General Conference 2008: Gilbert Caldwell

Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell wrote this Letter to the Faithful after the Nonviolent protests/witnesses that occurred on Thursday, May 1 (Plenary Witness and Walking Over The Wounded). Earlier in the week, Rev. Caldwell addressed the General Conference on the ongoing struggle with racism and heterosexism in the United Methodist Church.

A Letter to the Faithful

Beloved Friends,

Congratulations to all of you who waged such a significant nonviolent struggle against those who in their distorted definition of "scriptural authority", worked to retain the "incompatibility with the Christian faith" language in the Book of Discipline.

Martin Luther King once said of segregation; "Segregation is dead, it is just a question of how long and expensive some folk want to make the funeral." It has been impossible to calculate the cost in spirituality, credibility, mission, ministry, finances and emotional well-being the long night of racial segregation/racism that we have experienced as a church and as a nation has cost us. As I read the words of Bishop Mel Talbert as he made the comparison between the Central Jurisdiction and the un-named "Jurisdiction" in which we have placed our sister/brother LGBT persons, I wept! How long O Lord, how long?

We are saddened because by a vote margin of 84 persons, the General Conference continued the charade of pretending that there is not a growing number of persons who found the incompatibility phrase, "incompatible" with their understanding of Scripture, the Wesleyan tradition and the mission and ministry of the Church. The church chose to extend and finance the funeral of heterosexism even though we know that it is on its deathbed or even now dead and some do not know it.

But, let us not despair or give up. Rather, let us press on in our diverse ways. Some can no longer accept the lie that God does not call LGBT persons into ordained ministry. Thus, they will respond in their own ways. Others, at the sessions of the annual conferences this spring and summer, conference after conference will pass legislation that proclaims at the conference level what General Conference could not proclaim at its level. And all of us will embrace our LGBT colleagues and ourselves, as we day after day walk and talk the fact that "WE ARE FAMILY", even though the legislation of the United Methodist Church does not understand that.

The Scriptures reminds us; "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning". I pray that many of you as tears were streaming down your faces saw the morning joy that is coming despite 30 plus years of violating the integrity of Scripture and the meaning of God's presence in Jesus Christ.

Gil Caldwell

P.S. I have not found words nor the emotional strength to respond to my African brother who spoke the awful words that he spoke. Does he not know nor remember that there was a time and still is, when all of us of African descent were/are thought to be less than; in worth, value, humanity, spirituality, intelligence and integrity? Why is it that those whose history is that of being demonized and demeaned by those who think themselves superior, dare to turn around and demonize and demean LGBT persons? I will seek to pray for him and for those who told him about a God and a Bible who condones this blasphemy. This is neither my God nor my Bible, why is it his?

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