know that Greg Dell as Pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago, in 1998 performed a service that publicly celebrated the relationship of two men. Greg was tried and found guilty of "disobedience to the order and Discipline of The United Methodist Church." This happened in 1999, and Greg was removed from his appointment to Broadway as punishment. He was re- appointed to Broadway, July 1, 2000 by Bishop Joseph Sprague.

It is becoming clear that the USA and ultimately The United Methodist Church will say "yes" to marriage equality for same-sex couples. This week the Dean of the Episcopal, Washington National Cathedral announced that the Cathedral would host same sex marriages. And closer to home, Bishop Sally Dyck in a letter to the clergy and members of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church wrote this in support of the Marriage Equality legislation proposal before the Illinois Legislature: "While The United Methodist Church holds that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, it also holds the teaching and a long tradition (albeit a struggle every inch of the way) of civil rights. Marriage equality is a civil rights issue: it provides for all what is afforded to some."

I have accepted the fact that The United Methodist Church in response to many justice issues is a "tail light" rather than a "headlight.� Martin Luther King asked the question, "Why is the church so often a tail light rather than a headlight?" While the US Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in 1954, we as the Methodist Church did not decide that the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction was unbiblical until 1968. We did not ordain women until 1956, even as equality for women was moving forward much before

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that.

And it is now clear that while states and the District of Columbia affirm marriage equality for same-sex couples, and the Supreme Court this coming spring is likely to rule that denying same- sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional, we in The UMC are a disconnected caboose on a train that has left the station heading toward full equality for LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples.

Where does Greg Dell fit in this essay that is too lengthy? While we as The United Methodist Church are "bringing up the rear" on equality for same-sex couples, we could become a model in the ways we belatedly affirm those like Greg Dell who have been punished by the denomination for taking seriously their "call" to ministry and their ordination, by their performing services that celebrate the love shared by those in a same sex relationship.

Greg in his ministry believed and believes that the church "rite" of marriage ought to be provided "for all,” despite the fact in The United Methodist Church today, it is only "afforded to some.”

I am suggesting that The United Methodist Church develop a "Ritual of Apology" that embraces Greg Dell and others. In that Ritual, we as a Church ought to say in more than one way, "Greg, you were right and we were wrong.”

I am discouraged by those who use what they claim is the "authority of Scripture" to justify their prejudices. And, I am also discouraged by those who claim to be "originalists" in their interpretation of the US Constitution as "cover" for their desires to perpetuate injustice and human insensitivity. Therefore, I will not quote the Bible or the Constitution as I conclude.

Rather, I will turn to the writings of William Shakespeare!

I will not pretend to be at home in the writings of Shakespeare. I am not sure whether it is the language or the plots or both that confuse me. I have yet to completely understand the characters whose names are, Helena, Lysander, Demetrius, Oberon and Puck in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” But I have found the words spoken by Puck to be helpful and useful as I as a Black, Third generation Methodist have seen the foolishness of racism, sexism and now heterosexism in our denomination. Puck says; "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

Our United Methodist Biblical interpretation, theology, christology, our ecclesiology nor our polity or General Conference actions or connectionalism, guaranteed appointments, etc. have kept us from being living contradictions of who we claim to be. We acknowledge personally

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and collectively our sins of comission and omission. But who of us within the denomination are surprised when the "Pucks" beyond the denomination say of us: "What fools these United Methodists be"?

I have taken too long to say that United Methodist "fools" like us cannot erase our history of once punishing persons because of their race or gender, and now because of their sexual orientation and same-sex commitment. But, we can as a denomination acknowledge the foolishness of our punitive response to those among us who like Greg Dell, who long ago understood and went about doing ministry in ways we are just beginning to affirm.

I believe that to be "a fool for Christ,� is to go public with our recognition of how foolish we have been as we have punished some whom we now recognize were right and we were wrong. 

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DOMA and Prop8: Old man dreaming dreams on marriage equality March 30, 2013 Friends as an "old man who 'dreams dreams'" (like Joel), I have written something that I have asked my Truth in Progress colleague to post on our website, but as one who dares to "think out loud,” I share the following for your reflection and sharing as you deem appropriate.

The excitement about the Supreme Court's deliberation regarding marriage equality, is in itself worth noting....Why do I as a 79 year retired African American United Methodist clergyman embody the excitement that many share today? Some reasons: 1. The quest for marriage equality has enabled some persons who are right-of-center, politically and religiously to: "come out of their closets" in ways that offer new hope for our nation. It takes a right and left wing for a plane as well as for a nation to "fly.”

At bottom, Equality is not a liberal, or a Democratic Party ideal only, it is human and thus must be claimed by all of us!

2. The late Peter Gomes in his "The Good Book,” described homophobic heterosexism as "The Last Prejudice.” It of course is not, but the gay rights justice journey has enabled me to see some "Justice Light" at the end of the tunnel that I never saw during the Civil Rights Movement for racial equality and equal access. I have been encouraged by what this could mean.

3. I, as a straight ally/advocate of gay rights in church and society have wished desperately that The United Methodist Church would cease contradicting all of the good we have done historically, by ridding itself or our anti-gay legislation and language. It has not, unfortunately. We as The United Methodist Church have been unable to come close to being in the front ranks of the gay rights equality movement.

My hope is that the deliberations of the Supreme Court on marriage equality will give courage and backbone to United Methodists who have been afraid to follow Jesus and conscience in their responses to the quest for marriage equality. The Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court has on matters of race, women's rights and racial intermarriage enabled and given the Church the courage to "be the Church.”

May the same be true as the Court, this term (or whenever), rules for marriage equality.

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An open letter to Pastor Rick Warren on the death of his son Matthew April 8, 2013 Dear Pastor Warren, I write these words because in the past I have written other words to you. Then, I was responding to your expressed thoughts about LGBTQ persons and marriage equality. Many persons thought they were anti-gay and disagreed with President Obama's choosing you to deliver the invocation at his 2009 inauguration.

But that was then, and this is now. Whatever differences you and I may have about gay rights are insignificant in these moments when you and your family are grieving over the death of your son Matthew. I know that your congregation, and millions of persons in the USA and in the world who have been influenced by your book, "The Purpose Driven Life" (I am one of those), and your ministry, are in prayerful solidarity with you and your family during these moments. (I also am in that number).

We, who are pastors, need pastors and sometimes we do not have them. But, I am sure that many, many persons, men and women who are pastors, are praying for you and wanting to reach out to you. I know that I am representative of the concerns for you and your family that many share.

This letter to you is shaped by a moment in history 45 years. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. I, at the time was active in the Civil Rights Movement in Boston and beyond. I have not forgotten that among the expressions of sympathy I and other Black pastors received, were from white Pastors, who were public in their disagreements with the Civil Rights Movement, and with Dr. King. Yet, they understood the impact his death had upon us, and although many of them still held to their resistance to "The Movement" and Martin Luther King, they understood our "hurting" and as pastors they sought to pastor us. There is something special, powerful, and healing when someone who disagrees with us and we with them, sets asides differences and extends to us a word of sympathy, empathy and solidarity.

Pastor Rick Warren, I, Pastor Gil Caldwell, am remembering you and your family in my prayers and thoughts. The Gospel of Matthew ends with these words attributed to Jesus: “..lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (KJV). As you and your family remember your Matthew, may these words provide strength and comfort.

Sincerely, Gilbert H. Caldwell.

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The Boy Scouts and the culture of prejudice May 27, 2013 My wife Grace, an English Literature Major, is much better acquainted with the writings of William Shakespeare than am I. But in my efforts to keep up with her, I at times have quoted slices of Shakespeare, without pretending to be fully acquainted with the plays in which the quotations are found.

Thus, "What Fools We Mortals Be" from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night’s Dream,� as spoken by the elf Puck, has been helpful and descriptive as I have observed the foolishness of racist and heterosexist words and actions. I have never suggested that there is equivalence in the prejudice, oppression and legally sanctioned discrimination experienced by persons who are black and persons who are gay. But, there are similarities in prejudice, oppression, and discrimination that are worth noting. I believe that as we re-visit the challenging justice journeys of Black persons, we experience a deepened understanding of racism that equips us to more effectively combat homophobia and heterosexism.

The foolishness of the racism that kept Black baseball players from participating in Major League Baseball is vividly displayed in the film "42"; the story of Jackie Robinson as he became a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Racist opposition from fans, opposing teams as well as his team mates, was experienced not only by Robinson in baseball, but by Black athletes as they were the "firsts" in professional football, basketball and hockey. And, with the dominance of the Williams sisters in tennis, and Tiger Woods in golf today, we cannot help but acknowledge the racist foolishness that once enforced exclusion and segregation of Black athletes.

But, Methodism and United Methodism have also had their share of racist foolishness. Some Methodists at one time saw no "incompatibility with Christian teaching" in the enslavement and then the racial segregation of Blacks in the Central Jurisdiction. And, when beginning efforts were made to merge the Churches of the all-Black Central Jurisdiction with the geographical Jurisdictions, there were instances when some felt that there was nothing contradictory in having Black District Superintendents provide leadership for Black Churches and Preachers, while White Churches and Preachers were led by White District Superintendents. The foolishness of racism has reared its ugly head in the Church as well as sports.

And now, what of the foolishness of the Boy Scouts of America? We rejoice in their lifting the barrier that excluded boys who were gay. But, what of the barrier that remains that excludes Boy Scout leaders who are Gay or Lesbian?

I share an illustration of racism experienced by my paternal grandfather, that I remembered as I read the news that gay Boy Scouts were now acceptable, but gay Scout leaders were not.

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"Papa Caldwell" was a Fireman on the trains of Southern Railways in the south. His job was that of shoveling coal and wood into the furnace of the engine that powered the train. When he finished shoveling, the white Engineer, before they got to the next station, would ask my grandfather to sit in the Engineer's seat and guide the train while he slept. His only instruction to my grandfather was that before they arrived at the next station, he should leave the Engineer's seat, wake him up in order for him to return to his seat, so that none of the persons in the station ahead would see a Black Fireman, guiding the train while he sat in the white Engineer's seat!

Puck, as I remember, in Midsummer's Night's Dream,” was speaking of the foolishness of love. But, there is a different and unloving reality in and of racism and heterosexism that is beyond foolishness. Why cannot the Boy Scouts of America accept openly the fact that Gay and Lesbian persons can lead just as effectively as did my grandfather guide those trains, so many years ago? The "foolishness of prejudice and bigotry" is that those whom some say are unacceptable as leaders, because of their sexual orientation, have led and are leading, both in the Boy Scouts and in The United Methodist Church. Future generations, as they read of the acceptance of Gay Boy Scouts, but not Gay and Lesbian Boy Scout leaders in 2013, will utter their own words that describe the utter foolishness of this decision. They will say that the Boy Scout decision-makers of 2013 were much like that train Engineer who knew my grandfather was capable of guiding a train, he saw him do it. But, he gave in to the pressure of the prejudice of others, and dared not allow them to see what he saw my grandfather could do.

Too long have we allowed the "culture of prejudice,” whether shaped by race, gender, or sexual orientation, infect and affect the capacity for goodness that we all possess.

Of course, we celebrate this "first step" toward equality and equal access that was made by the Boy Scouts of America. Many of us hope that "soon and very soon,” they will take the next step.

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Exodus International wandered, but never arrived June 25, 2013 Last week's New York Times read: After 38 Years of trying to change people's sexual orientation, group (Exodus International), to disband. Still as Exodus has backed away from efforts to cure homosexuality, other conservative Christian groups have moved to fill the void, and have continued to assert that homosexuality is not innate but an immoral choice.

From a letter that Allen Chambers, president of Exodus International: I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn't change.

I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.

I pray and hope United Methodists will ponder, pray and then begin to act.

As I read the words of Allen Chambers that apologized to gays and lesbians, a biblical story came to mind. Rather than identifying its location in Scripture or quoting it directly, I have remembered the story this way. If, as we are in the act of worship, we remember that someone has some disagreement or dispute with us (or we with them), we leave the worship service and go to that person seeking reconciliation. (Over the years I have found that it has not been the literal repetition of Scripture that has meaning and power, but rather its meaning and power for me has come from allowing it to be remembered and acted upon out of my own understanding of its practical meaning). Exodus International is now seeking reconciliation with those whom it has harmed and hurt for so many years. When will The United Methodist Church begin to do this?

Allen Chambers and Exodus International have admitted and acknowledged and acted in response to its recognition of the "pain and hurt" many gay men and lesbians have experienced because of the 37 years Exodus International has sought to change people's sexual orientation. Are we in The United Methodist Church anywhere close to acknowledging and apologizing for our 41 years (since 1972) of causing pain and hurt to United Methodist gay men and lesbians (and for many of us who are neither) with our anti-gay language, legislation, and action?

How strange it is that The United Methodist Church with our history of affirmation of and activism to achieve, justice for the poor, women, and people of color, we are today, one of those .�..conservative Christian groups (that) have continued to assert that homosexuality is not innate but an immoral choice."

SHAME ON US!

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But, after writing the above as a way to contrast the "apology" of Alan Chambers to the absence of apologies of United Methodists to gay men and lesbians for our negative language and legislation about them and their sexual orientation, it is important to quote more from the NY Times article:

“Julie Rodgers, 27 said that she came to Exodus 10 years ago, hoping to rid herself of samesex attractions...she said she no longer believed her attractions could be changed, nor was she willing to date women. 'Right now, that means a call to singleness,' she said. 'In the future, I'll trust the Lord.’”

"Change without changing" is one of the seductions we humans often engage in to create the appearance of change to others when we in fact we have not really changed. It would be sad if Exodus International is doing the right thing (ending its promotion of sexual orientation change and reparative theories) for the wrong reasons ("Exodus' fund-raising has dwindled, officials conceded."). The apology of the Exodus International president, and the decision to disband the organization will become authentic, only as the organization says without any semblance of hesitation or doubt to Julie; "Julie, your same-sex attractions are not at variance with the love that is of God. Nor should you refrain from dating women claiming that yours is 'a call to singleness'. Trusting in the Lord is made manifest in how you express love to someone whom you have come to love. Julie you are not free until you break free of the chains of bondage that made you come to Exodus International"

Years ago, a friend dramatically addressed an incident of evil when she observed; "God don't like ugly.” Neither does God like duplicity, whether performed by The United Methodist Church or Exodus International.

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What do Kermit the frog and The United Methodist Church have in common?

June 28, 2013 I was 20 years old in 1954 when on May 17th of that year the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling declaring racially segregated public schools invalid. That year I was finishing my junior year in college and beginning to look forward to responding to my call to ministry by going to Seminary in 1955. (My first application for admission to Seminary was sent to Duke Divinity School in my home state of North Carolina, and as I have written before, I was refused admission because of my race).

At the time of the May 17, 1954 ruling, I had already become the news-focused person that I still am today as I move toward my 80th birthday in October. Remember theologian Karl Barth said, "The Christian lives his/her life with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other." The news following the public school decision informed us that many Churches in the south began the process of establishing racially segregated schools in order to avoid racial integration. I remember wondering, how long could the Methodist Church retain and maintain its racially segregated Central Jurisdiction when the Supreme Court had declared racially segregated schools unconstitutional? (The answer: 14 years until our merger in 1968).

I read and heard in 1954, responses from some Christians who justified resistance to the racial desegregation decision by saying and writing things like this, "The Church is called not to follow the agenda of the world, but rather the agenda of Christ.� "Christians are called to be counter cultural or over against culture, instead of adjusting to culture.� "The Bible is against the mixing of the races. Race-mixing will in time produce race-mixed children, and they will not be able to adjust to society." (Does this explain some of the resistance to President Obama?

In his case it is not his inability to adjust to society, it is the inability of some in the society to accept a bi-racial president who identifies as African American).

I am beginning to read/hear responses to the Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision re: church and culture that are not unlike those made about integrated schools in 1954. Why is that some persons recycle arguments that in time were proven to be incorrect, imperfect and demeaning, vis-a-vis women and blacks, but now use them to demean LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples?

Bishop Warner Brown of the California-Nevada United Methodist Conference is quoted as saying this; "I must encourage pastors to reach out to their ecumenical partners so that pastors and churches that are permitted under their polity to offer marriage to same sex couples, be invited to assist in providing pastoral care."

Bishop Brown's statement as an expression of sensitivity and concern for ministry to same-sex couples is important. But, at the same time it highlights the contradictory, paradoxical corner into which we United Methodists have painted ourselves. Our anti-gay language and legislation

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in the Book of Discipline about same-sex unions and marriages makes us "partners" with Southern Baptists, Catholics, and Mormons with whom we share a similar response to same-sex unions/marriages. But, in an effort to provide the ministry of marriage and unions to same-sex couples, we must "partner" with UCC's, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Lutherans.

Rev. Jim Lawson, our United Methodist colleague and brother who is a Civil Rights Movement icon, performed the marriage of James Earl Ray, who was the convicted and sentenced killer of Martin Luther King. That marriage took place in jail.

I suggest no equivalence between the jailed James Earl Ray and same-sex couples who want United Methodist clergy to perform their marriages or unions. But, if I as a grandfather of an 8 year old little girl, in one of my many conversations with her about the church and the world, wanted to explain why a United Methodist preacher could perform the marriage of James Earl Ray in jail, but not a same-sex couple, what would I say?

Kermit the frog (My granddaughter has him sitting in a chair at their dining room table) once said, "It's not easy being green." Today, more than ever before, some of us are saying, "It's not easy being a United Methodist."

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Different Struggle, Same Fight August 22, 2013 I was 29 when I attended the 1963 March on Washington. At the time I was the Assistant Pastor of Union Methodist Church and Executive Director of Cooper Community Center, both in Boston. I as an African American southerner, born in North Carolina who “grew up” in Texas, because of my experiences, had reservations about white people. White people, either through their initiation or their silence, were responsible for the racial discrimination that I, my family, and all Black persons experienced. “They” were responsible for the racial segregation that determined the hospital in which I was born, the neighborhood in which my family lived, the Church we attended, the stores where we could not “try on” clothing, the restaurants we could not patronize, the movie theaters where we had to sit in the balcony, Lake Junaluska that did not allow me as a member of the North Carolina Methodist Student Movement to swim with my white colleagues, and the rejection of my application for admission to Duke Divinity School because of my race. Boston and Boston University School of Theology became the city and the School, where I first found “acceptance,” unlike the rejections because of my race, that I had known in North Carolina and Texas.

And, from 1958 to 1962, I had the joyous experience of being the first African American Pastor of the Bryantville and West Duxbury Methodist Churches in Massachusetts. Although one or more families left the Churches because they could not embrace me as their Minister, Grace and I have never forgotten the love, acceptance and support we received in those two, 98% white membership Churches.

It was after my 4 years as Pastor of those churches, and one year of further graduate study at Harvard Divinity School (1962-63) that I went to the March on Washington in August of 1963.

It was at the March, as I saw and rubbed shoulders with the white persons who were present, that I realized for the first time that there were white persons, whose commitment to racial justice and security about their own self-worth, enabled them to be authentic and brave companions with me and Black persons in the quest for racial equality and equal access in church and society.

What does all of this mean re: Marilyn Bennett and Truth in Progress?

I have in my office, a number of pictures that portray me with Martin Luther King; in 1958 at Boston University School of Theology, and in April of 1965 when he came to Boston to lead our protests against the resistance of the Boston School Committee to racial integration. One of those pictures is of me with Dr. King, as I introduced him before he spoke to a rally on Boston Common.

But the picture, that today, evokes and provokes the most emotion within me, is a picture of Marilyn Bennett and me, in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. It was Marilyn; white, lesbian, separated from The United Methodist Church because it could not

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affirm her because of her sexual orientation, and not me who suggested that Truth in Progress should go to Selma in June, 2010 because I had been there as a participant in the Selma to Montgomery March. I was reluctant to re-visit Brown Chapel AME Church where we gathered before the March. And, my memories of Rev. James Reeb the Unitarian Minister from Boston whom I had come to know, who was beaten in Selma and later died, this and more, kept me from initially understanding what relationship Selma had to the struggle for gay rights. But, it was Marilyn and her persistence about our going to Selma that caused me to make Martin Luther King’s words; “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” become almost a mantra for me as I have sought, through Truth in Progress, to explore the relationship between racism and heterosexism.

In this time when the Supreme Court issued rulings favoring marriage equality for same sex couples while at the same time, limiting affirmative action and voter rights for black people and others, it is important for Gay persons and the Gay rights movement, at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and beyond, to identify as never before, with the ongoing quest and struggle for racial justice.

Marilyn and I, from the beginnings of Truth in Progress have sought to model this.

May this month’s March on Washington observances “institutionalize” this vision of solidarity and cooperation that is at the core of Truth in Progress.

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Joe, Bobby, and Ruby Bridges: Today is so familiar October 28, 2013 The marriage of Joe and Bobby by Bishop Talbert reminded me of a "familiar" picture painted

by Norman Rockwell. Rockwell painted the picture of 6 years old, Ruby Bridges, a black girl, as she was accompanied by U.S. Marshals to an all-white public school in New Orleans in 1960.

On October 26, 2013 as Bishop Melvin Talbert performed the marriage ceremony of Joe and Bobby amidst the disagreements, and dissent of many United Methodists, clergy and lay, he, as a United Methodist Bishop, was doing for Joe and Bobby what the U.S. Marshals did for Ruby Bridges—affirming her right to attend a once white only public school, and protecting her against those who might harm her.

Melvin Talbert, a Bishop in and of The United Methodist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrated for all to see, that marriage should no longer be only for "one man and one woman," but for "one man and one man," as well.

Were that Norman Rockwell were alive to paint that picture.

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A changed heart November 7, 2013 The history described, of a written conversation with a friend about United Methodist and Biblical language about same-sex unions and marriages is factual. A recent conversation with that friend, has led me to write this "imaginary letter" that he might in time write to me. This represents my effort to imagine what it is like to "walk in his skin" as he changes his views about marriage equality.

- Rev. Gil Caldwell November 5, 2013 Dear Gil, You and I have not been in e-mail conversation recently. We first met each other many years ago as colleagues in The United Methodist Church. We had not seen each other, nor talked for a number of years. But, then you and I had begun to engage in written conversation in what we both called the "midnight hour.” I compared our conversations like that Nicodemus had with Jesus when "he came to Jesus by night" (John 3: 1). You of course knew that story, but you told me about a song soul singer Wilson Pickett used to sing, "In the midnight hour.” We were amused as we found common meaning in a Biblical story and the words of a secular song.

We began our written conversations again, because you and I differed on the rightness of United Methodist language and legislation in our Book of Discipline that declares "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” We were more specific in our differences as I support the language and legislation against same-sex unions or marriages and the prohibition against UM clergy performing such unions or marriages, and you do not.

We described our written conversations as "midnight hour" conversations, because you told me that some of your gay rights colleagues would not be happy if they knew you were in conversation with me because my support of the Book of Discipline language was well known.

And, I told you that some of my anti-gay rights colleagues would not be overly pleased with my "conversation" with you, because you are a well-known advocate of gay rights in church and society. Even in the church, despite the Biblical story of "leaving your gift at the altar and going to be reconciled with someone with whom you disagree,” we are cautious about being in "conversation with the enemy.” The “enemy” being one who has a position on gay rights that differs from our own. We became "midnight hour" conversationalists as we wrote back and forth re; gay rights, including marriage equality in church and society.

We stopped writing each other after about 6 months of correspondence because all we could agree on was, "agreeing to disagree." But I write this, in the spirit of "midnight

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conversation,� because I want to share with you that I am beginning to re-evaluate my support for the Book of Discipline language and I wanted to mention my process of reevaluation to you. I cannot identify any one moment or experience that is responsible for my "beginning to change.� But, much to my surprise, my long-standing belief in "fairness" is now challenging my attitudes and assumptions, supported by United Methodist policy, that marriage equality for same-sex couples is wrong.

I was impacted, challenged, and pushed to re-think as I read about the decision of the General Council of Finance and Administration's decision to offer benefits to the same-sex spouses of United Methodist Church employees. And this morning's New York Times in its story; Bill Advances to Outlaw Discrimination Against Gays says this in its first paragraph: "A measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity overcame a significant obstacle in the Senate on Monday as seven Republicans crossed party lines and voted to begin debate on the bill."

The GCFA decision and the discussion before yesterday's decision in the U.S. Senate and the "change" that is beginning to take place within me, all prompted me to re-visit the Jesus/ Nicodemus story in the 3rd Chapter of John. And for reasons that I cannot explain the words in John 3:16 in that story; "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life" confronted my anti-samesex marriage opinions and attitudes as never before.

My belief in the "him" named Jesus is beginning to allow my heart, spirit and mind, to recognize that my belief in "fairness" compels me to transform my negative attitudes and assumptions about same sex unions and marriages.

"God is good all the time. All the time, God is good."

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An "Open Letter" to Robin Roberts from a retired, African American, United Methodist Church, Clergyman January 3, 2014 Ms. Roberts I write as one of your many fans. Your personal, professional, and sensitive gifts as I have watched/heard you as an Anchor on Good Morning America have been quite obvious and contagious. And, when I read/heard of your illness, you became one of the persons on my prayer list.

This morning (12/30/13), I have read in HuffPost Gay Voices your Facebook posting, expressing your thanks to your "long-time girlfriend." I do not remember when I have observed so much excitement on the internet that has been generated by your thanking of your girlfriend. Public thanks of a girlfriend, boyfriend, wife or husband or friend is always of interest to those of us whom we must confess are "celebrity watchers." Whether it takes place at the Oscars or elsewhere, we are pleased to hear and/or read that people in the public eye acknowledge others. Why, then, has your public thanks generated so much excitement? (smile).

I will offer my explanation as I indicate why I was specific and intentional about "signing in" as a retired, African American, United Methodist clergyman.

Retired: Now that I am 80, I have become a bit more age sensitive. I had never until now, pondered the statement; "You cannot teach old dogs new tricks.” And I read in an interview with the writer Salmon Rushdie that he said he would "stop writing when he reached 80 because 80- year-olds have nothing of worth to say." I may now be the human equivalent of an "old dog,” but I expect to "Live (and learn) until I die." (Elizabeth Kubler-Ross). And, I expect to write as long as I can, because no one can see, hear, experience, or write as I do, because they have not experienced what I have.

Ms. Roberts may you wear the publicity that you are now getting because you publicly thanked your girlfriend, "like a loose garment,” as my Grandmother Mama Irene used to say.

That was her way of saying what Kipling said in his poem, "If" "If you can keep your head while others all around you are losing theirs (because Robin Roberts has a "girlfriend") and blaming it on you, you will be the woman that you already are, my friend." (Paraphrasing a bit).

African American: I know that race is a "social construct" and has no rational or scientific validity to it. But, over the years I have said to my friends who are white and those who are not: "Race may be a 'social construct' with no rational or scientific basis, but I sure have been

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kicked around a bit, over the years, because of my race. My race has meaning for those who are racist, and therefore for those of us who are verbally or otherwise abused by them, race has meaning for us as well.”

Despite the growing number of persons who are African American who now accept, many who accept and affirm, same-sex loving persons in committed relationships, I have been surprised and then disappointed by my black colleagues who do not. I had naively thought that all of those of us "who have come over a way that with tears has been watered" (From "Lift Every Voice and Sing"), because of our race, would bring a special kind of sensitivity and support to/for any person or group of persons whom society relegated to second or less, status because of who they are and/or whom they love. If your considerable number of African American fans appears to waver a bit because you have a "girlfriend,” I in these words, "play the race card,” by saying that I with millions of other African Americans say of your woman to woman love relationship, "Right On!"

United Methodist Church: (Ms. Roberts you have heard and read that we are the Church that brings to trial and punishes clergy who perform same sex marriages even when one of the persons to be married is a child of theirs). I am a member of a Church denomination that has in its Book of Discipline (Our rules and guidebook) these words: “..the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching"). And further, this BOD has language and legislation that prohibits United Methodist clergymen from conducting same sex unions or marriages, and that these unions and marriages are NOT to take place in United Methodist Churches.

But, thanks be to God and for the Jesus whose entrance into human history we United Methodists with other Christians have just celebrated, there is the Reconciling Ministries Network; a non-official United Methodist-related group that with others is about the process of "Turning The United Methodist Church upside down so that it will be right side up" as it engages in ministry with and to, men who have boyfriends, and women who like you, have "girlfriends." Ms. Roberts this "Open Letter" to you has been published on the RMN blog!

Clergyman: I am proud to be in solidarity with African American clergy who because of our faith, humanity, and belief in freedom, equality, and equal access for LGBTQ persons and same- sex couples, are supportive of the rights of persons in society and the church, to love whom they love. Many of us are United Methodist clergy, and I am proud to one of them and in solidarity with African American clergy in other denominations. These are some of the clergy persons throughout the nation who "have your back" if your Facebook sharing stirs up any negative waves; Gayraud Wilmore, Dennis and Christine Wiley, Traci West, Pamela

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Lightsey, Otis Moss, III, James Forbes, Melvin Talbert, Yvette Flunder, Cedric Harmon, Michael Eric Dyson, Al Sharpton, Phil and Jim Lawson, Ted Lockhart, of course that noted African clergyman, Desmond Tutu, many others, and of course, Gil Caldwell.

Robin (if I may use your first name), may you and Amber continue to love, support, and be the best of who you are, regardless of any negative responses you receive for being in a love relationship that is now public. "Let the Church (even the Church that is been too silent) say Amen!"

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Rev. Gil Caldwell officiates his first same-sex wedding: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

January 29, 2014 As a Civil Rights Movement "foot soldier," I have used these words of Martin Luther King to guide my activism, not just for people of African descent, but for all justice struggles: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

My officiating at my first same-sex marriage took place on the Martin Luther King week-end, the Sunday before the official holiday, January 19, 2014. The couple whom I married, Drew Giddings and Dennis Hall, are African American men, and they agreed to my acknowledging the significance of their marriage as a response to the justice leadership of Martin Luther King.

As one who had attended the March on Washington, participated in the Selma to Montgomery March, spent a summer in what was called the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and introduced Martin Luther King as he spoke on Boston Common, I believe that marriage equality for same-sex couples, is a in the best tradition of the Civil Rights Movement, and I am pleased that the Reconciling Ministries Network has given me space to share the following.

I did not know that my saying "yes" to performing the marriage of Dennis Hall and Drew Giddings, on January 19th would set the stage for the Mass Marriages that took place at the Grammy's on January 26th (smile). As I felt the “good vibrations" these marriages provoked/ evoked in me, and listened to and watched Queen Latifah guide the proceedings, I wished that every United Methodist had seen what I saw and felt what I felt. If they had, The United Methodist Church would be about transforming its anti-same-sex marriages and anti-unions language and legislation.

But, I write all of this as a prelude to what must be written about the marriage of Drew Giddings to Dennis Hall and I reverse that by writing, Dennis Hall to Drew Giddings as a way to express the equality that should exist in all marriages.

I said "yes" to sharing as a clergyman in the marriage of Drew and Dennis because my longtime friend, The Rev. Dr. Traci West was in Zimbabwe and not available. Traci and I have been colleagues in organizing with others, United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church.

She has been supportive of Truth in Progress as Marilyn Bennett and I have explored through writing, filmed interviews, visits to sites important to the Civil Rights Movement and the Gay Rights Movement, and as we have been in the process of creating a documentary film.

Drew and Dennis came to Asbury Park to meet me for the first time to talk about their

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marriage. I immediately felt positive and good about these two handsome black men, obviously in love with each other and in love with life. We sat in the lobby of the building, where my wife and I live, watching the crashing of the waves of the Atlantic Ocean across the street. I learned that they traced their lineage to Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados. We talked and talked about the wedding, about their families, their children, and then we closed our talk with prayer.

They created and prepared the content of their wedding ceremony and they sent it to me. As I read, over and over again the ceremony they sent, these words that they had for their Exchange of Vows said all that needed to be said as they held hands: "Will you take one another to be no other than himself, loving what you know of him, trusting what you do not know, will you respect his integrity and have faith in his abiding love for you, through all your years, and in all that life may bring to you.�

They each in response to this said "I will" with conviction and power.

I preached my sermon after the reading of Ephesians 3: 14-21. I began by sharing the words of the song; "Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage." I asked; "Which of you is the horse, and which of you is the carriage?" Dennis and Drew laughed and those gathered laughed with them. They knew, and we all know, that in marriage, the roles of horse and carriage are to be interchanged. If not, one partner always rides, while the other always pulls their partner. This may work at times, but certainly not all of the time.

I mentioned in my sermon, my 56 year marriage to Grace and the marriage of Martin Luther King to Coretta, and said this: "Authentic marriage is consistently strong and unbending when two people are so 'into each other' so that no person, no relationship, nothing can separate them from each other." I then suggested to Drew and Dennis that they sing and say frequently the song we used to sing on the picket lines, in the south and the north; "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me ‘roun."

I ended my sermon with a prayer in which I included quotations from well-known persons about love. Among them, "Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside." - Margaret Walker.

How did I feel about performing the marriage of a same sex couple when the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church says "NO?� I am a third generation Methodist.

My grandfather and his generation were born into slavery. Our family name Caldwell is the name of those who "owned" my foreparents. The Methodist Movement had people in it that

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believed and said that "The practice of abolitionism (freeing the slaves) and racial integration were incompatible with Christian teaching." They were wrong and they have been proven to be wrong, because other Methodists publicly disagreed with them. I have already been punished by The United Methodist Church, because in 2000 at the Cleveland General Conference, I with others was arrested twice because of our civil disobedience against the oppressive, anti-gay language and legislation of The United Methodist Church.

My "Call" to ministry and my ordination as Deacon in 1956, compels me and frees me to be in complete and total ministry to all of God's people, regardless of who they are, what they have done, or whom they love. How strange it is that Methodism did not charge those Methodists, clergy and lay, who were members of the KKK or the White Citizen's Council for what they thought and did to black people. Yet, in the 20th and 21st centuries, same gender loving persons who are open about their love and commitment, and clergy who perform their unions and marriages are subject to charges or to criticism.

I say to my United Methodist sisters and brothers who charge and bring to trial, United Methodist clergy whose understanding of ministry embraces complete ministry to/with same sex couples, the words that Jesus spoke from the cross: "Forgive them God for they know not what they do."

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Not our differences that divide February 15, 2014 “It is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

– Audre Lourde I heard these words, not in a bookstore, or at a poetry/prose reading, or in a sermon, nor at some Black History Month Gathering.

I heard them at the end of a television sports newsman’s comments about Michael Sam, the soon-to-be professional football player who has shared publicly that he is gay. Dale Hansen, of ABC’s WFAA in Dallas spoke about the hypocrisy of those in football who accept lessthan- positive behavior from football players who engage in activities that are anti-social, sometimes illegal, but say that a Gay player would be unacceptable in an NFL locker room.

Hansen reminded his listeners that there was a time when some of the things that are being said about Michael Sam were said to justify denying Black football players entrance into the National Football League.

Why is it that in The United Methodist Church we allow our differences to divide us? If we cannot “recognize, accept and celebrate those differences” as reflected in LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples within The UMC, how dare we pretend that “The World is Our Parish”?

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Racism in the USA and Heterosexism in Russia February 18, 2014 I am an 80-year-old “segregation survivor” of racial segregation in the USA. I have known De Jure segregation (sanctioned and enforced by law) and De facto segregation (without sanction or law). Although recent actions to reverse voting rights and affirmative action in the USA are reminders of a past that some do not want to pass, the USA is a much better nation because of its positive response to the Civil Rights Movement. The CR Movement confronted and transformed both forms of racial segregation.

I thought of this USA racial history as I was tuned into the opening of the Olympics in Russia.

Despite the impressive display of the history of Russia, I watched being aware of Russia’s De Jure sanctions and laws against same gender loving persons, and its De facto cultural segregation and oppression of same sex couples. Each time the winning athletes stand on platforms to receive their medals in Sochi, I will think of Tommie Smith and John Carlos of the USA, and Peter Norman of Australia.

The 1968 Summer Olympics were held in Mexico City. After Tommie Smith and John Carlos both African Americans, received their medals, as the national anthem was being played, one held up a left fist and the other a right fist, each wearing a black glove. And, Peter Norman from Australia who was white, expressed solidarity with them as he stood on the platform wearing a medal representing the Olympic Project for Human Rights/OPHR. Smith and Carlos were suspended from the USA team and banned from the Olympic Village because of what some called their “Black Power” salute. Avery Brundage, the President of the International Olympic Committee said their salute was an “unfit, political statement” for the Olympics. Yet, when Brundage was President of the U.S. Olympic Committee during the Olympics held in Berlin in 1936, he had no problem with the Nazi salute. It was an “acceptable national salute,” he said How many years will it take for humanity to realize the correlation between Nazi salutes that demeaned the victories of African American sprinter Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics in 1936, and the anger and hurt that Gay persons and those of us who are not Gay feel as some believe that Russia should be able to host a “successful” winter Olympics without having its anti- LGBTQ language and legislation challenged?

Bob Dylan in “Blowin’ in the Wind” asked the question; “How many years can some people exist, before they’re allowed to be free.” The wind is “blowin,” but how long and which way, will it blow?

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Is it time for schism in The UMC? March 14, 2014 The reaction to Bishop Martin McLee’s words, “Church trials result in harmful polarization and continues the harm brought upon our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,” has surfaced, not for the first time, the word schism. I was prompted to search out a definition for the word, and found this: Schism: “a division or a split, usually between groups belonging to a religious denomination” What is it about same-sex marriage that provokes among some on both the right and left, thoughts and words about schism? Many on the left describe schism as necessary for protecting LGBTQ people from further harm. Many on the right argue that schism is the only way for the church to remain (in their opinion) faithful. Still others on all parts of the spectrum don’t see schism solving anything and see a split being harmful.

What is the the history of schism in the Methodist Church?

Most of us know that the African Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1816 and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821. Both of them begun because of the racial discrimination black persons experienced in the Methodist Church. This was schism caused by racism. But, another schism took place 170 years ago, in 1844 when the Methodist Episcopal Church South was formed. This schism took place over disagreements about the owning of slaves as well as whether or not a General Conference had the authority to discipline a bishop for owning slaves.

Historian I am not, but how does this schismatic history relate to this moment in The United Methodist Church?

First, we as United Methodists have engaged in services of confession and repentance in response to the racial insensitivity/racism in the Methodist Church that caused the formation of the AME and AME Zion denominations.

Second, in 1939 in a “Unification Conference,” three of the separated branches of Methodism united with the compromise of the creation of the racially-segregated Central Jurisdiction). I do not have knowledge of whether or not efforts were made to involve the AME and AME Zion denominations in the 1939 Conference.

Third, with this history of Methodist schism and partial reunion, what will church historians of the future say and write, if The United Methodist Church experienced schism over marriage equality for same-sex couples?

Langston Hughes in his poem, “I, Too, Am America” writes of “the darker brother being sent to the kitchen when company comes.” Then Hughes writes; “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table when company comes…They’ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed.”

Do we in The United Methodist Church of 2014 have enough shame about our racial history

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and our history in response to slavery, that we dare not add further shame to our history by division in response to marriage equality for same-sex couples?

Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly, now deceased, Bishop Melvin Talbert, and Bishop Martin McLee, are African American Bishops, who because of their racial history understood the meaning of Martin Luther King’s words, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” May those who have ears, hear.

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World on fire: Reflections on the life and death by self-immolation of Rev. Charles Moore July 15, 2014 June 21 of this year marked the 50th anniversary of the murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three college students committed to registering black voters in the south during “Freedom Summer.” This tragedy was the inaugural event of what became known as Mississippi Burning.

On June 23 of this year, a retired United Methodist minister, Rev. Charles Moore, drove to his home town of Grand Saline in northeast Texas, parked his car in a Dollar General parking lot, soaked himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. Some have argued that he must have been insane to take such an action, but a letter found by family and friends reveals a story much more challenging.

Charles Moore believed he had not done enough to work for civil rights, even though his sonin- law Rev. Bill Renfro notes that “as a young minister, he was kicked out of churches in East Texas for standing up for integration.” He wrote in notes he left that he had originally planned to self- immolate on the campus of his alma mater, Perkins School of Theology at SMU, on Juneteenth (June 19), the day when news of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln got to Texas a year and a half after it was signed. Charles wrote that at the last minute he lost his nerve, but obviously found courage four days later to follow through with his plan.

In a note found in Charles Moore’s car, we get a glimpse of what was weighing on his heart on this anniversary of those young Civil Rights workers’ deaths. Bill Renfro states that: “he was concerned that the programs that were developed for those who don’t have enough for food and adequate nutrition are being cut; that health care for millions is being denied with no reason except spite toward the President; that racism is rampant; that the performance of a same-sex union by The United Methodist Church is considered to be on par with crimes such as rape, pedophilia, extortion, etc.; that LGBTQ persons still suffer from discriminatory practices; that the death penalty is still used as a supreme punishment without deterrent effect; that cuts are being made in quality public education for all children; that voting rights are being taken away by discriminatory laws; that justice is unbalanced for the minorities and the poor; that tax cuts are proposed for the wealthy; that leaders and lawmakers enjoy social injustice. He considered his act to be a supreme sacrifice for the sake of others, for all, including the powerful and the powerless. He believed that the memory of his act would allow healing to evolve.”

What strikes us about these words is that everything Charles writes is heartbreakingly true.

Charles Moore understood that his world–our world–is on fire! For this reason, we do not want the horrific circumstances of his death to become just a fleeting news flash or an excuse to discount a man who dedicated his life to social justice. We must be careful that we do not

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seduce ourselves into believing that a silent response to his self-immolation is an act of respect for him and for his family. Silence disrespects him, his family, and discounts his concern for justice. We also must be careful that we do not romanticize the manner in which he died. For Charles, his action was a symbol of solidarity with people on the margins, people with whom he felt compelled by his Christian faith to be in unity, and his action was meant to call us to respond.

Charles’s self-immolation has stirred us deeply, and we feel compelled to share some of our personal response. Charles understood that racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and nationalism are different forms of oppression, have different histories, and often different outcomes, but that they are bound together in a shared web of oppression. Charles Moore’s justice concerns and commitments were inclusive rather than exclusive. He saw and challenged prejudice, bias, hatred, and dehumanization that are present within injustice no matter who its victims are. Like Charles, we believe that our compelling charge as Christians requires us to own up to our responsibility in oppression and then to work toward liberation for all! Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Charles Moore lived by that decree.

While Gil and Sid respond to this tragedy through different life experiences, we are, like our brother Charles, activists who understand the intersectionality between all forms or systems of oppression, domination, and discrimination. Charles was not a one issue person. The weight on his heart at the time of his death came from multiple cries of pain.

What lessons can we learn from Charles Moore’s death?

First, we have to say that his act of self-immolation is something beyond anything we can personally imagine. It is not uncommon for activists who are passionate about a cause to put themselves in harm’s way. Gandhi must have known that standing up against the British Empire was a dangerous venture. On the night before he was killed, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Like anybody, I would like to live – a long life; longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. …I may not get there with you.” The danger was imminent and he knew it. Even Jesus, who led a parade from the east of Jerusalem on a colt the same day that Pilate led his Roman legion on a white stallion from the west, knew that such an act would lead to his arrest and likely execution as an insurrectionist against Rome. However, placing yourself in harm’s way out of conviction is still very different from taking one’s own life. If we had had the opportunity to talk to Charles before he took this drastic step, we most certainly would have tried to talk him out of it. As horrific and unconventional as self-immolation for the sake of justice or peace feels to Christians of the modern era, there is historical precedence for it.

Just last year, a Tibetan Buddhist monk set himself on fire inside a western Chinese monastery

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criticized by Chinese authorities. He was the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in series of protests against Chinese rule since February 2009.

Second, did Charles really expect to bring about the changes for which he hoped through this extreme action? Of course, we will never know the complete answer to that question, but we can gain some insight into his thinking by reflecting upon his prior actions. Charles completed a 15- day hunger strike to protest The United Methodist Church’s treatment of LGBTQ persons during The United Methodist Council Bishops’ annual meeting in Austin in the spring of 1995.

His goal was to encourage them to make a unified statement condemning the current UMC Discipline’s exclusionary statements. This quote from the Austin Chronicle (October 6, 1995) points to what Charles expected, and is perhaps an indication of the kind of thing he hoped for in his final act:

The Council of Bishops did not renounce its position, but instead issued a statement decrying civil rights violations against gays and lesbians. It was only a crumb, and not the loaf Moore had cried out for, but he took it anyway. He knew at the outset he probably wouldn’t change anything within The UMC establishments, but that wasn’t why he fasted. ‘It was to touch people who are not rigid,’ he says.

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that if we want “mutual love” it isn’t enough to strive toward mutual love; to achieve mutual love, we must strive for “sacrificial love.” Maybe Charles believed that his act of sacrificial love might create the opportunity for mutual love, especially in the form of justice.

Third, (and we owe this thought to a member of Sid’s congregation, Dr. Annette D’Armata): the fact that we recoil in horror over the self-inflicted and horrific circumstances of Charles’s death and yet normalize our direct and indirect participation in acts ranging from systemic oppression based on race, sexual orientation, or income, to grisly bombings of children, women and men….was precisely the very desperate point Charles felt that he had to illuminate with his own body, his own life. D’Armata writes, “The fact that I/we feel completely unsettled with his choice is powerful, even if we disagree.” Then she recalls words from Bonhoeffer: “(We) must not simply ‘bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself.’”

We believe that the primary lesson we must take from Charles’s life-long convictions, even as we struggle with the way he chose to die, is that we must remain awake to the horrors that surround us and work together interrupt them, in the name of our deepest humanity and in the name of Christ. The horrors of this age demand that our Jesus doesn’t become a docile and domesticated icon, but a living embodiment of transformation and love in the world.

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As a postscript, we especially hold the family of Charles Moore in our hearts and prayers. He is survived by a wife, sons, grandchildren, and other close family members. Charles’s stepdaughter, Kathy Renfro, states that “what he failed to realize was the emotional turmoil that he would leave behind� for those who loved him. She notes the sadness of the fact that Charles did not know that he still had the potential to bring about change. The testimonies at his memorial service point to the enormous impact his life had on others.

As we reflect on the life and death of Charles Moore, we pray that we will remember that each of us has the potential to bring about change and that we often have more impact than we can realize.

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The UMC in 2014: It’s déjà vu all over again August 28, 2014 The continuing discussions/debates/disagreements about human sexuality and marriage equality in The United Methodist Church and how we might restructure ourselves to accommodate traditionalists and progressives” is like a “blast from the past.” It, to some degree, could be a replication of the debates that took place before the “Unification” of 3 Methodist bodies that treated the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction in 1939.

But first, why quote the above famous “Yogiisim” from the mind and mouth of baseball great, Yogi Berra? I, at the age of 80, am fascinated by what the internet reveals to me that I did not know. I had not encountered the term “Yogiisim” until I googled the name Yogi Berra to be sure I remembered correctly the above quotation. My grandmother, “Mama Irene,” said as one of her oft-quoted bits of wisdom, “Live and learn, die and forget it all.” Since age and health reasons bring me closer to death than I have ever been before (smile), I am pleased to be able to live and learn before I die.

I continue to be fascinated and discouraged by the impact the words, “…the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching…,” are having on The United Methodist Church in the 21st century. I am a bit “bothered and bewildered” by the fact that the denomination has never said with such clarity and finality, “The practice of slavery and racial segregation are incompatible with Christian teaching.”

I just read someone who wrote, “The only place slavery is mentioned [in the Bible] is for indentured persons and prisoners and war.” Why then, in the names of heaven and hell, did Methodism debate and divide for so long over slavery if it was not Biblical? And further, why after the debates about slavery, did the denomination step away from slavery and create and sanction church-sponsored racial segregation through the creation of the race-based, Central Jurisdiction?

I share this Methodist racial history because we are observing a replication of it in regards to human sexuality and marriage equality. How often must those of us in Methodism who has known separation and segregation because we/they are women and/or black, say of today’s debate about human sexuality, “The more things change the more they remain the same?”

The following represents my effort to imagine the discussions/debates/disagreements that took place before the formation of the racially-segregated Methodist Church in 1939 at the Kansas City, “Unification Conference.” I do this in an effort, because of my 3rd generation Methodist history and my love of The United Methodist Church, to point out how we do not remember or allow our history to keep us from repeating that history in the present. We repeat it this time in response to same-sex love and commitment.

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The leaders of three Methodist denominations continued their discussions about their future in a recent meeting. There was the usual discussion about what the Bible said and did not say about slavery and black people. The discussion this time was about more than Biblical interpretation, theology and Christology. It was about finances, church property, and other matters of materialism. The debates about slavery again surfaced. One of the leaders from the south who disagreed with his colleagues, who still sanctioned slavery although it was no longer legal, reminded them again about John Wesley and slavery. Wesley had written William Wilberforce and expressed his disdain for slavery by expressing his view that slavery in America was the vilest in the world. He did this to remind them that despite their admiration for John Wesley, they disagreed with him on slavery.

The purpose of the meeting was to agree on a church structure/ecclesiology that would receive a majority vote at the 1939 Conference. They agreed that they could distance themselves from the support for slavery of the Methodist Church South by moving from slavery to racial segregation by creating the Central Jurisdiction. Although some at the meeting still believed that slavery was in the best interests of blacks, they agreed that the racial segregation of the Central Jurisdiction would be second best. One of the persons at the meeting said, “It is only a matter of time before racial integration becomes legal in all of the United States. We can justify the racial segregation of the Central Jurisdiction as an expression of our religious freedom that the separation of Church and State allows.

Although the Central Jurisdiction was created in 1939, a majority of the black delegates at the Unification Conference, voted against it.

Who are The United Methodists who will be the Yogi Berra’s among us, and dare to say in meeting after meeting, “It’s deja vu all over again?”

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As we prepare for the “home-going service” of Bishop McLee September 13, 2014 Since the death of Bishop Martin McLee I have almost daily searched for additional news about his significant ministry, and plans for his funeral service. I have written, as I have done my “grief work” in response to his death, about the similarities of our experiences. Martin McLee received his “Call” to the ministry while attending a United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. He attended Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. I, long before Bishop McLee was born, when my father pastored a Church in Dallas, attended public schools in Dallas.

Bishop McLee and I have both served as Pastors of Union United Methodist Church in Boston, and were named District Superintendents while at Union.

Each time, I search for more information about Bishop McLee, I am disturbed by an article that keeps surfacing titled, “Conservative Methodists Upset by UMC Bishop’s Decision.” The article begins, “Conservative members of The UMC have expressed disappointment over a bishop’s refusal to punish a clergyman who violated church rules by officiating at his son’s gay wedding.”

Many of us are pleased that Bishop McLee called for a “cessation” of church trials in response to marriage equality.

As we mourn the unexpected and sudden death of Bishop Martin McLee, I want to share this that I have just received from Presbyterian New Service: “Seeking forgiveness in Hudson River Presbytery: A pastor who brought suit that defined PC(USA)’s distinction between marriage and holy unions, repents of his position.”

Rev. Marc Benton in the first paragraph of the article says this, “I am here to ask forgiveness from the presbytery and particularly those members of it who I harmed by a court case I initiated in 1999….Through numerous conversations with persons who are lesbian and gay, (I came to understand) that they did not in any sense choose to be gay… I became devastated by the hardship they faced of living in a culture where there are still many people who are prejudiced against homosexuality.”

The article is dated September 10, 2014 – a day that would have been the 59th birthday of Bishop Martin McLee if he had lived.

I can already hear those who say to say to me, “Gil, you are not supposed to mention the unpleasant as we do our grief work. It is easier for the Church to pretend that Bishop McLee experienced no resistance to his courageous and Christ-centered stand. At, least why could you not have written this after his ‘Homegoing Service?'”

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I have written it because God continues to work in mysterious ways. Sharing the act of forgiveness by a Presbyterian clergyman, may produce United Methodists who will do that as well.

What a faith-based response to the life and death of Bishop Martin McLee that would be – if it happened.

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Wonderfully Made September 26, 2014 I, as an 80-year-old retired clergyman appreciated Charles Blow's, "Up From Pain" article more than I am able to express. These words of his possess a theological clarity about sex (biological differences), gender (societal and cultural definitions of masculine and feminine), and sexual/ gender attraction.

Blow writes: "I had to stop romanticizing the man I might have been and be the man that I was, not by neatly fitting into other people's definition of masculinity or constructs of sexuality, by being uniquely me - made in the image of God, nurtured by the bosom of nature and forged in the fire of life."

The Psalmist in Psalm 139: 13 - 14 many years ago described what Charles Blow says of himself, "For it was you (God) who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am wonderfully made."

One of the benefits of today's debates/discussions in religion and society about homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality, as well as gender identity, is that the Creator who made us, "uniquely me," wants us to be who we are in the process of becoming.

Some say, "God don't make junk." Charles Blow's article confirms that fact.

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Clergy in The UMC never stood trial for racism, but they do now for love?

October 22, 2014 A Suggestion for the Judicial Council as it considers the reinstatement of Rev. Frank Schaefer following his suspension and defrocking because he officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding.

The United Methodist Church in this time of charging, trials, guilty verdicts, suspensions, and defrockings of clergy who officiated at same-sex weddings, ought pause and consider the following: Bryan Stevenson, the Lawyer who is the founder of Equal Justice, a project devoted to ending the death penalty was asked this question in a “10 Questions” Interview in the October 27, 2014 issue of TIME magazine: “Do we deserve to kill? Do we have a system of justice that functions free of bias?” Stevenson responds: “I think the answer is no. People of good will know we can’t engage in this activity when we are so compromised by our own imperfections.”

We of the Church, of all people, are aware of and acknowledge our imperfections. Why then, do we who are aware of our sins of commission AND omission, and confess those sins to God, dare to judge and punish others when we ourselves are sinners? (Bonhoeffer).

I keep near my writing desk, the book, “WHEN THE CHURCH BELLS RANG RACIST.” I have yet to comprehend why at one time in Methodism, clergy who were open and bold about their anti-black words and actions in church and society, were not charged, tried, found guilty, suspended and/or defrocked. The book details illustration after illustration of clergy who did this.

Yet, today, there are those among us who seek to punish clergy who enable same sex couples to marry and publicly proclaim and acclaim their love for their partner. A love shaped by the love that God has expressed in Jesus and for each one of us.

Those who oppose the death penalty have as a motto this question; “Why do we keep on killing people to prove that killing people is wrong?” Is it not time for us in The UMC to stop having trials of clergy for marrying same sex couples when we know that those trials are wrong?

Years ago, conservative columnist David Brooks in a NY Times op-ed wrote this; “Conservatives ought to expect same sex couples to marry as a way of expressing their commitment to the one they love” (a paraphrase).

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May United Methodists today, be they conservative, moderate or liberal, celebrate and affirm marriage equality for same-sex couples!

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Who wants to be integrated into a burning house?

December 2, 2014 M Barclay shared these beautiful words the other day, which really made me reflect…

“For those of you who have been so supportive of me as I continue to live into my true self, as M and as non-binary, thank you. It continues to mean the world to me.

On that note, I am so thrilled to share that this past Friday I was able to have "top surgery" to help me live into my self and my body better. This was, of course, a surgery I have thought about long before coming out. I know many folks are only used to connecting such surgeries with female to male transitions or vice versa, but that is not my journey. I will be taking hormones for a short period of time which will affect my voice, and then I will be done with the physical aspects of my gender transition as a non-binary person.

I'm sharing this otherwise personal news first and foremost because I am incredibly grateful and overjoyed. This surgery is nothing short of liberating for me. I already feel so much better and more myself.

I'm also sharing this because I expect I am the only non-binary person many of you may interact with. While surgery and/or hormones are not for all of us, they are for some of us. And so I share my story as one of many possibilities of what it means to live under the trans umbrella. There are so many young people, so many teens, who are living into gender identities and gender expressions that are new to people's understanding of the world. The more stories are shared, the more, I hope, it will be easier on them as they grow up in a world still confined by binaries and limited knowledge of gender.

I am always open to considerate questions but am rarely interested in having to do any defending of my person-hood or decisions. If anyone knows me, you know that I don't know how to make decisions that aren't deeply grounded in beliefs/theory/ theology/etc. So I ask you to continue trusting me and join with me in celebrating this liberating time for me because I am so, so, so very happy.”

Those who know me know that I seek to relate the black experience to other experiences and relate the experiences of others to the black experience. The transparency in the report of the Ferguson Prosecutor and of Officer Wilson, reveal that Michael Brown represented "The Other," a less-than-human figure as he was being shot, and as one who appeared to be a demon.

President Obama, Nicholas Kristof wrote years ago, was "otherized" by some who could not accept the legitimacy of his presidency, nor of his humanity. Just today, December 1st, a Republican staff member has resigned because she now regrets "trashing" the behavior of the Obama's daughter as they stood with their father as he pardoned the Thanksgiving turkeys.

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Women, LGBTQ people, people of color/immigrants from the south, the disabled, the poor, etc. are deemed "The Other," as a way to legitimate their mistreatment and the less-than-just responses they receive. If people are viewed as "less than" then they are not deserving of the respect, love and affirmation that those who are not "less than" receive; some persons honestly believe.

M's public sharing of the aspects of their transition, is a gift offered to all of us during this Advent Season. "Ready or not, here I come," are the familiar words of the game called Hide and Seek. The Jesus of the Advent story arrives, even as we are not ready for him. (If we were ready for him, we would not have so many attitudes and engage in so many actions that prove we are not ready for him).

M is and will be among us, whether we are ready or not! I understand that there was a time when persons who were self-labeled trans or gender fluid, were not embraced by some leaders/ organizations of the gay rights movement. One of the peculiar contradictions of us as humans is that some of us who have known ostracism because of whom we are, have the audacity to "look down on others" because they are "different" from who we are. No wonder James Baldwin asked the question; "Who wants to be integrated into a burning house?"

M is pushing The UMC to determine if we are putting out the fires in our United Methodist “House" that still burns with injustice, dehumanizing, demonization, segregation and separation for some of God's people. How long will we pretend that "Love came down at Christmas," when we reject some persons in less-than-loving ways?

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A reflection on the Just Resolution of the complaint against Bishop Melvin Talbert January 8, 2015 Bishop Talbert is quoted as saying following the resolution of the complaint against him, "I believe embracing Biblical Obedience offers the best way..." The resolution that involved other Bishops including the one who brought charges, offers a new opportunity to consider, maybe reconsider, our understanding of "Biblical Obedience."

Once there were Methodists who believed that the following represented Biblical Obedience: Prohibitions against the ordination of women The owning of slaves and the practice of slavery Prohibitions against divorce Prohibitions against the consumption of alcohol The practice of the segregation of blacks in church and society Prohibitions against interracial marriage But now: 


The United Methodist Church ordains women
 Slavery is no longer justified by church or society
 Divorce is viewed by The UMC for clergy and lay people as being at times valid Although The UMC values abstinence from the consumption of alcohol, it allows for discernment and decision-making for those who do consume alcohol.

Racial segregation is no longer viewed as being Biblical or Constitution based and valid interracial marriage "is now compatible with Christian teaching."

This week, when the movie "Selma" is released, we remember Martin Luther King's book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community.

How do we move from our current UMC chaos to community?

"Community" for The United Methodist Church, now that the decision in response to Bishop Talbert has been reached, is to acknowledge that out denominational history is a history of some Methodists believing that their support for Bible-based prohibitions was appropriate.

Later, these same folks realized that "New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth," to quote James Russell Lowell, and therefore decided to honor Scripture by "living it." Living it in the "new occasion."

The United Methodist Church, now that 36 states and the District of Columbia have legalized same sex marriage, can no longer diminish the inclusive leadership of Jesus, nor the power of Scripture, by refusing to be in full mission and ministry to same sex couples.

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I remember when the practice of racial segregation stood in the way of black persons who needed the medical care of "white only hospitals," but were denied entrance because of their race.

I cannot believe that there are United Methodists who would deny same-sex couples the ministry of marriage by a United Methodist clergyperson in a United Methodist Church, even if they themselves do not support such marriages.

We are at "an ending the Central Jurisdiction moment in United Methodism." The full inclusion of same-sex couples is in the mission and ministry of The UMC, now and in the future.

There were those who resisted the ending of racial segregation in the denomination.

They were our siblings in Christ, and we prayed that they would walk with us into God's new call to ministry. We allowed and enabled them to slowly make the transition from the old to the new. But, we could not deny, nor delay our responding to the hymn, "Where he leads me I will follow, where he leads me I will follow, where he leads me I will follow; I'll go with him all the way." (UM Hymnal #338) "11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America," said Martin Luther King. There may be some Churches and ministers that view themselves as "traditional marriage only" churches or pastors, and the denomination may affirm their stance. But, I believe that even those churches and pastors, as they observe the God-sanctioned love of samesex couples in and beyond United Methodist churches, as they now are married, would not stand in the way of United Methodist ministry to those couples.

My grandmother used to say about those who resisted racial integration, "If God is for it, who can be against it?"

I believe the "Just Resolution" of the complaint against Bishop Talbert, is "of God." I cannot believe the God of my foremothers and fathers is against it, and neither am I.

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Religion that reveals the ugliness beneath February 9, 2015 "Sometimes (religion) is a truth serum, stripping the varnish of etiquette to reveal the ugliness beneath" A review of a Children's Book in the Sunday, February 8, New York Times Book Review section is of "The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage" by Selina Alko.

These words of the reviewer Katheryn Russell Brown, I believe, have some relevance for our current debate and divide in The United Methodist Church re: same-sex marriage.

'The Case for Loving' tells the story of Mildred and Richard Loving, who fell in love young and hard. She was black and he was white, and in 1958 it was illegal for them to wed in Virginia.
 They were able to marry in Washington, D.C., but after returning home they were arrested and charged with 'unlawful cohabitation'. The judge gave them a choice: jail or banishment from Virginia. They moved to Washington, but later took their fight to the Supreme Court and won.

The Lovings did not consider themselves pioneers or crusaders for interracial marriage.

In a 1966 Life magazine interview, Richard said: “We are not doing it just because somebody had to do it and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for us."

A children's book in 2015 describes for its young readers, the love, the commitment, and the courage of Mildred and Richard Loving, the interracial couple who challenged bans on interracial marriage before the U.S. Supreme Court and won. They married in 1958.

How strange it is that 57 years later as 36 states and the District of Columbia have made legal same-sex marriage, The United Methodist Church still has in its Book of Discipline language and legislation that declares marriage equality for same-sex couples is at variance with the rules and legislation of The United Methodist Church.

Could the prospect of a book for Children written and published in the future that describes the resistance of United Methodist General Conference after General Conference to marriage equality for same sex couples, open the hearts, minds and faith-based love of delegates to the 2016 General Conference?

So that they that said "yes" rather than "no" to same-sex couples who, like the Lovings, want to marry, not as pioneers or crusaders, but as persons who want to affirm and confirm their love in a United Methodist Church. Many of us are praying and hoping this will take place.

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In another relevant article, Frank Bruni wrote an article on January 8th Sunday Review Section titled, "Do Gays Unsettle You?" He writes: 


"When we're (the man I love) walking down the street after a long dinner or a sad movie and he slips his hand in mine, I tense. I look around nervously. Is anyone staring? Glaring? I feel exposed, endangered, and I'm right to, even here in New York, even near my apartment on Manhattan's especially liberal Upper West Side. Just two years ago and two blocks from my home, an inebriated young woman who spotted us shouted, 'So you're gay. These two are gay!' She went on and on like that, for what seemed an eternity.

It was the booze talking, sure. But sometimes alcohol is a truth serum, stripping the varnish of etiquette to reveal the ugliness beneath."

I, in my title for this blog have substituted the word religion for the word alcohol. I have written about the courage of the Lovings, a black woman and a white man who challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court, bans against interracial marriage and they won, having those bans invalidated.

Presently, United Methodist Church language and legislation is anti-marriage for same-sex partners.

Is this language in the name of religion, "a truth serum stripping away the varnish of etiquette to reveal the ugliness beneath?"

The Lovings once experienced what Fran Bruni experienced. As their black hand and white hands held each other, there were those who glared at them with disapproval. But that is something that happened in the past.

May The UMC in its 2016 General Conference rescind our current language and legislation re: same-sex marriage that for so many years has revealed "the ugliness beneath."

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There are same-sex couples in Alabama and all over the world February 19, 2015

One of the attitudes/words of resistance to marriage equality for same-sex couples is this: “None of ‘them’ exist where we live.” This is not true, whether one lives in Alabama or New Zealand.

I, in my writing, frequently quote the words of the character in Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man: “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Ellison was writing about the “invisibility” of blacks, here I refer to the “invisibility” of same-sex couples.

The racial diversity of the same-sex couples in Alabama, made visible the universality of same- sex love. As I watched this racial diversity, I found myself humming the children’s song, “Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they (same-sex couples) are precious in God’s sight.” Those in church or society, who declare that the definition of marriage refers only to the marriage of one man and one woman, make of marriage an institution of “gender diversity.” Whereas, marriage as I have known it for 57 years, is two people expressing love for each other with all of the ups and downs that love generates.

The 1955 Movie, “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” reminds us of the ups and downs, and the ins and outs of married love. It may go together “like a horse and carriage,” but at times the carriage is in front, rather than the horse. I marvel at a member of a couple who says in the presence of their partner, “We never spoke a cross word or had a difference in our marriage.” I listen to them, but out of the corner of my eye, I look at their partner, and their countenance and body language often says otherwise.

The attention given to the marriages of same-sex couples, hopefully, will encourage and enable all of us, particularly within the Church, to be more open and honest about love and marriage and the complexities that accompany it.

Matters of personality, history, culture, finances, religion, sex, relationships with others, children, house, neighborhood, etc., are inextricably linked to marriage, and require patient and prayerful response. Those who have been so adamant in their resistance to same sex marriage because it diminishes “traditional marriage,” may be be doing this to avoid developing creative and courageous responses to why so many heterosexual marriages end in divorce. I have gone out on a limb and suggested that the title and content of Henri Nouwen’s, Wounded Healers, is appropriate and helpful, whether one’s marriage is same-sex or heterosexual.

Two people in a marriage often “wound” each other through acts of commission and/or

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omission. And, too often, we are unable or unwilling to talk about it. There is that moment in the movie SELMA, when Coretta King, Martin Luther King’s wife asks him, “Do you love me?” He responds, “I do.” It is the ability to affirm love for one’s partner, even if one’s actions indicate otherwise, that holds marriages together.

The surge of same-sex marriages heals another wound that we do not talk about much in the Church: The wound that is caused by “talking about” rather than “talking to” each other. The United Methodist “grapevine” has been cluttered with people talking about this or that alleged relationship between people of the same sex or of different sexes. Maybe, one of the unexpected by-products of same-sex marriage will be the stifling of the need to “gossip” about each other, thus giving us more time to, “Gossip the Gospel.” My grandmother, I have shared many times, said over and over again:

“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it doesn’t behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us.” We know the skeletons in our own closets, but we also know the skeletons in the closets of others.

Thus, regardless of our sexual orientation, gender identity, same-sex or heterosexual relationship, married or not, we who are “Wounded Healers” can sing the words of the Spiritual, “You can talk about me, just as much as you please. But, I’ll talk about you, when I get on my knees.”

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In pursuit of justice multi-tasking April 28, 2015

On the day that the U.S. Supreme Court, hopefully, begins to make up its mind and say “Yes” to Constitution-based marriage equality, may the nation begin to become serious about Constitution-based economic and educational equality and equal access for ALL Americans.

As I watched on TV the protests in Baltimore on the day of the funeral of Freddie Gray, and the swearing in of our second black Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, I remembered April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. I, with clergy and other community leaders, walked up and down Boston’s Blue Hill Avenue seeking to urge peace rather than violence in response to the killing of Martin Luther King.

Many of us viewed the violence in city after city in the nation following the death of Martin Luther King, the “Apostle of Nonviolence,” as a contradiction of all Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement believed and practiced. Some will say that the property damage in Baltimore on the day Freddie Gray was buried, the day Loretta Lynch was sworn in, and in the “final quarter” of our nation’s first black president, Barack Obama was contradictory as well.

But, Baltimore and its property damage hammers home the fact that neither a black president nor back-to-back black Attorney Generals usher in a post racial/racist era.

Thus, just as the nation, more and more, affirms the Constitution-based validity of same-sex marriage, we must affirm and act upon the creation of economic and educational equality for all Americans, particularly those who from the beginnings of our nation, were viewed as second class or less, Black Americans.

Ta-Nehisi Coates in his June 2014, ATLANTIC cover story, “The Case for Reparations,” “calls the roll” of the race-based barriers African Americans have faced as the “imported” not the Indigenous nor Immigrant, but slaves who were brought to America to provide free slave labor.

Coates suggests that America will not be America until it begins to repair the damage done to the lives, spirits, and culture of those who are the descendants of slaves.

I contend that we should not allow the financial challenges of reparations keep us from beginning to engage in “Reparations Remembering” of our Black history that we too often deny or revise.

Today’s New York Times on its front page has a headline that reads, “Clashes Rock

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Baltimore After Funeral; Curfew is Set” and on the left side of the front page, an article titled “Advocates Seek Sweeping Ruling in Marriage Case.”

I believe that the USA is mature enough, or must become mature enough to engage in “Justice multi-tasking.”

We must not allow the justice needs of same-sex couples to thwart the need for economic/ educational justice for Black Americans. Nor, should we allow what is taking place in Baltimore and throughout the nation to provide alibis or excuses for not moving toward full justice for LGBTQ persons and same-sex couples.

Paul Krugman in a NY Times op-ed writes of how we are reluctant to acknowledge that we have made mistakes. “…We live in an age of unacknowledged error.” Today, at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justices will wrestle with how they will respond to the “error” of denying marriage equality to same-sex couples.

May the nation today, also, finally decide that it must correct the errors in justice that have for too long, been responsible for making Black Americans second class or less in education, economics, employment, income, housing, net worth and influence.

Black and LGBTQ lives matter. It is not either/or, but both/and.

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A house of worship for all June 27, 2015

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Sunday, June 21 , many Churches did not acknowledge in their services, the killing of 9 people in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. th

On Sunday June 28 , how many Churches will not acknowledge the Supreme Court decision that guarantees a right to same-sex marriage? st

Our family was pleased that as we worshiped together on Sunday, June 21 , Father’s Day, the tragic killings in Charleston were acknowledged.

I have been told that in many Churches no mention was made of that tragedy. th

On tomorrow, June 28 as I preach at Asbury United Methodist Church/Atlantic City, I will acknowledge the Supreme Court decision and express my joy for it.

How could any Church in its worship service, fail to remember the tragedy in Charleston, or the joy that the marriage equality decision evoked for so many people?

Justice Anthony Kennedy in his majority decision said this, “It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves.”

Isaiah 56:7b reminds us of the inclusivity of the house of worship: “…my house will be known as a house of worship for all nations (for all people, KJV)” Contemporary English Version/CEV. Regardless of what pastors, churches, or denominations believe about same-sex marriage, worship and the “house” in which it takes place, to be authentic, must embrace the sorrows and joys of all people, regardless of who those people are, or whom they love.

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We are already family in God’s eyes July 1, 2015

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Rev. Gil Caldwell reflects on his experience preaching on Sunday, June 28 , at Asbury UM Church in Atlantic City: What happened at Asbury United Methodist Church in Atlantic City on Sunday should not ‘stay in’Asbury or Atlantic City.

Call and Response in the Black Church takes place in many ways. Rather than preach a monologue sermon, I sought to allow music and my words to capture what I thought God wanted us to be and do in the service.

Two events hovered over our time together.

The killing of the Pastor and 8 members of the congregation of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, and the same-sex marriage decision of “The Supremes.” I believe that any st

church that did not mention Charleston on Sunday June 21 , and the marriage equality th

decision by the Supreme Court on Sunday June 28 , suggested that that church did not view Blacks and/or LGBTQ people as being family.

A church may not “like” Blacks or LGBTQ people, but it has an obligation to “love” them, and love means that when they are in sorrow or in joy, they must be remembered!

Although some may not know or want to know our names, because of who we are or whom we love, there is a “Somebody” who knows us, that makes all of the difference in the world.

Preachers, when we get ordained, have somebody “lay hands on us,” but whether we are preachers or lay people, “It don’t mean a thing” if the imprint of the God of Abraham, Jesus, Sojourner, Harriet, Martin and Malcolm is not on us in ways that shape what we say and do.

Too many of us hide the light God has given us under a bushel where it is not seen and in time goes out.

No matter the gender identity, race, or sexual orientation of the one who has a God-given light, it must shine for others to see it. We cannot become “Wounded Healers” (Henri Nouwen) if we do not know that we have access to a healing balm that has been laid on us, not by humans, but by the One beyond humanity.

I believe that churches like Asbury in Atlantic City, that are about bold, brave and bodacious ministry, but who have financial challenges, ought to be able to be in life and community

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transforming ministry, with the support of non-members who understand the wisdom of investing in churches that serve the poor and the not-so-poor, and are inclusive in their response to all people, regardless of their status.

The billions that have been and will be spent on the presidential campaigns, would make a little more sense, if some of that money was invested in Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, and Ethical Culture Societies that day by day seek to discover and enable and empower the better angels that are buried deep within all of us.

“What’s Love Got To Do With It?” Tina Turner asked. I respond, “Love has everything to do with it.” Love is of and from God. Asbury Church experienced some of God’s love, on th

Sunday, June 28 .

May that love make us family, because in God’s eyes, we already are!

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The United Methodist Church, -isms, and the Republican Party October 16, 2015

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On Monday October 12 , the New York Times had a review of a jazz concert in Brooklyn.

One of the musicians was Ravi Coltrane the son of legendary saxophonist, John Coltrane. (“A Love Supreme”, 1964) The reviewer wrote this about Ravi Coltrane: “Mr. Coltrane, who played much of the set on soprano saxophone, provided the trio’s most heroic voice, its main source of impassioned exposition.”

I am not sure how the reviewer defines “impassioned exposition,” but whatever its meaning, there is a bit of it in the following.

I title my thoughts; “The United Methodist Church, Isms, and the Republican Party.”

One difference between the Republican Party and The United Methodist Church is that while both are deeply divided, some United Methodists are talking about schism/separation, while most Republicans from right to left in their perspectives, want as they choose a new speaker of the House, to find ways to maximize their recent electoral victories. Some in The UMC seem to want, without saying it openly, to ignore the learnings that the denomination derived from its challenging its sexism in 1956 by voting to ordain women, and in 1968 when The United Methodist Church was birthed, it challenged its racism by merging the all-black, separate and segregated Central Jurisdiction.

Today in The UMC, there are those who accept and agree with our faith-based challenges against sexism and racism, but they contradict that history of faith-based evolution and change in the denomination, re: gender and race, by continuing to urge the denomination to engage in the practice of heterosexism in our language and legislation.

Thus, while the Republican Party is not yet discussing division and separation, there are those United Methodists who in the past, affirmed faith-based challenges to sexism and racism, are now discussing schism/separation because they believe in faith-based heterosexism, while many of us cannot. “Isms” seem to live on within the Church, despite successful efforts in the past to defeat them. “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

Much to the surprise of many of us, The United Methodist Church today is engaged in a struggle between spirituality and fundamentalism. David Tacey in “The Spirituality Revolution” st

describes the conflicts between the two. A conflict hard to imagine existing in 21 century

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United Methodism. But, it does. “Spirituality and fundamentalism are at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum. Spirituality seeks a sensitive, contemplative, transformational relationship with the sacred and is able to sustain levels of uncertainty in its quest because respect for mystery is paramount.

Fundamentalism seeks certainty, fixed answers and absolutism, as a fearful response to the complexity of the world and to our vulnerability as creatures in a mysterious universe.

Spirituality arises from love and intimacy with the sacred and fundamentalism arises from fear and possession of the sacred. The choice between spirituality and fundamentalism is a choice between conscious intimacy and unconscious possession.�

I enjoy jazz because in its creativity, improvisation, call and response, and its ability to change and mature, I claim, is a manifestation of spirituality. Sexism and racism existed/exist because of fear. That fear was challenged and transformed as The United Methodist Church in language and legislation included women and blacks, rather than separating and segregating them. Sadly, today, the fear that fundamentalism produces, is evident in UMC language and legislation that promotes heterosexism.

My hope is that General Conference 2016, in its decision making, will choose Spirituality over Fundamentalism.

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Those who are invisible because we refuse to see them March 16, 2016

Methodist and United Methodist lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people: “They are invisible (past and present) understand, simply, because we refuse to see them” A paraphrase from the words of a character in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans people were and are composed of all races, ethnicities, biblical perspectives. They are lay people, they are clergy, involved at every level of the denomination. Many of us who are straight and cis acknowledge that our spiritual journeys in and beyond the Church were positively influenced by them.

Yet in 1972, four years after the new United Methodist Church had rid itself of the institutional segregation of the all-black Central Jurisdiction, the General Conference declared that same-sex loving persons in committed relationships were because of their commitment to one another, “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

We moved from institutional racism to institutional heterosexism. May the delegates to the 2016 General Conference resolve our unfortunate anti-gay language and legislation by rescinding it, and focus on the “incompatibility with Christian teaching” of poverty, inadequate healthcare, inequality of income, racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, militarism and the greed of capitalism.

It is hypocritical of us to continue to demean the many contributions that same gender loving Methodists in the past, and United Methodists today, have and are making to the mission and ministry of The United Methodist Church.

I am a witness to the fact that in my family, in the beginning days of my ministry in the Central Jurisdiction, and throughout my ministry, gay men and lesbians have been partners with me as I have sought to respond to and follow the “Teachings of Jesus.” (Howard Thurman) May God help The United Methodist Church if we continue to appear to be a mirror of the Republican Party in our anti-gay language and legislation. I write this as one who at times in the spirit of Frederick Douglass, has been a Republican. “New occasions teach new duties; time makes ancient good uncouth.”

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A quadrilateral response to General Conference May 24, 2016

SCRIPTURE: Our Bishops have acknowledged what we have long known—Methodists, and now United Methodists, at times differ in our interpretations of Scripture. I have accepted the fact that some persons sincerely believed that Scripture justified the enslavement and segregation of blacks. And, that their justification was based on a misinterpretation of the “curse of Ham” in the book of Genesis. But when these persons considered the message of Jesus and the totality of Scripture, they no longer endorsed slavery nor racial segregation.

TRADITION: Traditions are changed when “new occasions” make old traditions “uncouth,” and more importantly when traditions violate our understandings of “the religion of Jesus” (Howard Thurman) and “The Beloved Community” (Martin Luther King). My great grandparents were demeaned by the “tradition of slavery” and my grandparents, parents, and I were limited and restricted by “the tradition of the segregation of blacks.” United Methodists no longer observe these traditions, and most of us, probably not all of us, find it difficult to understand why/how these traditions ever existed.

EXPERIENCE: Hopefully the visibility of LGBTQ persons and married same-sex couples at General Conference impacted those who believed that praying, singing, worshipping, decision- making, and fellowshipping with those whose sexual practices according to the UMC Book of Discipline are “incompatible with Christian teaching” would corrupt their faith journeys, experienced just the opposite.

REASON: A quotation from the late Bishop Jack Tuell: “I must ask is it reasonable to believe that God would create some with an orientation toward the same gender, put within them the same strong drive of sexuality which is present within heterosexual persons, and then decree that such a drive is to be absolutely repressed and denied?”

(From his sermon; “DOING A NEW THING”; The United Methodist Church and Homosexuality; Text; “I am doing a new thing”, Isaiah 43:19)

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Becoming a 21 Century Church October 21, 2016

A comparison of two actions of Methodists at the national and international level that were discriminatory; The anti-African American vote of the 1939 Unification Conference that created the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction and the 1972 General Conference vote that relegated LGBTQ persons and same gender loving couples to second class status in the denomination.

60 years ago I was ordained a Deacon in the Boston University Chapel by Bishop John Wesley Lord. I had been qualified for the ordination by the North Carolina Conference on the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction and was ordained as a “courtesy” by the New England Conference. Additionally, I received the Distinguished Alumni Award because I was one of the founders of United Methodists of Color (UMOC). My wife, Grace, and I attend the UMC of Red Bank, NJ., a Reconciling Congregation. I’ve always considered myself a member of the RMN family.

My ministry in the Methodist and now United Methodist Church has been shaped by a denomination that has a history of anti-black, anti-women, and now anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

I cannot remember the number of times I have said and written, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

The History of American Methodism, volume 3, published in 1964 by Abingdon Press says this about the 1939 creation of the Central Jurisdiction, “…in 1960 it was obvious that the union was not yet socially and psychologically complete.” I have wondered why it was not said that the creation of the Central Jurisdiction was not theologically, Christologically, and biblically complete as well?

And I wonder why today’s anti-LGBTQ UMC language and legislation, claiming to be biblically-rooted, is viewed as being “socially and psychologically complete?” st

I write the above as I continue to hope that The UMC will become a 21 century Church. I prayerfully hope that the Council of Bishops, the “Commission,” and the Judicial Council will determine finally that since 1972 The UMC has practiced discrimination against LGBTQ persons. Despite its being clothed in Scripture and Tradition!

It was said of those who would not acknowledge the financial ills of our nation, “It’s the

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economy stupid!” United Methodist leaders, our anti-LGBTQ language and legislation, “It’s DISCRIMINATION, and you are not stupid.”

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An “Open Letter” to Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, from Gil Caldwell November 1, 2016

Bishop Palmer, I share this letter with you and others, as my contribution to the work of the Commission.

The Commission On A Way Forward has these words in its Mission Statement: “The matters of human sexuality and unity are the presenting issues for a deeper conversation that surfaces different ways of interpreting scripture and theological tradition.” And, in the Vision Statement, this about unity: “This unity will not be grounded in our conception of human sexuality, but in our affirmation of the Triune God who calls us to be a grace-filled and holy people in the Wesleyan tradition.”

The above words from the VISION statement prompt the following about how the Commission can move The United Methodist Church FORWARD. 1. The UMC came into being in 1968 not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Many of us felt that after Methodism in its history had baptized blacks, but then engaged in discussion about the enslavement and segregation of blacks that resulted in separations and divisions, the “new” UMC would have as one of its major mission/ministry efforts, a confrontation and transformation of “The practice of racial segregation.” The “new” UMC that abolished the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction we thought “could do no other.”

Did not Martin Luther say something like this? But what happened at the General Conference of 1972, became a barrier to The UMC becoming the major faith-based opponent of racism in the world.

2. 1972 introduced Church-based discrimination against lesbians and gay men! Why and what prompted the introduction of language and legislation that ignored the race/racist realities that were front-and-center in the USA, the world and religion in 1972? Some have suggested that this was a way of diverting the attention of The UMC away from the oppressive reality of racism. We have seen in the USA presidential campaign how one candidate has pandered to the racial prejudices of some for political gain. Was this the motivation of some of those who introduced the 1972 language and legislation in The UMC; pandering to anti-gay prejudice among some United Methodists?

3. Scripture, Wesleyan Covenant, Christian Teaching, Triune God, etc. Sadly, these words and others that have arisen re; sexuality, are words that in the past were used to justify slavery and segregation. Bishop Gilbert Haven, an outspoken proponent of interracial marriage,

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centuries ago, heard about interracial marriage what some United Methodists today, are saying about same-sex marriage. Anti-black racism for centuries has been fueled by a misinterpretation of the Biblical “Curse of Ham.” Since 1972, The UMC has embraced language and legislation responsible for charges, trials and suspensions based on another Biblical Curse; of same-sex loving persons and their expressions of their love. It is not “The Sins of Scripture” (Spong), but how Scripture is misused to undergird bigotry. (John Wesley’s Sermon on Bigotry) 4. African United Methodists; The contribution they could make in the Church-based war against racism in the USA, if they were not focused on “The practice of homosexuality.”

How strange it is that those whose history is a history of colonial exploitation (at times Church-based), slavery, residents of the Continent from which the “Middle Passage” was launched, are welcomed in United Methodism because we are told they are anti-gay, but we are not told if they are anti- racism as well. Africans present in The UMC could do wonders in the struggle against racism in the USA, in Africa and the world, if they allowed God to guide them. They know first hand about anti-black racism, and today are being victimized by African leaders who are betraying the intentions of the hopes of African Independence. Have they become useful only in our debates about homosexuality?

5. The UMC and the 2016 USA presidential campaign. We are observing how many “evangelical Christians” are setting aside the values they have claimed in order to support the Republican candidate. How about those in The UMC who boldly claim this identity? And what, if any, is the relationship between some white southern Christians who in their voting were anti-Barack Obama, and some white southern United Methodists? There is a symmetry between anti- blackness and anti-gayness we seldom mention. And tragically, many Black persons who are anti-gay for “Biblical reasons” do not acknowledge that they are kin to those who were/are anti- Black for “Biblical reasons.”

The Commission has the opportunity/challenge to proclaim: “The practice of discrimination for any reason is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Too long have Churches justified discrimination on Biblical, Orthodox, Wesleyan, Triune God, etc. grounds. A long-time friend taught me how to say: “GOD DON’T LIKE UGLY!” Commission, discrimination is ugly! It exists in our past and our present. I “double dare you” to eliminate it from our future.

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For they know not what they do November 13, 2016

There are moments, I am sure, when an event takes place that many of us experience a remembering of a bit of Scripture that for some reason we believe has relevance for/to the event unfolding before us.

When it was announced at about 3AM last Wednesday morning that Donald J. Trump, and Michael Richard Pence had been elected by the voters as President and Vice President of the USA, these words spoken by Jesus from the cross from Luke 23:34 surfaced within me: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”

What is it about Donald Trump that evokes this response? His demonization of a black President with his “birther” nonsense. His words and actions that abuse women. And, his negative generalizations about immigrants from Mexico.

What is it about Mike Pence? His anti-same-sex marriage actions, and his support of efforts to reverse the sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBTQ persons.

Many of us are concerned that much of the electorate ignored or forgot about the biases of Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, because of the understandable concerns about jobs and the economy of the Rust and Bible Belt voters who elected Trump and Pence.

But, bias and bigotry are at variance with the love that is enfleshed in Jesus, and the basic principles of American democracy. And, they deserve priority in our decisionmaking.

“Them” and “They?” I cannot separate myself from those who voted for the Trump/Pence ticket. I, too, in my 83 years have allowed bias and bigotry to be far down on my list of concerns. Thus, having “been there and done that” at times in my life’s journey, I seek forgiveness for all of us, past and present, who have overlooked these demons.

“Jesus, forgive us, all of us, for minimizing or ignoring bias and bigotry when it is present in others, and when it is present within us.”

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Old Men dream dreams December 8, 2016

The Bible in both Joel and Acts says this about old men, “old men dream dreams.” In addition, this old man, Gil Caldwell, somewhat like a jazz musician (When I grow up I want to be a second coming of Miles Davis.) writes “stuff” that is a blend of the rational and irrational. This morning, my question: “Has The United Methodist Church been seduced by those who did not want to address racism; particularly its anti-black expression?”

Do the following reflect a dream or nightmare, or both?

1. The UMC was born a few weeks following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Many of us who were present at its “birth” wanted/expected it to be the nation’s leading faith-based st

anti- racism Church. Did those who disagreed with that vision know that 21 century racism would be alive and well, and that an anti-racism denomination would challenge the legitimacy of that racism. Thus the 1972 General Conference introduced, not anti-racism language and legislation, but anti-homosexuality language and legislation. The “practice” of heterosexism became the new sin, thus diverting attention away from the old sin of the “practice” of racism.

2. The New York Times carried numerous articles about UMC trials of clergy who performed same-sex marriages. But, today as the Times has articles titled: “The Scourge of Racial Bias In New York Sate’s Prisons,” “What the Alt-Right Means,” “Where Unfair Voting Practices Begin,” “The Horror of Lynching Lives On” (These two on the editorial page), and other media carry stories of the trials of the police killing of black men, and the trial of the killer of nine black persons in an AME Church, the silence of The UMC is deafening! Could it be that those for whom the practice of homosexuality is their major concern should move on while those of us who view sexism, racism, heterosexism, and classism as major challenges to/of our mission and ministry will remain, keeping in mind Wesley’s sermon on Bigotry?

3. Once the Methodist/United Methodist Church was viewed as “America’s Church.” We boasted that Methodism was present in every County seat town. Those of us who are not Dallas Cowboys (America’s Team”) fans despite their success this year, believed that we as a Church were more “American” than the Cowboys. But today in a distortion of the meaning of “Globality”, we sacrifice the inclusivity, although not yet perfected, of the USA, in order to “use” the biases taught by missionaries, to justify discrimination in The UMC. Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne (Red Letter Christians) have written a NY Times op-ed

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titled; “The Evangelicalism of Old White Men Is Dead.” I am not a white man, but I am an “old man.” Thus, I join with Campolo and Clairborne and affirm the last sentence in their article:

“MAYBE THIS IS A MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY FOR EVANGELICALS TO REPENT AND BE ‘BORN AGAIN’ AS RED LETTER CHRISTIANS.” I, as an evangelical, agree!

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Christian Teachings About Christmas, Easter, and “The Practice of Homosexuality” December 28, 2016

“Pastor Gil, I have made my peace with Christian teachings about Jesus and Christmas and Easter, but I cannot accept Christian teachings about Jesus and the ‘practice of homosexuality.”

Years ago, an African American man who was in a same-sex relationship shared these words with me. I was reminded of them as I read the op-ed of Nicholas Kristof published in the Christmas Day edition of the New York Times, “Pastor, Am I a Christian?”

Kristof began his article with this question that he asked of Rev. Timothy Keller, an evangelical Christian pastor and best selling author: “What does it mean to be a Christian in st

the 21 century? Can one doubt the virgin birth or the Resurrection?”

Keller responded, “If something is truly integral to a body of thought, you can’t remove it without destabilizing the whole thing.”

I responded to the man who asked me the question this way, if my 83-year-old memory is accurate.

“When I was one of the few African Americans active in the North Carolina Methodist Student Movement in the 1950’s my humanity was embraced by most of my white student colleagues, and a few white churches. But, the racial discrimination I experienced from white Methodist churches, academic institutions and Lake Junaluska (The Methodist Center) caused me to question teachings about Jesus and the practice of racial discrimination. I questioned teachings about Jesus and the practice of racial segregation, as you question teachings about Jesus and the practice of homosexuality.”

Keller suggests that removing a belief in and affirmation of the virgin birth and the resurrection “destabilizes the whole thing.” The “whole thing” being Christianity. I contend that discriminating against persons because of race, gender, gender identity, or their “practice of homosexuality” in the past and in the present has “destabilized” the Methodist and United Methodist Church.

I paraphrase, “How can we claim to love God whom we have not seen, yet not love those whom we have seen?”

If I were the man with whom I met many years ago, today, I would say this:

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Christmas and Easter are about a God who in and through Jesus expressed the Love that is and is of God. Discrimination is at variance with the God who is Love and expects Love of self, of others, and of God, by those whom God creates.

Christina Rossetti and Howard Thurman express the Love that is the most important element of both Christmas and Easter. Rossetti wrote, “Love came down at Christmas, Love all Lovely, Love Divine, Love was born at Christmas, Star and Angels gave the sign.”

And, Thurman describes Easter as being “The Glad Surprise” in his Meditations of the Heart: “It is the announcement that cannot ultimately be conquered by death, that there is no road that is at least swallowed up in ultimate darkness…(but) this life is bottomed by the glad surprise.”

We have in the Resurrection story a manifestation of how God in Jesus, does not allow death to become the “ultimate darkness.” Thurman and Rosetti, remind us that if Love does not become for us, the ultimate meaning of Christmas and Easter, we have as poet Robert Frost tells us, “miles to go before we sleep.”

Nicholas Kristof ends his op-ed “conversation” with Keller this way: “If we have a God big enough to deserve being called God, then we have a God big enough to reconcile both justice and love.”

When Methodists were discriminating against women and blacks, our God was not “big enough.” Today, as The United Methodist Church discriminates against persons and punishes clergy who perform same sex marriages, our God is not big enough.

2016, in hundreds of ways, has shown us that the USA and the world “stand in need of prayer” and a United Methodist Church that, in the name of Jesus, affirms all of God’s people without discriminating against some of them.

May that kind of United Methodist Church come alive in 2017!

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A 2017 Letter to Martin Luther King GJanuary 16, 2017

Dear Dr. King,

We first met in May of 1958 at Boston University School of Theology. You were 29, I was 24.

You would have been 88 on January 15, 2017 if you had not been assassinated in 1968. I am 83. One of our Boston University colleagues, United Methodist Bishop Woodie White has written annual letters to you that have been insightful, candid, and prophetic. I make no attempt to imitate my long time friend and colleague Woodie as I write this, but I am inwardly compelled to share the following: 1. The last 8 years, we have been blessed to have as our President, Barrack Hussein Obama.

But developments that have been taking place in the process of electing a successor to President Obama have motivated my writing this letter to you that I hope and pray will be shared with others.

2. The nation and world now know that the election of President Obama did not usher in a post racial/racist era. We missed an opportunity as proponents or opponents of Barack Obama to act in ways that demonstrated that we acknowledged “America’s Original Sin: Racism.” His opposition could have been a “Loyal Opposition” that disagreed with his policies, but not disagree with the legacy of the anti-black racism that still hovers over the nation; south, north, central and west. The nation has demonstrated that it could accept with enthusiasm two black quarterbacks as they led their respective teams in the quest for a national championship. But, there were some Americans who in attitudes and actions were reluctant to fully accept a black President of the United States, nor his spouse Michelle and their daughters. Football quarterbacks entertain and excite football fans, but a President represents and leads a nation. This apparently, for some Americans, was beyond their capacity to accept.

3. Dr. King, our unresolved racial reality is that there has been, and is, an unwillingness to express in word and deed that the nation was wrong in ever tolerating slavery and racial segregation. They both violated the principles of equality, fairness, and justice that are writ large in Scripture and the Constitution. We waste time in efforts to label persons racist. I am

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fascinated at how persons, whether right or left of center, protect others and themselves from the racist label, but are less enthusiastic in condemning systematic racism re: voting rights, affirmative action, education, housing, economic opportunity, the gap between blacks in healthcare, home ownership, and family, economic well being.

We are not where we ought be on matters of racial justice because we have discovered we can enact laws that allow us “to change without changing” the deep seated attitudes that once justified slavery and segregation.

Yet, Dr. King, I “Dare to Dream” that Republicans, Democrats, Independents and all of us can and will join hands and hearts to make America what it is not yet, but can become. th

On Friday, January 13 , Grace and I and our son Dale visited the Bear Tavern Elementary School here in New Jersey to talk about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.

The faces of those children, their teachers, and principal are in my mind’s eye as I write this. It is because of them, and those like them that I write this letter.

They deserve a better nation than the one that we are now.

May we, this MLK weekend despite the dark clouds above us, begin to become Martin Luther King, the nation you dreamed of and believed in as you lived and died for and in the cause of Freedom and Justice.

-Gilbert H. Caldwell

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Thank God for Black History Month—The Nation & The World Need It as Never Before!

February 6, 2017

Black folk and other folk forget these words in Lift Every Voice and Sing, known by some as the Black National Anthem: “We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.”

The history of Native Americans and of Black Americans, if known and understood honestly, offers an understanding of why we are where we are in the USA in 2017.

Regardless of our race, religion or no religion, politics, or where we are as conservatives, moderates, liberals, progressives or radicals, the history of Native Americans and Black Americans, has made those last words of the Pledge of Allegiance, “With Liberty and Justice for All” a lie! Yet we have sought to say with Maya Angelou, “AND STILL (WE) RISE.” Thoughts from an 83 year old, southern born and raised, African American man: 1. Yesterday I bought my Dorothy Height, Black Heritage stamp. As a sequel to the Women’s March, I suggest women and men of all races purchase and USE the Dorothy Height and other Black Heritage stamps! Don’t be afraid to let your PO know you are learning from and embracing Black History Month.

2. Borrow from your Library or buy the 3 books of MARCH that tell the story of John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement. Regardless of the results of the Sessions Attorney General nomination, the scars of slavery and segregation still disfigure the nation. The nation must cease ignoring them. The wounds that caused the scars have not yet been healed. The chaos of these moments tell us that. Black History could be a corrective to the missteps of the current administration, if we live it.

3. “We have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests.” The embrace or the rejection of President Donald Trump has made him the centerpiece of our emotions and actions. He is not the first President the nation has elected who is viewed as being racially biased. Remember liberal Woodrow Wilson? Trump’s “birther” tirade was clear evidence of his insensitivity to or disregard of Black History. Black History reminds us of how both Democrats and Republicans have harmed and sought to help Black Americans. If the authentic needs and interests of Black Americans and all Americans can be addressed from the left or the right, so be it. We who are black have wondered at times if Democrats

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and Republicans have simply wanted to “sign us up” and no more. Our interests; Reading levels in public schools, closing the economic, educational, employment, health care and influence gaps between blacks and whites. “A rising tide” that lifts the fragile boats that blacks are in will lift all boats!

4. This Black History Month can be the month when all of us allow the commitments and contributions of James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, and Barbara Jordan, all same-sex loving persons, to put an end to discrimination against persons because of who and how they love.

Baldwin, a writer and activist, Rustin, a Civil Rights Movement organizer, and Jordan, a congresswoman, enriched our lives, regardless of who we are. The present chaos in the USA will not be transformed if we who are black, and those who are not, continue to allow our sexual, faith, and fear-based attitudes and actions relegate LGBTQ persons to the sidelines.

5. Black History, as it identifies “The Best of Blackness” reveals that we have not engaged in nd

a tit for tat response to those who harmed us. We could have exercised our 2 Amendment Rights and “taken up arms” against state and national government tyranny. Instead as led by Martin Luther King, John Lewis, and others we chose nonviolence. Our present national chaos results from a reliance on “verbal violence” as political candidates assaulted each other verbally. While we cheered them on. My fear is that our legitimate concerns about the present occupant of the White House will keep us from acknowledging some positives that might be hidden as we disagree with him. A replication of the sometimes race-based negative response to President Obama in a negative response to all of the Trump agenda can harm our “permanent interests” as justice focused human beings. The incumbent government is “shooting itself in its collective fee,” and needs no help from the rest of us.

I watched with interest and a bit of “shock and awe” as President Trump met with his African American supporters. I thought of Frederick Douglass and Senator Ed Brooke, Republicans, who are heroes of mine. Will the black supporters of President Trump use this Black History Month to take him to the newly opened Museum and interpret for him why his “birther” fascination did not make him a racist, but it revealed how irrelevant and inconsequential Black History is to him.

We who are black find truth in Carter Woodson’s “The Miseducation of the Negro.” But there is a larger miseducation or no education we must face this Black History Month.

It is the absence of an understanding of how Black History with its tribulations and triumphs can serve to guide the nation that we love to a more just and better place.

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Martin Luther King described the people in that place, “The Beloved Community.” “We Are Family,” let us begin to live that way.

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Why Does The United Methodist Church Continue To Discriminate Against People When It Claims That Discrimination Is Wrong?

July 19, 2017

Lawrence Ware, the co-director of the Center for Africana Studies and the Diversity Coordinator for the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma State University has written a New York Times op- ed, July 17, 2017, “I’m Done Being a Southern Baptist,” that captures why I have been a critic of both racism AND homophobia.

Ware writes, “But not enough has been done to address the institutional nature of white supremacy in the convention. Many churches are still hostile to the Black Lives Matter movement and even more were silent during the rise of Mr. Trump and the alt-right. For all their talk about the love of Jesus Christ, the Southern Baptist Convention’s inaction on the issues of racism and homophobia has drowned out its words.”

We who are opponents of state sponsored executions have for years raised the question: “Why do we keep on killing people to prove that killing people is wrong?”

How strange it is that we United Methodists who in word and deed have sought to confront racism and sexism within and without the denomination, continue to discriminate against LGBTQ persons, same-sex couples, and the clergy who perform same-sex marriages.

What is it about a heterosexism that reveals homophobia, that for years has dominated United Methodism, makes it continue to plague us?

I’m not done being a United Methodist, but how long God, how much longer, on matters of homosexuality, will The UMC look like the Southern Baptist Convention?

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The Contradiction at the Heart of The United Methodist Church August 29, 2017

It has been said, “What goes around, comes around.” And when an unacknowledged contradiction has been revealed, we often say, “The covers have been pulled off” of the contradiction.

Rev. M Barclay, Reconciling Ministries Network’s Director of Communications, has edited the “Embrace Love” slogan of The UMC this way: “Embrace (queer) Love and Fight White Supremacy.” And Cynthia Astle, editor of United Methodist Insight, has written an article in response to Barclay’s editing titled, “United Methodist’s ‘Embrace Love’ with one Exception.”

Here are a series of shorthand thoughts that may contribute to the necessary conversation that Barclay and Astle have initiated: 1. When The “Unified” Methodist Church was organized in 1939, it created a peculiar response to Methodism’s slavery, as a jurisdictional form of organization was developed as a way to form the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction. Methodism demonstrated how to move from the slavery of black people to the segregation of black people.

2. It was never said or written this way, but in 1939, Methodist language and legislation articulated: “The practice of the integration of black people is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

3. And, in 1972, the four-year-old United Methodist Church did not say it this way, but what it said meant this: “The practice of the integration of LGBTQ people is incompatible with Christian teaching.”

4. Some of us have felt that the current discrimination of LGBTQ people, same-sex clergy couples, and clergy who perform same-sex marriages is an extension of our Methodist history of racial discrimination.

5. I suggest that a denomination that discriminates against people because of their sexual orientation/identity and their expressions of intimacy has not yet learned lessons from its discrimination of black people. And, as we now see in our nation, integration once celebrated can become discrimination again. If in the nation, why not in The UMC as well?

“None of us are free (of discrimination) until all of us are free (of discrimination).”

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I, as an 83-year-old fourth generation African American United Methodist preacher, may not be faithful to the context of Matthew 25:43, but time and time again I and my black colleagues have had cause to say in our denomination, “I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.”

We understand why Barclay edited our “Embrace Love” slogan, and why Astle wrote what she did.

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Section II Writings from Rev. Dr Pamela Lightest 2008 - 2016


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Tomorrow is only a day away July 30, 2008 On July 27th, Jim Adkisson, a 58 year old unemployed mechanic and military veteran entered a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and opened fire killing 2 persons and injuring 7 others at a service where a congregation of about 200 persons gathered for a children's performance of the musical, "Annie". Early reports describe him as a man filled with anger for gays, the liberal movement and most significantly Christians. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. That would be an understatement. It seems Jim Adkisson is a man filled with bitter hatred, which he attributes to any number of unfortunate experiences in his life. Not even his wife (later ex-wife) was safe from his venomous and insane attacks. Eventually, she divorced him; better the divorce than her life.

Adkisson is unmistakably a very sick man, psychologically and spiritually. His life has become a sad commentary on the often-human inability to embrace political and theological differences.

His own letter attributing his crime to his hatred of this church because it was liberal and welcomed the LGBT community demonstrates the toll such bitter indifference can take; seething within, elevating and rupturing to the level of deadly insanity.

Adkisson claimed no affiliation with Christianity yet all Christians would do well to pray that some day he might utter a prayer of repentance, and a love for Christ and the entire fully inclusive body of Christ. Indeed, we should offer this prayer for an even larger circle of persons and institutions. In the meantime, Christians and believers from all walks of life - especially the LGBT community and reconciling friends like Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church must remain vigilant in the face of hatred and bigotry. After all, we really do believe, "The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow."

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A prayer for Haiti January 15, 2010

O God, we have been stunned once again by an event Which seems so unnatural and yet is called "natural disaster."

We have no words to answer the "why" which we feel, No wisdom to explain away the unexplainable areas of life.

Keep us from attributing this event as a heavenly reprimand, Or from a certain haughtiness that tempts the distant soul.

Give us to be compassionate and gentle, servants to those in need.

Remind us of your gracious love in the midst of sorrow, And your ability to work miracles when hope is faint.

We pray for those who suffer in Haiti even now And for those who await rescue.

For relatives, for the children, For mothers and fathers, Sisters and brothers, Grandparents, aunts and cousins.

For the survivors who question what more they might have done.

And for those who must keep on keeping on, in spite of.

For the leaders, For those who bring aid And those who await news.

Strengthen and encourage them we pray.

Now unto you, O God, we take the burdens of this hour and place them in your divine care.

For all you do and are doing, seen and unseen, we give thee thanks, Eternal God of All Creation.

Amen.

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Justice is a divine attribute of God November 17, 2013 The statement last week by the Council of Bishops requesting Bishops Wenner and WallacePadgett file a complaint against retired Bishop Melvin Talbert for officiating a ritual celebrating the same-sex marriage of Joe Openshaw and Bobby Prince is indicative of a leadership falling apart at the seams and grasping at straws to maintain archaic law. At worst, the council, with the exception of some very courageous dissenters, issued an attack decree against a prophet of justice, at best it admitted nothing new: the bishops and the members of the United Methodist Church “are not of one mind.” As I reflected upon the statement, I thought to myself, "Well if you all are now of the mind to encourage complaints, then get your pens ready for there are many of us!” In solidarity with Bishop Talbert and the many other clergy who have gone through the complaint process, faced church trail, been reprimanded or defrocked to ensure the rights of LGBTQ persons prevail, I share this blessed experience.

In May I was invited to co-officiate the wedding of Mary Ann Kaiser and Annanda Barclay. I had read a few months earlier about their plans to marry at the Reconciling Ministries biennial convocation, entitled “ChurchQuake,” and had thought at that time that I would certainly love to be present. Little did I know just how “present” I would be. On August 31, 2013, there I stood, with Annanda’s pastor, Rev. Joseph Moore (PCUSA), officiating their wedding ceremony. Prior to that, from May to that day in August, this couple committed themselves to marriage counseling, which, by necessity, included serious reflection on the bigotry that would be launched against them. Neither Mary Ann nor Annanda were or are naïve. They are very much in love with each other and God. Unfortunately, the laws of Texas would not permit their marriage.

Convocation being in Washington, DC, presented the opportunity for them to both be legally married and to do so surrounded by a loving community of friends.

In many ways, I believe it the work of the Holy Spirit that led to my co-officiating their marriage. Leading up to the 2012 Presidential election, I had written a petition asking Black clergy and scholars to stand with President Obama in his support of marriage equality. This was written to thwart the National Organization for Marriage’s strategy to gain the Black vote for presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, which they thought possible by leveraging existent homophobia within the Black community against President Obama. Before drafting that petition I had been very clear that if asked I would gladly officiate a same-sex marriage. Indeed, I was one of those clergy who signed a pledge to perform same-sex marriages right after General Conference 2012. As an African-American lesbian who grew up in the 60s, I feel the United Methodist Church prohibition against officiating same-sex marriages and the laws against “selfavowed practicing homosexuals” represent simply another era of bigotry for which the church will invariably be crafting yet another “Service of Repentance” in years to come.

I agreed to co-officiate because I am an ordained clergyperson who believes this ministry of the church should not be limited to a few. As an elder, the decision to officiate a wedding is both my right and responsibility. The decision was mine to make and the consequences that come from that decision are mine to bear. I made the decision to co-officiate Mary Ann and Annanda’s wedding after a period of counseling and after being convinced that doing so was the righteous

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thing. That is to say that I practiced biblical obedience with a perspective of the righteousness of blessing the civil marriage of two women who are very much in love, because this conferred legal status allows these two baptized members of Christ’s body to enjoy a host of rights and protections in this nation. Justice is a divine attribute of God. I believe it is was the right thing to do to give witness – for Mary Ann and Annanda – to that state-approved act of justice .

Essentially I blessed as holy and righteous the same-sex marriage that our government also accepted as a civil right when the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. And most importantly, I blessed the love of two persons whom our church has called persons of “sacred worth.”

White, Black, male, female, lesbian, straight ally, United Methodist, Presbyterian, Southern and Northern. There we stood representing so many levels of diversity. It was a reality not lost to my reflections on that day. When the ceremony was over, the congregation burst into a spontaneous singing of “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” How appropriate. I thought to myself, “Lord, let it be in our souls, come what may.”

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Why has The UMC been silent on racism, Ferguson?

August 14, 2014 Unfortunately, The United Methodist Church has more to say about suicide, ebola, and education than it does about racism. But, er, uh, am I surprised? When it comes to fighting against LGBTQ rights, especially same-sex marriage, much has been and is discussed. What is happening in Ferguson should have a prominent place on our banner. But The UMC is SILENT. This is why I find it so strange that so many Black members of The UMC fall prey to the deception of oppression. If there is not an urgent support against racism then why would you allow yourselves to be used as puppets in the church's homophobic policies?

As I have been watching with utter dismay, the horrors occurring not only in Ferguson but in cities across America, I find myself with little tolerance for narratives depicting America as “the home of the free and the brave.” As an Army veteran and mother whose son served in Iraq, the militarization of police forces across America is frightening. It is as if I have been transported back to my younger self in the 60s. Black men carrying signs, “I AM A MAN,” police standing with german shepherds ready to attack protesters, deadly police brutality, police cover-ups, and talking heads speaking against “outsiders coming into our towns stirring things up.” I’ve been looking for a word from The UMC in the Missouri Conference or the Council of Bishops since Saturday. Hope. Comfort. Justice. What about a “holy conversation”? Nothing.

I would absolutely LOVE to hear about the monies our church is investing in ending this unfolding horror in Ferguson. I would LOVE to hear what steps we are taking in light of this crisis. Any national agenda? Surely local pastors are committed to ending this atrocity. Is there a word on the tragic death of Black UNARMED citizens? What about the right to life of these several Black folks?

We have much work to do when it comes to our involvement against racism in the world and IN OUR CHURCHES. Follow-up on your service of repentance. Showing what work is being done in Ferguson would be a great start.

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Biblical obedience in Ferguson August 20, 2014 This call to Biblical Obedience is not and cannot be solely for the purpose of LGBTQ rights. It must address oppression wherever it's tenacious tentacles grip the lives of God's people and Earth itself. This is why we must all work together and use our voices against oppression.

As a womanist scholar I always seek to advance wholeness for people of this global community.

This is why we "love struggle." Like the young protestors marching down W. Florissant, who sing, "We're young. We're strong. We're marching all night long!" our love for the struggle is not because we enjoy suffering but because we know we are wrestling power out of the hands of the oppressor... AND. THAT. WE. SHALL. PREVAIL. One of the things that keep coming to my mind while I am in Ferguson is "safe space." I think safe space is important to have whenever possible. But as I am literally walking in front of police armed with tear gas, rifles, billy clubs, and riot shields, I'm convinced that if you are really serious about ministry you must be willing to walk in some pretty unsafe spaces. You must especially do that while looking at those who are seen as your enemy—in this case the police— who are as we all are, imperfect. My struggle goes well beyond individual police but instead to an entire police system that is daily strategizing to deny justice to American citizens. No one can tell me that denying freedom of the press as I have personally witnessed is not a categorical denial of justice. No one can tell me that the killing of an unarmed man or the beating of an unarmed woman ought not unequivocally require a thorough and transparent investigation.

I celebrate the work being done in the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church to address this crisis. I am thankful for letters written by Bishop Schnase, Bishop CarcaĂąo, and any other of our bishops. I am nonetheless dismayed that on the day of this writing the United Methodist Council of Bishops has not issued a pastoral letter to speak to this national crisis in Ferguson. I took for granted that this would be done given the several statements they issued related to LGBTQ ordination and marriage. They are silent while the world cries out. The international community has swiftly addressed what is going on, Human Rights Watch has decried Ferguson police tactics, and Amnesty International are present monitoring events. As I do work here in Ferguson I question the integrity of the service of repentance for the church's racist history.

If you have been asking, "What can I do?" I believe the best answer is to just make the first step.

Nothing I am doing in Ferguson was well thought out before my arrival. Andy Oliver, M Barclay, and I are literally thinking on our feet. Just get a move on!

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White allies – How about shutting down racist Greek organizations?

March 10, 2015 The video of University of Oklahoma chapter Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) members singing racist lyrics is neither unbelievable, unreal, shocking nor isolated. Face it: The author(s) of that song were not passengers on that bus. That song has been around for quite some time and those young men have learned its lyrics and the sentiment of its lyrics well. That said, surely we ought respond to this egregious act but I’m compelled to respond to other words spoken by white students on college campuses: “I don’t know why Black people need Black student associations?” Viewing the video I immediately thought, “See it’s because of this kind of brutality!”

Yes, this behavior was racist but the responses to the video show an increasing effort to deny racism exists in the “hallowed halls of academia.”

Don’t tell me this is “shocking” because it’s not shocking if you live in America. White people hurling racial epithets and threatening lynching is not new behavior and is very believable.

Change the talking points. Better to say it is “horrific and inexcusable behavior.” And say it in ways that count to eradicate such behavior. The quick action taken by University of Oklahoma is right and just but let us not forget some history: the history of segregated white fraternities and sororities.

The answer to why we still need Black fraternities and sororities is in that history, it is in this story about SAE and it is in the unwritten but lived stories Black students face in schools across our country.

As we speak about SAE I urge us to remember the very first fraternity founded in 1906 for Black men, Alpha Phi Alpha was established “as a study and support group for minority students who faced racial prejudice, both educationally and socially, at Cornell [University].” This nation’s oldest Black fraternities and sororities were established to address the very kind of behavior shown in the video of SAE members and the ongoing patterns of racism among its chapters at other schools!

Black fraternities and sororities were also designed to be spaces where Black students would be safe to express the discrimination they felt on campus, to encourage one another to strive for excellence and to complete their degree programs.

This need has not diminished and the video is no eye-opener for Black university students, alums, faculty and administrators. When a Black student receives a degree from many institutions of higher education across America they are receiving more than a degree; they have overcome years of institutionalized racism. “Getting that degree” is the attainment of the hopes of our ancestors and it is often the first example for other family members to be assured “that it can be done.” Unfortunately, it is also a bittersweet achievement. Black students very often must face the failure of schools to properly prepare them and their colleagues for a world that does not turn on white thought and scholarship; the burden of excessive student loan debt; few vocational networks and having spent 4 or more years with very little sense of “community” as advertised

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in the school’s glossy marketing material. And yes, there are exceptions to this critique but they are, proportionally speaking, few.

Diversity, statements about “zero tolerance” for bigotry, showing solidarity among the student body and working assiduously to ensure the campus is welcoming is great and we have good examples of this among some of our schools. However, as long as Black scholarship is not respected, as long as it is treated as an appendage to curriculum; as long as Black students’ voices are ignored in the classroom; as long as our experiences are deemed as having little to no epistemological value then what remains “unbelievable, unreal and shocking” to me is that more of these incidents aren’t revealed.

So here’s another work for our white allies in the protest movement: Time for you all to move from the malls and highways and turn your attention to predominately white fraternities and sororities. Use your white privilege to disrupt and say, “Get out of here!” to those damn Greek organizations housing the bigots that will become the lawyers, judges, politicians and police officers that oppress and refuse to believe that #BlackLivesMatter.

Shut. Them. Down.

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No matter what lies ahead, we remain committed May 19, 2016 Wow. What just happened? We’re sure some of you are asking that regarding yesterday’s decisions. As many of you know, the Bishops submitted a proposal entitled “An Offering for a Way Forward.” In that proposal they recommended that the General Conference immediately defer all votes related to “human sexuality” legislation for this GC. This is a win because it prohibits any legislative action that would further harm LGBTQ people and threaten the cause of justice. The term “human sexuality” is the language used in the proposal. It is not the language any of us would have chosen. Nonetheless, we understand what the Bishops are addressing.

Within that proposal, the Bishops called for creation of a special commission to handle the subject of human sexuality. Questions have been asked about the make-up and people are concerned about what that commission will look like. Will there be an imbalance of power?

Bishop Ough confirmed at a press conference that queer voices will be represented on the commission.

In addition, the commission’s work may last until the next GC, but if it completes its work before 2020, then they will call a special conference. As the commission is doing its work, the Bishops have promised to look for ways to avoid church trials and because this comes from the FULL council of bishops, that is an unprecedented commitment. In the past, only a few bishops committed to avoiding church trials. Some people feel like this is nothing, that nothing was accomplished yesterday, that this is nothing but a delay tactic. We realize that many of our constituents are upset and angry. But the alternatives that were quickly shaping up on the floor of GC would have led to a disastrous ending.

Therefore, we are hopeful about the prospects that this proposal offers. We also celebrate Judicial Council Decision 1318 handed down yesterday which confirms that a mandatory penalty during the "just resolution" process is, indeed, unconstitutional. This is a significant decision as we move forward together in Biblical Obedience, and prohibits a greater threat towards pastors who choose to be in ministry with all their parishioners equally.

It’s important to recognize that the work of LGBTQ people and their allies created this opportunity and this moment. Our work in the weeks prior to and during this GC became not only critical work for The UMC, but for the entire movement and for LGBTQ persons and allies all across the world. It’s been the collaborative effort of members of the Love Your Neighbor coalition who have worked tirelessly for justice with The UMC. We want to thank all of you for the critical work of organizing and advocating that is creating change not only within The UMC, but beyond. But it cannot stop. We promise you that no matter what lies ahead that we are committed to seeing the full inclusion of LGTBQ people in this church.

By Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey and Matt Berryman

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Our responsibility to dig out injustice together did not end at General Conference May 22, 2016 I love mystery dramas like Law and Order. I pride myself on being able to figure out the real criminal before the end of each episode. I’ve learned every good mystery show or book uses distractions to keep the audience from knowing the true culprit and foreshadowing to give glimpses about what is to come.

When I think about the work to bring about justice for all God’s people, I believe the greatest distractions come when we are not fully committed to ending oppression.

Now, some may think that the bishops’ proposal, An Offering for a Way Forward, is nothing more than distraction, especially since word is being leaked that the Commission which is to be established by the Council of Bishops may not meet until 2017. All this is possible. Time will tell. Right now, I prefer to be hopeful and remain vigilant, thinking of it as divine foreshadowing pointing to an end we cannot yet know. Of the many legislative pieces, this is certainly one about which we must not only pray but watch and continue to work diligently against this oppressive system to ensure it provides a just and righteous outcome for LGBTQ persons and our allies.

But if you think General Conference was only about full inclusion of LGBTQ persons you are mistaken.

It was filled with efforts to keep The United Methodist Church uninvolved in many of the major issues of our time using logical fallacies to garner votes and support for some of the most oppressive and harmful legislation I have seen in quite some time. As a result, the denomination debated creationism, withdrew its affiliation with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, refused to divest from the fossil fuel industry, and more, too much to write about in this blog.

And then we have the predictable response to the huge #BlackLivesMatter protest that took place on the plenary floor.

Those who wondered about its relevance because they could not make the connection that the oppression of LGBTQ persons directly impacts the lives of Black LGBTQ persons and their families. Some even took an additional step to critique the makeup of the protest: not enough black people, too many white people. One writer even criticized it saying it was created by Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) as though RMN is not made up of Black and Brown people, totally missing the commitment RMN has had to the movement for Black lives for quite some time. Another writer placed Rev. Amy DeLong, a white lesbian activist as present and one of the leaders of the disruption when in fact, she was not at the conference center at the time of the protest. On the whole, I could care less about these responses. I draw attention to them because I know these false narratives are only misdirection techniques to keep persons genuinely concerned with justice from knowing the true culprits at work in this unfolding history making.

Dead red herrings are being dragged across the world stage to deceive and continue harm.

The genuine clues to help us expose the deep bigotry held by far too many within our denomination come by watching the evidence of the mounting coalescing of persons who believe it’s time to end oppression. These persons understand that where you find homophobia,

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transphobia and institutional racism, you will also find strategies to deny reproductive rights, ecological justice, affordable healthcare a living wage, and much more. It takes a committed group of persons working together to dig out the works of injustice often buried deep within a petition or the several amendments and amendments to amendments! Amidst it all, what was perhaps the most refreshing twist to this real life drama were the open letters by out clergy, ally clergy and lay allies as well as the letters from denominations supporting LGBTQ United Methodists.

This is a big movement and it stretches beyond one group or one denomination.

In fact, what you and I have witnessed at this General Conference is directly related to what is going on in our nation. We cannot truthfully say, “Bigotry is coming to a church near you” for the Church universal has a history of functioning as a midwife for bigotry.

What it has not birth, it has accommodated.

Those politicians and the wealthy who seek to maintain power and control of the few over the many, who are determined to support discriminatory public policies, they come to our churches.

They read “one” Corinthians (as one politician described it) but they live far from I Corinthians 13.

Thankfully, the Church has also been the sight of protest against injustice. Those “protestors” against injustice within the early church planted the seeds for what we now call Protestantism.

Major denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church was birth in protest to the racism Blacks experienced in their attempts to worship with White Christians, and yes, Methodists. The Suffragettes demanded the right of women to vote though the Church of England’s position was that women should be denied such rights.

Throughout the ages, it has been the responsibility of people of faith to call the institutional church to task whenever it fails to be prophetic, fails to be a headlight not a taillight, and fails to adorn itself with a sanctified garment bejeweled with precious stones of hope, love and justice.

Our responsibility did not end with General Conference 2016. Now is our time to overcome the work of oppressors and to declare unequivocally, “A people united will never be defeated!”

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Put your finger on the Pulse Jun 13, 2016 Hatred is spiritually and physically deadly. I have witnessed its deadly impact on my LGBTQ community for quite some time, no time deadlier than since we gained the right to same-sex marriage and the right to serve openly in the military. The American public has become more supportive of LGBTQ rights yet with every piece of legislative progress the conservative radical right has done its best to overturn those rights and snuff out our joy. We exist to them as a cause: souls to win for their gods. They offer to broker our wellbeing for submission to their gods. “If you all just xxx then ‘God’ will bless you.” They bristle with disgust when they see us live our lives, loving ourselves and our loved ones.

They pacify their hatred by saying it is us who oppress them because we refuse to comply with their unjust laws and because we have the audacity to rebuke their godly narratives.

Those who were at PULSE Nightclub were not only LGBTQ but also included their straight and cis friends; included some who were in the closet and who now must decide between another lie or to tell their grieving families the truth; a beautiful gathering of young adults - Latinx, Black, Asian, and White. They were having fun! Dancing, drinking laughing, flirting.

More diversity and love in that nightclub than many of our places of worship.

How horrible, this massacre of fifty persons and the wounding of 54 others! It is an indictment of religious and global bigotry. Christians can’t claim a moral high ground because the killer was Muslim. Yes, there are indeed homophobic Muslims but there are also among those who have killed LGBTQ persons over the years, persons who felt duty bound by scripture to cleanse this world of our presence. Politicians ought be careful about using this moment to utter exhortations about radical Islam at large in America preparing to launch a massive attack.

In truth, radical Christianity has been attacking LGBTQ citizens and nonChristians around the world for years.

In America, far too many Christian parents have put their LGBTQ children out on the streets to fend for themselves because they “disapproved with that lifestyle” and considered their response justified because they were “soldiers fighting spiritual warfare for the souls of their children.”

Trans women of color have been murdered by Christian men who insisted “that stuff ain’t natural.” Christians are leading the anti-trans bathroom legislation and urging assaults against transpersons who seek to use public bathrooms according to their identities.

So, no, Christians cannot sit on a pedestal of virtue here.

This massacre in a nightclub in Orlando will no doubt plague many loving parents and relatives of young LGBTQ persons and parents of their straight friends. Parents are mindful of the dangers that face their loved ones every day. The desire to keep them safe may likely manifest in understandably major protective actions that may be quite restrictive. Some will see this as the time to encourage those who have left, back to church. However, unless your church, mosque, synagogue, etc. is a safe, affirming space for LGBTQ persons, resist beckoning us to endure religious traumatization under the guise of your prayerful community of “faith.” Instead, communicate, encourage and be a loving presence. In doing so, you will model prayer in action.

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In the aftermath of this massacre here are other ways I hope we will respond.

1) Increase your support and love to LGBTQ persons. 2) Write your politicians and demand stronger gun control laws. 3) Lobby politicians and church leaders to end anti-LGBTQ legislation. 4) Insist that our current presidential candidates provide their documented strategies for protecting its citizens from terrorism, domestic and abroad 5) Declare your space a love zone against hateful, discriminatory rhetoric and 6) Don’t feed the trolls.

Let us resist the urge to describe this massacre as the product of only one brand of hatred. In truth, hatred is a complex mass of interlocking bigotries. Put your finger and your hands to the work of supporting the community that gathered at PULSE and for the LGBTQ community globally. Remember our LGBTQ family who live in countries with laws that take them through pure hell.

Know that the task for we who are alive and remain, who work and live in contexts where we can actually make a change, is to call bigotry when it is presented, to fear no manner of hatred and to commit ourselves to the better way of justice and love. 

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Section III Speeches from Bishop Melvin Talbert 2012 - 2013


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Love Your Neighbor Gathering, General Conference 2012 May 4, 2012 Transcribed speech As you know our Love Your Neighbor Coalition came to this General Conference with the hope that after forty years, our church would finally open its doors to all persons - especially LGBTQ people. But that was not to be. When Moses confronted Pharaoh saying, sharing God's Word saying “let my people go,” Pharaoh hardened his heart. In the case of this general church, it has hardened its heart to a LGBTQ people. So for the next four years, we have the derogatory hurtful discriminatory language regarding you, remaining in our Book of Discipline.

Hoping to be proven wrong, I came to this General Conference not expecting any movement in our church to LGBTQ people. Unfortunately, I was right. So I come here this afternoon with a heavy heart; weighing the steps and the actions I would take to let this church and the larger community know where I stand on this matter. As I stand before you here this afternoon, I declare that God has already settled this matter. All human beings are created in the image of God. There are no exceptions, no exclusions. We belong to the family of God. At the same time, I declare to you that the derogatory language and restrictive laws in the Book of Discipline are immoral and unjust and no longer deserve our loyalty and obedience. Thus, I think the time has come for those of us who are faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ, do what is required of us.

You know the story. A young lawyer approached Jesus and asked “good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And rather than answering the question, Jesus turned the table by asking him, “what is written in the law?” And the proud young lawyer said, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” To which Jesus said, “you have answered rightly. Do this and you will live.”

My sisters and brothers, I declare to you that same gospel imperative to us gathered here today.

“Do this” and we will live. Now, as always, the challenge is what shall we do now? I arrived at this General Conference thinking that the time had come to call for ecclesial disobedience. But in consultation with many of my colleagues, including one standing here, I came to the conclusion that I needed to modify that thinking just a little bit. So, in light of the actions taken by this General Conference, I believe that the time has come to call and invite others to join in what I'm calling “an act of Biblical Obedience.”

You see, we too have the Good Book on our side. Based on the two-fold commandment of “you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.” This is our biblical marching order. What does that mean?

I call on the more than eleven hundred clergy who have signed the pledge to stand firm on their resolve. I stand firm on their resolve to perform marriages among same-sex same-sex couples and to do so in the normal course of their pastoral duties thus defying the laws that prohibit them from doing so. Plus, I encourage you to invite your congregations to support and help you in

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efforts to be faithful to the gospel by taking actions to support you - in using local church facilities for such marriages. Also, I call on my colleague bishops, district superintendents, boards of ordained ministry, and investigating committees to be pastoral role in implementing any complaints against clergy who perform same-sex marriages.

I did so back in nineteen ninety-nine. When 68 clergy performed the holy union in Sacramento, I said I would implement the decision of the General Conference but I spoke boldly to the press and to the church saying, “while I do this it's one of the most painful decisions that I have to make,” but I also said then as I say now, “the Church's position is wrong and I don't support it.”

In nineteen sixty, I made the commitment to non-violence and chose to disobey unjust laws of racial segregation and discrimination. That was a serious act, which resulted in many of us going to jail to pay the price. Thus, I know the seriousness of what I'm suggesting for you in our church. There probably will be some consequences for some of you for what is being asked. It has been said by others before me here today, you need to work with your churches, work with yourself, and do what you need to do based on how you understand your commitment to the call of Jesus Christ upon your life.

I conclude simply with these words. The time for talking is over. It's time for us to act in defiance of unjust and immoral and derogatory words of discriminations and laws that are doing harm to our LGBTQ siblings. The time for talking is over. It is action time. And so may God bless each of us as, as we seek to do what the prophet calls us to do. Micah: do justice love mercy and walk humbly with God. God bless you.

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RMN Convocation, Churchquake
 August 30, 2013
 Transcribed speech To pastor Charles Parker, members and friends of Metropolitan UMC, the Rev. Dr. Chip Aldridge, and members of the local planning and host committee, clergy and members from the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, and churches from the greater Washington D.C. area, board of directors and staff of Reconciling Ministries Network and all attendees of Churchquake 2013, siblings, I greet you in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ.

I'm honored to be asked to speak to you on this very historic and significant occasion. We have dared to hold fast to our vision of a church where all persons can worship and fellowship freely being who we are as people of faith, and as persons of all races, cultures, classes, genders, and sexual orientations. To that end, we celebrated a same-sex marriage on Saturday and today and this afternoon we had a plenary session where Reconciling Ministries Network has raised up Biblical Obedience as the frame through which all of its initiatives will flow over the next few years. And as the one who framed Biblical Obedience, I say thanks be to God. However, I must begin with a moment of confession. First, over the past several weeks, I've gone through a period of personal struggle. I began to wonder if I had been a failure. As you know, I declared publicly that the position of our church on homosexuality and on the performing of holy unions and same-sex marriage is wrong, is immoral, evil, unjust, and oppressive. It's been a lonely struggle. Many of my colleague bishops have expressed their support me privately. But not until recently, have some dared to go public. I'm proud to say that I got the word from my entire College of Bishops of the Western Jurisdiction saying they stand solidly in support.

My colleague Bishop Maryann Swenson brought that message to me here and it warmed my heart. They stand solidly in support in the call for public Biblical Obedience.

Second, I began to question whether a bishop of my age shouldn't just simply step aside and enjoy retirement. Because you know, I'm getting along in age. I celebrated my 79th birthday this past June 14th, on flag day. But then the Spirit was stirring in my soul and it said to me with a clear voice, "have you ever heard of Moses? You know, he was 80 years old when I called him and sent him to Egypt to confront Pharaoh." And then the Spirit said, "No, Talbert, your own church is your Pharaoh. Go do what I call you to do."

So my siblings, I've received a renewed sense of my calling since the 2012 General Conference.

If our church is to be a community of open hearts, open minds, open doors, we must act as though the restrictive barriers of language and laws no longer exist. We must live and act as though our vision of the Beloved Community is already here, now. It's time for us to act like it and to celebrate it. It is with this renewed spirit that I come to you, tonight, briefly, to lift of the theme, in the midst of struggle, we celebrate.

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As you know the historical backdrop for our being here tonight is the action of the 1972 General Conference that enshrined the "incompatibility with Christian teaching" language in the Social Principles of our church. For more than forty years, we've been struggling to remove that derogatory language. But instead of removing the derogatory language, there's been subsequent restrictive laws for clergy and for congregations. The subsequent laws forbid clergy from performing same-sex marriages and congregations from using their facilities to host those services.

When efforts failed at the 2012 General Conference to bring about renewal through legislation, some of us decided that the time had come to move in a different direction. And in consultation with a few persons, I was asked to be prepared to make a statement at the tent - the Tabernacle at General Conference on May 4th, 2012 at high noon. And in conversation with those few college of bishop members, with Troy Plummer, the former Executive Director of RMN, and the Rev. Dr. Bruce Robbins who is sitting out here tonight, I agreed to prepare such a statement.

I agreed to call it Biblical Obedience and in that statement, I called for Biblical Obedience on the part of laity and clergy using the Bible foundation of Micah 6:6-8 and Mark 12:28-31 as the basis. You know those passages, as you just heard them read. Three reasons prompted my decisions. First, I wanted to say something to affirm, at that time, more than 1, 100 clergy who had already signed the statement Altar For All and that's where Dr. Bruce Robbins was so important for me, because he was that link between that group.

I wanted them to know that I supported what they were about. The second reason was I felt that the time had come for a bishop to declare that the derogatory language and the restrictive laws of the Book of Discipline regarding LGBTQ persons is immoral, evil, unjust, and should no longer deserve our loyalty and support.

The bishops of the church, I believe, has failed us. If the bishops of the church, together, decided to say to the General Conference, "we will no longer enforce your unjust laws," this matter will be over. I can't speak for them, but I can speak for myself. It's time. It's time.

The third reason I wanted to use the words Biblical Obedience is, as theologically progressive, liberal, and open-minded people of faith, we dare not surrender the Bible to the conservative right. We are Weslyan to the core and we do not apologize for theologizing on a four-legged stool. Bible, tradition, experience, and reason - and we believe God is still revealing God's self to us in the midst of our daily struggles. Thus, we dare to proclaim God's word anew, each and every day.

Joining on my experience in the civil rights movement of the 1960s regarding Jim Crow laws in the South, I called on clergy and laity to act as though the immoral language and laws of our church no longer existed and choose to do the right thing no matter what. I felt it was time for clergy to do the right thing. I felt it was time for bishops to declare themselves so their clergy

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and laity will know how to respond. I felt the time had come for clergy to give leadership to their congregations. And it's time for clergy to refuse to convict their colleagues for doing the right thing. I felt it was time for laity and congregations to refuse to obey the immoral, evil, unjust laws and choose to support their pastors by encouraging them to use their church facilities for hosting holy unions and same-sex marriages. I felt the time had come for all of us to do the right thing, no matter what.

If you take a vote in your congregation to support your clergy and say, "we give you the freedom to use this congregation to do ministry with all persons." You know, the Discipline says that clergy ought to perform ministry to all, without regards to..., it says that - it's only in a few places it contradicts itself.

But if you lay folks do that, what's gonna happen to you? Have you thought about that? Where is the law enforcement for a congregation? All I'm saying is, I'm trying to give you some practical kind of things to think about. It's time for you as lay folk to join with the clergy in doing the right thing. So then, the struggle of the last forty years continues - but at a different level.

The focus shifts from changing legislation to moral responsibility. The focus is on doing ministry to and with all persons based on the teachings of Jesus and on the call of prophets of the Old Testament.

Under the leadership of our new Executive Director, Matthew Berryman, and the directives of the board of RMN, the Biblical Obedience frame has begun to unfold as lenses through which all RMN initiatives will flow in the next few years. Matt, thank you. Thank you because I don't have any reigns. I don't have any secretary. All I can do is use my mouth and the energy that I have to proclaim. What we need is some kind of institutional reinforcement and I'm very delighted that RMN has chosen to do this.

And so we continue as RMN, we shall resist the immoral, evil, unjust and oppressive language and laws of our church and recommit ourselves to doing the right thing, thus leading our church to becoming the beloved, inclusive church God has intended. We shall do this because we believe such action is Biblical and is in keeping with the teaching of the prophets and the life and the ministry and the teachings of Jesus.

So, as we gather here tonights, we're reminded that people of faith are confronted with many struggles and challenges in their lives. In fact, it is in the midst of struggles that our faith is tested and we resolve to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. Just a few days ago, thousands of people gathered on the Washington D.C. mall to commemorate the historic March on Washington 50 years ago. The actor, Forest Whitaker, addressing the crowd reminded us of these few, short words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and this is what he said, "What affects one, affects all."

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What that means is we can never be the person we are destined to be until all persons can be the persons they are destined to be. All persons. Struggle has never been a deterrent to celebration.

The more difficult the struggle, the more we realize that we can't go it alone. And as Jesus promised, God is with us always, to the ends of the earth. And so we pause here tonight, we celebrate and give thanks to God for blessing us and enabling us to survive. We celebrate, giving thanks to God and to each other for community. And for the blessing and fellowship that we share. We celebrate the gift of the good news to us in Jesus Christ who came and lived among us.

He showed us and taught us who God is and who God wants us to become. We celebrate because despite our struggles, we are blessed. We are privileged to be part of God's reign of justice, peace, and reconciliation and love in this world. We celebrate how blessed we are to be the vessels through which God's love and grace are made known to suffering humanity and to a church in desperate need of our witness and service to remain relevant and vibrant in the reign of God for years to come. Let me say that last one again, we celebrate how blessed we are to be the vessels through which God's love and grace are made known to suffering humanity and to a church in desperate need of our witness and service to remain relevant and vibrant influence the reign of God for years to come.

These are not just words. My siblings, when you look at the stagnation and the decline that we are in right now, something’s gotta happen. But when I find myself in the presence of this kind of group, something is happening. Because all people are coming - young people are coming, young adults are coming, that's not happening that much in the rest of our church.

Maybe God has called RMN to become the vessel through which The United Methodist Church will eventually become the church that God wants it to be. So my siblings, after a long weekend of lamenting our struggles and plotting our strategies for a future direction, we pause to celebrate and worship and praise. We pause to thank God for being with us, prodding us, challenging us, and empowering us for the journey before us. And in the midst of struggle, we celebrate through good music, through songs, through prayer, and through proclamation.

As we end this service, the celebration continues. We have a party, to celebrate the same-sex marriage of those performed here this weekend and those who were married elsewhere and are here to celebrate with us. In the same spirit that Jesus blessed the wine at a wedding party in Canaa of Galilee, the hosts here have prepared a party for us and we are all invited as guests.

When this night is over and this weekend is adjourned, let's go forth from this event, this church, this city with our lives and spirits blessed. Let's go forth with our heads and hearts lifted to God's good work of justice, and peace, and reconciliation that's gonna be with us in all of the places that we are privileged to go and be. May God let it be so.

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Rev. Gil Caldwell

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Gil was active in the Civil Rights Movement; present at the March on Washington, participant in Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Selma to Montgomery March, and the Poor People's Campaign. Gil introduced Martin Luther King at a 1965 rally on Boston Common as Dr. King addressed racial segregation in the Boston Public Schools. He was arrested twice at the 2000 United Methodist Conference, protesting the discriminatory language and legislation of lgbtqi persons by The United Methodist Church.

Gil Caldwell, along with Marilyn Bennett and , is also Co-Producer of the film; “From Selma to Stonewall - Are We There Yet?�

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Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightest

Dr. Pamela Lightsey is a scholar, social justice activist, and military veteran whose academic and research interests include: classical and contemporary just war theory, Womanist theology, Queer theory and theology, and African American religious history and theologies. In 2005, Dr. Lightsey was ordained as an elder in full connection in the United Methodist Church. In 2008, she became the first out African American queer lesbian elder in the denomination. A teenager during the Black Power movement, Dr. Lightsey’s commitment to social justice was shaped in the south and its flame has remained kindled across a lifetime of fighting injustice on the streets, in the classroom and in the church. Her work interrogates the intersections of oppression such as sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism. Her activism is both informed by and informs her scholarship.

Dr. Lightsey currently serves as Associate Dean and Clinical Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Theology. She is the author of numerous publications her most recent manuscript being Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology. Dr. Lightsey is a member of the Workgroup on Constructive Theology, the American Academy of Religion (has co-chaired the AAR Womanist Group) and served as board member of Reconciling Ministries Network. As a highly sought out public speaker, Dr. Lightsey lectures at universities across the country (such as Vanderbilt, Harvard, Loyola, Fordham, Syracuse), and at institutions in Brazil, Cuba and South Korea.  

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Bishop Melvin Talbert

Born in Clinton, Louisiana, Talbert was one of seven children of sharecropper parents, Florence George and Nettles. He was married to Ethelou Douglas for thirty-eight years prior to her death in February 1999. Talbert has one daughter, Evangeline Violet, married to James H. Sifford, Sr. They have three children: Kaetlin, James, Jr. and Melvin Douglas. Talbert married Marilyn W. Magee April 1, 2000.

After attending public schools and working various jobs, Melvin received a BA degree from Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, and an M.Div. degree from Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC)/Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, GA. While at ITC, Talbert became President of the student body during his middler year, while serving a two-point charge in Tennessee. He was ordained Deacon by Bishop Willis J. King, Jr., and was ordained Elder by Bishop Gerald H. Kennedy. After serving as interim at St. John's (Watts), Associate at Wesley, Los Angeles, and Pastor at Hamilton, Los Angeles, Melvin was named Associate Council Director, Southern California-Arizona Conference. One year later, he was appointed District Superintendent for the Long Beach District. In 1973, Melvin was elected General Secretary for the General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, where he served until he was elected to the

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episcopacy in 1980 and was assigned to the Seattle Area. He was assigned to the San Francisco Area in 1988, where he retired August 31, 2000.

Talbert was visiting professor of Evangelism at Claremont, 1978. He was a delegate to General Conference from 1968-80, and was a member of the Social Principles Commission, 1968-72.

He is a trustee and Chair of the Board at Gammon, and at various times served as trustee at University of Puget Sound, Claremont School of Theology, and Pacific School of Religion. His civil rights protest experiences impacted his life profoundly, and he takes pride in having spent three days and nights in jail with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is a sports enthusiast, loves camping, a hacker golfer, and plays a little guitar.

Melvin was a member of the General Council on Ministries, and was Chair of its Missional Priority Coordinating Committee 1976-84; a member of the General Commission on Religion and Race, 1980-88, and served as its President 1983-88; and a member of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns 1988-96 and 2000-04. He was a director of the National Council of Churches (NCCCUSA) from mid 1970s August 2004, and served as its President 1996-97. He was a member of the World Methodist Council Executive Committee, and the World Council of Churches Central Committee (its Executive Committee and Finance Committee). He was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of his seminary in 1990.

He was Secretary for the Council of Bishops (COB) for two quadrennia 1988-92 and 1992-96, during which time he carried the title Head of Communion. Talbert was one of forty Presidential Guests to accompany US President Bill Clinton on his peace pilgrimage to Northern Ireland and Ireland December 1995, and has visited the White House on several occasions representing the NCCCUSA and the Council of Bishops. Talbert was Ecumenical Officer for the Council of Bishops 2000-04, and served as Interim Executive Director of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Inc.

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Reconciling Ministries Network Faith at the intersections: A collection of writings on justice for Black and LGBTQ communities in and beyond The United Methodist Church We'd also love to have "Contributions from Rev. Gil Caldwell, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey, and Bishop Melvin G. Talbert"