Johnny Lochner, a friend in Dallas from Cathedral days, picked me up at DFW and without even asking delivered me straight to our beloved Black Eyed Pea for fried corn on the cob, turnip greens boiled in bacon fat, pickled okra, smashed potatoes smothered in white gravy, fried green tomatoes and of course black-eyed peas. Hot cornbread and fluffy dinner roles smothered in butter and dripping with honey set the stage for this culinary orgy accompanied (need I say it) by endless refills of ice-cold Texas sweet-tea.

Wallowing in starch is a Texas tradition. The closest we come in Lynchburg to this feast of fat is the Golden Corral (a carbohydrate palace Gary nicknamed ‘the golden trough’) a franchised restaurant chain dedicated to keeping Virginia in first or second place on the nation’s obesity index. I could hear the plaque rushing to block my arteries and feel my pulse rate rise to meet the challenge. It’s a good life, if you survive it, and you have plenty of time for regretting later.

Just before the book signing at Crossroads Market Bookstore and Café, I was surprised by a car load of friends who had driven the 3-4 hours from Austin including Jeff Lutes, our new Executive Director, Paige Schilt, another new member of our Soulforce team who has skills in public relations, and Paul Dodd, once a Southern Baptist Chaplain in the U.S. Army and now a close friend and faithful supporter of Soulforce and a member of the Advisory Board of SLDN (Service Members Legal Defense Network).

Once again, the bookstore filled with people and the books sold out. It is fascinating to see how many of my LGBT sisters and brothers know almost nothing about the Christian Right let alone the tragic consequences of their rhetoric in our lives.

I spent the next two days attending a “Bishops & Elders Conference at the Hyatt Grand DFW where Christian leaders whose organizations touch the lives of 98 million Americans gathered to build a movement “to end the homophobia and heterosexism in churches and to reaffirm Jesus’ message of love, welcome, and acceptance of all people.” On September 11, while the nation mourned paused to remember those who died in the Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, the leaders assembled in Dallas for a press conference to make the following statement.

STATEMENT BY BISHOPS AND ELDERS COUNCIL
“On September 11, 2001, some leading Christian extremists portrayed the tragedy of 9/11 as God’s judgment on America for the presence of gays and lesbians. The intervening years have witnessed an alarming escalation of religion-based, anti-gay attacks by both political leaders and religious groups.

“Today, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we, as leaders representing organizations that touch the lives of 98 million Americans, are united in our rejection of all forms of fear-based religion, all political manipulation in the name of Jesus, and governmental hostility toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons, especially that hostility that uses Christianity as an excuse to divide society and demonize minorities.

“Today, as Christian leaders who have gathered in Council in Dallas, Texas, we proclaim that discrimination, rejection, scapegoating, and oppression of gay people and their families are incompatible with the Christian ethic of love - and are not spiritual, democratic, patriotic, or fair.

“Today, we announce that the anti-gay agenda against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender is effectively over. Thanks to a rapidly growing movement of churches and faith leaders in communities across the United States, thousands of churches now embrace Jesus’ message that “whosoever will may come,” and open their doors in welcome to same-gender-loving people of faith. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians, along with their families and allies, now have the option of nurturing their spiritual lives in faith communities that celebrate and welcome all of God’s creation.

“Motivated by our Christian faith and to further our nation’s founding goals of justice and equality for all, we call upon all people of goodwill to work actively for an end to discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons by:

• “Realizing that the relationships of same-gender loving couples are equal in every way to heterosexual couples and are worthy of both the right to civil marriage and the rites of Christian marriage;
• “Reaffirming the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons to full equality under the law, including adoption rights, employment and housing protections, and the right to openly serve in the U.S. military;
• “Refusing to cooperate with or support political or religious leaders who caricature and condemn the lives of gays and lesbians;
• “Refuting the ex-gay notion that sexual orientation and gender identity can and should be changed.

“As unified followers of Christ, reclaiming our faith, we commit to speak boldly with our own communities and the larger culture from out of our experience as those who have been both oppressed and oppressor. We will communicate God’s incessant call for justice, wholeness and peace and work to equip ourselves and others to take concrete action to achieve God’s loving shalom.

“The Bishops and Elders Council further commits to continued work on behalf of all people oppressed or marginalized by poverty, immigration policies, HIV/AIDS, addictions, classism, sexism, ageism, or violence.”

The conference was co-chaired by the Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches, Bishop Yvette Flunder, The Fellowship, and Rebecca Voelkel, Program Director of the Institute for Welcoming Resources.

Besides Soulforce, the Fellowship, and MCC organizations present included GLBT and allied Christians from DignityUSA (Roman Catholic), More Light Presbyterians, That All May Freely Serve (Presbyterians), United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns, Lutherans Concerned, Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests, National Baptist Conference of Welcoming and Affirming Churches, Reconciling Ministries Network (United Methodist Church), the Evangelical Network, the Intern-Denominational Conference of Liberation Congregations & Ministries, Reformed Catholic Church, Universal Anglican Church, National Black Justice Coalition, Room for All, The Fellowship, and HRC’s new Religion and Faith Program, and the National Religious Leaders Roundtable of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

I can’t tell you how exciting it was to see LGBT Christians gathering to hold up another Jesus for the world to see than the antigay Jesus of Robertson, Falwell, Dobson and Benedict XVI. Soulforce membership includes people of all faiths or no faith at all, but this gathering in Dallas was an attempt by Christian leaders to launch a movement that will speak directly to the half-truths, hyperboles and lies of the Christian right. Here’s hoping and praying that this new movement will help people who are victims of their false and inflammatory rhetoric to see Jesus as he really is, one who loves LGBT people exactly as we are.