Methodist Civil Rights Leaders Address General Conference

Soulforce sponsored a panel of Rev. Gil Caldwell, active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and in the national civil rights movement. The other panelist, Rev. James Lawson, was a student of Ghandi and one that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the leading non-violence theorist in the world.  The panelists wrestled with the connections between the "isms": racism, anti-semitism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, agism, able-ism, etc.  "They all come from the same kind of place," Caldwell reflected, saying that we will not get rid of heterosexism until the root of all the "isms" is unearthed. He wondered "if those who have been placed outside the gate have an even greater responsibility to heal a sick society." Lawson reminded hearers that the old ways of exclusion are still with us; the Central Jurisdiction was dissolved, but the people didn't change--the exclusion just shifted to another "scapegoat": homosexual persons.  People just continued "the old ways of exclusion of some human beings."  He suggested that some are "committed to a domination and control type of religion, a religion about Jesus not a religion of Jesus," and that all of us need to go back to the religion of Jesus. In fact, the underlying spirit of all the isms and the impulse to exclude others is violence, and until we face that we will not be able to right all the things that need "righting."

The speakers were introduced by the Jimmy Creech, a United Methodist pastor who was defrocked for marrying a lesbian and a gay couple. Mel White, the founder of Soulforce, was also in attendance.

Photo Set

Video: Rev. James Lawson

Rev. James Lawson from Reconciling Ministries Network on Vimeo.

Video: Rev. Gilbert Caldwell

Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell from Reconciling Ministries Network on Vimeo.

Additional Coverage:

Flashnet 2/6/2008: Black History Month: Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell
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Flashnet 2/20/2008: Black History Month: Rev. James Lawson
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Flashnet 2/27/2008: Marriage: Jimmy Creech
Click here

A Letter to the Faithful
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