Steven contacted Mel White via his e-mail address on the Soulforce, inc. website. Conversations with Mel White confirmed his concerns, so Steven, an M.A. in Religious Studies with an emphasis on GLBT issues, began to do some serious homework on the opposition speakers. One, 'til now little known scholar, Robert A.J. Gagnon, seems to be bent on building his carreer on the reputation of being the leading (if not the only) anti-LGBT bible scholar. Steven and Soulforce Wisconsin volunteer, Dr. George Gay, M.D. studied Gagnons book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics, as well as any of the writings of the other speakers that any of the Soulforce volunteers could get their hands on. Our efforts were aimed at supporting a solid case for truth against untruth and the spiritual violence that untruth causes. Soulforce Wisconsin would be well-prepared to address the views of our adversaries.

Steven also began as soon as possible to visit with two other local GLBT supportive groups, Integrity/Dignity of Madison (a local ecumenical Christian LGBT ministry), and with the Madison Chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) who, coincidentally, were planning an October event featuring Mel White. There is considerable respect for Mel White in both these groups. Meetings with the leadership of both groups confirmed that Soulforce Wisconsin was on track in staking out a position that the endless debate must end.

Late in March Steven, together with the other three Wisconsin veterans of Soulforces direct action in Cleveland, Jim Dietrich, George Gay and Brian Soper, were officially licensed as an independent local group of Soulforce, inc. organized under the name Soulforce Wisconsin. Jim Dietrich, a graphic designer, quickly created some very sharp-looking letterhead and Steven drafted a letter to the heads of the cosponsoring organizations (to whom the Dialogue planners were accountable): Dean Roger Williams of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bishop Sharon Rader of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Rev. Jerry Folk, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches. The letter, which appears below, was eye-catching and well received and resulted, in three business days, in an invitation to a face to face meeting with all three of these leaders and their aides.

The letter (four pages long plus a two-page annotated bibliography) argued the following major points:

1) Soulforce Wisconsin is committed to the same continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found that is a core value of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2) Soulforce believes that untruth is the major source of suffering for GLBT persons and results in spiritual violence which is harmful and even life-threatening.

3) The United Methodist Churchs official teachings and policies directly further spiritual violence, and the United Methodist Church cannot hold itself out as a neutral sponsor of a Dialogue on Homosexuality Issues.

4) The opposition speakers have published their untruths: Stanton Jones, writes and speaks as a scientist, but is actually bound by a signed faith statement imposed on him and other faculty members as a condition of employment by fundamentalist Wheaton College. Jones argues that true science must be subordinate to the Christian Bible as interpreted by the Wheaton College Statement of Faith. Robert A.J. Gagnon, a bible scholar, relies heavily on the discredited work of the notorious pseudo-scientist, Paul Cameron. (Cameron was expelled from the American Psychological Association for his unethical use of scientific research in political campaigns and the courts to falsely smear GLBT persons as promiscuous, diseased, and child molesters.) Robert Gagnon is Fred Phelps in academic attire, eager to travel the country to promote all of the worst cultural stereotypes that oppress GLBT persons. Gagnons zeal to oppress and repress GLBT persons exceeds his commitment to truth. Gagnons goal is to create sufficient social pressure to reduce the incidence of self-indentified homosexuals in the population--a kind of social/cultural genocide.

5) Having adequately established that he knew what he was talking about and meant what he said, Steven concluded the letter with a call for the co-sponsors to withdraw their support from the Dialogue. He promised that should the Dialogue go forward, Soulforce would organize a nonviolent, direct action to visibly oppose the event.

Steven, accompanied by a Soulforce friend who is a member of Madison PFLAG, met with the cosponsors and learned that they were mostly well-meaning, liberal folks with some understanding and insight into the churchs oppression of GLBT persons. Although they had thought that the Dialogue their planners were putting together was a good idea, there were signs that they were having second thoughts. Bishop Sharon Rader even disclosed to the group that her husband, a United Methodist pastor and a licensed psychotherapist, was considering joining the Soulforce protest. The essential support of the cosponsors was evidently weakening, but the forward momentum of the scheduled Dialogue made it very difficult to pull the plug at this late stage. It would take a little time for the Dialogue, now exposed to the light of the truth (thanks to Soulforce methods), to fall apart.

In the meantime Mel White was keeping in touch with Stevens work. Simultaneously, Mel wrote and published an essay Why we Cant Wait which focused on a call to GLBT people and their allies to unilaterally put an end to the endless, fruitless debates that have paralyzed the GLBT issue in Christian churches for thirty years. Mel also carried on a very active e-correspondence with the pro-GLBT participants in the Dialogue urging them to boycott the event. There was quite a lively exchange of ideas which were widely shared and appreciated.

One of the scheduled Dialogue participants, Marilyn Alexander, director of the unofficial United Methodist Reconciling Ministries Network, early on expressed her doubts about the upcoming Dialogue. Information supplied her by Steven about the Dialogue revealed that the event was not what she had been led to expect. The planners of the Dialogue were working feverishly (and without success) to try to find support for the Dialogue in the GLBT community to counter Soulforce Wisconsins challenge. They worked very hard for many weeks to try to keep Marilyn Alexander on board as the only out, GLBT United Methodist keynoter in the program. They pressured Marilyn with the information that her withdrawal would cause the major financial backer, the Wisconsin United Methodist Conference, to withdraw its support and pull the plug on the Dialogue, and, in mid-June 2002 that is what happened. Marilyn was the only United Methodist or out-GLBT keynoter, and the planners could not come up with an acceptable substitute. The Dialogue has been officially cancelled.

Where are we now? We have an exciting alternative program in the planning stages--Madison PFLAGs October Soulforce workshop which will bring Mel White to Wisconsin. Wed like to build that into a positive event for LGBT people and their friends in the University and Madison communities and beyond.

We have some fallout to contend with as Dialogue supporters/planners publicly express their disappointment that their October project has come to naught. We have some learnings to digest and share as we work with Soulforce, inc. to build a movement to unilaterally end similar debates nationwide. We have a lot of research to do to better understand our adversaries and confront the untruths which they promote in the hopes that we can eventually help them to see the truth.