On April 28 I will fly into San Francisco to greet the Soulforce Equality Riders as their bus crosses the last bridge on their 65-day trip across America. I was with them on the day they started out in Philadelphia, and joined up with them along the way in Abilene, Texas, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
They chose San Francisco as the place to disembark from the road and I cannot think of a more fitting city. What a rare jewel this city is, a place that deeply values freedom and not just the red, white, and blue flag-waving kind, but also the kind of freedom in which conscientious protest by thinking and feeling people is respected, not quashed.
I hail from a different kind of place and I confess that I often feel like dancing with abandon when I visit my son, the Reverend Joshua Love, in his home in the Castro and when we gather with friends at his newly formed Church of Uncommon Hope. (www.churchofuncommonhope.com). It is so extraordinary to visit a city where a public kiss between two people of the same sex is not a revolution and where people of multiple faiths or no faith can gather in the same room to meditate for the common good.
When I visit a major city where there are an abundance of safe spaces for LGBT people, I am grateful and it is refreshing to relax. And, I never forget that 70 percent of all LGBT people in the United States live in places where there are few, if any safe spaces. It is for that reason that I work at Soulforce, home of the Equality Ride.
I live in Abilene, an Equality Ride stop. In fact, the ride has been to Abilene three times. Some nuts are just harder to crack. Abilene is the third most conservative city in America. Three Christian colleges are based there, two of which are members of the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities. As members of the CCCU, they identify as "distinctively and intentionally Christian" and must affirm several statements of belief including the inerrancy of the Bible. To date, the administrators of these schools have not been able to reconcile their understanding of the Bible with the reality that there really are gay people in the world and that G_d loves them and being gay is not something that has to be forgiven.
Our work at Soulforce and on the Equality Ride is to help these administrators adjust their reactions and responses to LGBT people through our practice of relentless nonviolent resistance. When we leave a school, our goal is to leave behind at least one person who feels empowered and ready to create safe space for young people to live without fear and love whom they choose without guilt or shame or punishment.
In 1998, the Reverend Mel White, author of Stranger at the Gate and Religion Gone Bad , founded Soulforce. After being cast out of his church and losing his job when he came out as a gay man, he spent time studying the work of Gandhi in non-violent resistance. He needed a way to deal with his grief and loss as well as his anger over rejection. And, he truly believed that his former colleagues and friends were misinformed and could be led to new understanding.
He built a systematic strategy and methodology to change the hearts and minds of the leaders of distinctively and intentionally Christian denominations about gay people based on the principles and practices taught by Gandhi and followed by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Over a 10-year period, White took volunteers to protest the Southern Baptist Convention, the Vatican, the Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Lutheran general assemblies and conferences, and the Assemblies of God.
When ministers within these denominations "broke rank" and blessed the unions of same-sex couples and were subsequently defrocked at heresy trials for their "disobedience to church law," White showed up and held vigils to support them.
And then, in 2005, a young man named Jake Reitan convinced White that the next phase of Soulforce's work had to be at the colleges and universities that produce the next generation of conservative thought leaders.
White agreed and the Equality Ride was born. The ride's objective is to visit and facilitate change in anti-gay policies at the 211 schools in the United States that openly discriminate against LGBT students and faculty.
On many of these campuses LGBT students and faculty are forced to suffer in silence. If they come out they are often subject to expulsion or loss of scholarship, discipline, and can even be forced into harmful ex-gay or reparative therapy programs.
Since 2006, the Equality Ride has visited 100 of these schools as well as the United States Military Academy, Focus on the Family (James Dobson's global network), and the five most conservative mega-churches in America.
We are proud to report that several of them now "blame" us for making it necessary to change in their anti-gay policies. We like that kind of blame.
Each year Soulforce brings in new riders for two weeks of intense training in non-violent resistance, public speaking, community organizing, public relations, and Bible 101. They learn how to engage people who do not wish to engage. In addition, riders are taught to approach oppression from an intersectional lens – learning to fight racism, ableism, misogyny, classism, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy, and other oppressive systems.
Even though riders do not have to profess a particular faith or belief to participate in the ride, they do have to learn how to open up and sustain dialogue with people who are deeply convicted about their beliefs. And, they have to pull this off without anger or violence or becoming oppressors themselves. Riders come off the bus equipped to relate in the world in ways that few of us will choose or experience in our lifetimes.
Soulforce is committed to the ride in such a way that the young adult riders are provided this life changing experience at no cost to them, ensuring that there is never a dollar amount required to be an activist fighting for social justice.
All of a rider's travel, accommodations, food, equipment, and training are provided by Soulforce supporters, including local contributors the Coil Foundation and the Church of Uncommon Hope. And, this week, the riders have been given a special gift tribute to their work that you are invited to join.
The cast and crew of Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption will be in San Francisco for a sneak preview of their new documentary and a special production of the play, Corpus Christi. Proceeds are designated for the Equality Ride.
You are invited April 29 for the sneak preview screening at 2 p.m. at the Castro Theatre. A VIP ticket includes a pre-show gathering at 1 p.m. with the cast and crew.
On Monday, April 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. you can also attend the play Corpus Christi at the Church of Uncommon Hope in the Chapel of the First Unitarian Universalist Society (1187 Franklin Street, San Francisco). All of the riders and hosts of the ride will be at this performance to meet you. Tickets are $35 and are available through [email protected].
On Tuesday, May 1, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., there is a benefit open to the public for the Equality Ride at the LGBT Community Center (1800 Market Street, San Francisco). Families, friends, and children welcome. Come for comedy, poetry, music, and stories from the road. Please RSVP to Haven Herrin at (612) 217-0371 or [email protected].
And, finally on Wednesday, May 2 from 7:30 to 9 p.m, it will be my distinct privilege to welcome you at the Church of Uncommon Hope at a multi-faith celebration service and send off for the Equality Riders.
The Reverend Dr. Cindi Love is executive director of Soulforce.