Soulforce Panel Equates Disapproval of Homosexual Behavior with Racism

Fort Worth—Former civil rights activists Gil Caldwell and Jim Lawson, who organized the 1960s “freedom rides,” served on an April 27 panel that attempted to link disapproval of homosexual behavior with racism.  The event took place in Fort Worth, TX, during the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, and was sponsored by the ecumenical group Soulforce, which seeks to overturn the historical church teachings on sexuality within the Methodist church and other denominations. It corresponded with the 40th anniversary of the dissolution of the denomination’s segregated Central Jurisdiction.

Rev. Gil Caldwell suggests that those opposed to a shift in church teaching on sexuality have not been exposed to a wide range of experiences. (Photo courtesy UMNS)

“Of course there are differences between heterosexism and racism, but they come from the same place,” said Caldwell.

Lawson expounded, “You cannot be anti-racist if you’re not also anti-sexist, you can’t be anti-sexist if you aren’t anti-plantation capitalist, you cannot be anti-capitalist if you are not anti-heterosexist.”

“While we dissolved some of the structures [of exclusion, others remain],” Lawson charged. “We have allowed a lot of people in the UMC to clap for progress” when, according to Lawson, little progress has ultimately been made. He added that, following racial desegregation, “They [presumably racists] had to find another scapegoat and continued in their old ways of exclusion. Those who continued to seek justice were called Communists. All kinds of immoral names we were called.”

Lawson protested that those who advocate homosexual marriage and ordinations “are seen as being disloyal to the church.” He suggested that by seeking to follow Biblical standards about sexuality, “we decide that some people aren’t worthy of the grace of God.”

“Christianity does need major transformation,” said Lawson. He suggested that too often, Christianity is “a religion about Jesus and not of Jesus.” This transformation will come about, says Lawson, when “we in the churches will better identify ourselves with the struggle outside the church; the struggle for truth and justice . . . the struggle for a new Earth and new Heaven.” By engaging in their pro-gay activism, Lawson emphasized the importance of human agency in the “repair and restoration of the Kingdom of God.”

Attacking the motives of the United Methodists who participate in renewal groups, Lawson stated that the “Institute on Religion and Democracy . . . and Good News are . . . groups that are fundamentally committed to the domination of the church. . . . They want but one thing, and that is the preservation and domination of white males in the church.” Additionally, he asserted that “The IRD is an organization well-grounded in money and power outside the United Methodist Church.” Responding to a question about UMAction’s recent gift of cell phones to delegates from the Central Conferences, Gil Caldwell cautioned that delegates should “be fearful about the ties of beneficence” and that there was a difference between “empowerment and superficial empowerment that is really about control.”

Lawson suggested that the current friendship that exists between evangelical African Christians and their like-minded American counterparts is an “effort to use African Christians to whip the rest of us in line,” but was skeptical about the long-term efficacy of such a strategy. Arguing that Africans have not yet caught up with progressive Americans, he predicted, “There’s a cultural lag, and a spiritual lag, and I think in the 21st century that lag will catch up and the two [African Christians and orthodox American Christians] will become enemies.”

Perhaps grasping for reasons to explain how ecclesiastical conservatives could continue to advocate a traditional Christian sexual ethic, Caldwell said that he was reminded of the words of “[poet] James Russell Lowell . . . who said ‘Time makes ancient good uncouth.’” He continued that “We are talking about an un-liberated people. . . . We can’t even imagine that our parents did it [had sexual relations] to produce us.” Lawson contributed, “A lot of times these are people who haven’t been exposed” to a wide range of experiences.