A FOUR-YEAR SOULFORCE STRATEGY TO HELP END DISCRIMINATION AGAINST SEXUAL MINORITIES BY THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Current U.M.C. policy discriminates against God's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered children. This spiritual violence must end. We love this member of the body of Christ too much to allow it to continue these policies that lead to suffering and death. Because delegates to GC2000 refused to take a significant step towards ending these policies of discrimination, our "Relight the Flame" campaign begins May 14 and will continue until GC2004.

Our Overriding Promise: The four-year "Relight the Flame" campaign described (in part) below will be guided ENTIRELY by the "soul force" principles of nonviolence as practiced by Gandhi and King. Every action promised will represent the Spirit of Christ who called His followers to do justice above all else. Our goal is not to "win" this endless debate about homosexuality but to end it by achieving reconciliation with our sisters and brothers who are victims of misinformation about sexual minorities.

Every local U.M.C. congregation features the denomination's logo: a cross and a flame. That flame represents the presence of the Holy Spirit in that local congregation. We are persuaded by Scripture, church teaching, and historic example that Christ's Spirit cannot remain where all God's children are not welcome. How can the Spirit be present in a local congregation who makes outcasts of God's own children? Our logo for this entire campaign will replace that bright red flame with a plume of smoke and ash and the words "Relight the Flame." We are struggling to help save those congregations from policies that have driven the Holy Spirit from their midst. We are working with you to help save the soul of the United Methodist Church

First Promise: 1,000 people of faith will be arrested in a massive civil disobedience on the opening day of GC2004. Remember, the goal of a civil disobedience is NOT to intimidate or to embarrass but to change minds and hearts through our voluntary redemptive suffering. Our May 10 civil disobedience had one goal: to demonstrate our love for the United Methodist Church. Approximately 200 of us spent May 10 crowded into police vans and jail cells across Cleveland. We were fingerprinted and photographed. The charge of "persistent disorderly conduct" will remain on our records. Together, we paid $29,605 in fines and court fees to help you understand how sincere and determined we are. And we will do it again and again until you realize that this tragic debate is over. The suffering must end.

Second Promise: Over the next years, U.M.C. congregations across the nation whose clergy or laity have been especially outspoken in support of these discriminatory policies will be the site of Sunday Morning civil disobedience actions (not unlike the civil disobedience conducted in Cleveland, May 10).

Third Promise: We will be organizing on the Internet to recruit and train U.M.C. members and other people of faith to stand vigil on Sunday mornings on the sidewalks in front of United Methodist congregations that support these discriminatory policies. Marchers will carry banners that read clearly: THIS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH DISCRIMINATES AGAINST SEXUAL MINORITIES.

Fourth Promise: We will be organizing on the Internet to persuade members and friends of U.M.C. congregations who support these discriminatory policies to give their tithes, offerings, and special large gifts to U.M.C. congregations who support full inclusion for sexual minorities.

Fifth Promise: We will be organizing on the Internet to convince United Methodist clergy, musicians, Sunday School teachers, ushers, choir and committee members and all other volunteers who currently serve U.M.C. congregations that support these discriminatory policies to offer their services to U.M.C. congregations that support full inclusion for sexual minorities.

Sixth Promise: We will urge U.M.C. clergy to refuse to obey the unjust "laws" stated in the Book of Discipline. Marry us! Ordain us! Welcome us into full, unqualified membership in your churches! "It is as much our moral obligation NOT to cooperate with evil as it is to cooperate with good." Gandhi

Seventh Promise: We will launch a nationwide campaign to persuade the 3,000-4,000 closeted U.M.C. clergy and the hundreds of thousands of U.M.C. laymen and laywomen to "come out" and join us in this campaign to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God." Without their courageous example, injustice will prevail and the suffering will go on.

For more information or to volunteer to assist in our "Relight the Flame" campaign Contact: UMC@soulforce.org or go to: www.soulforce.org "Relight the Flame Campaign"

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