The prophets, in their words and acts proclaim hope in difficult times, urging us to “keep on keeping on.”  My partner of twenty five years, Jim Dietrich, and I stood with nearly 200 Soulforce volunteers outside the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland.  With a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, a daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and some of the leaders from the Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s, we stood our ground nonviolently and were arrested rather than passively acquiesce to the Conference’s official homophobia.            

As a prophetic act we accepted the shame and defeat of arrest.  We allowed ourselves to be stripped of our freedom, our personal effects, our shoelaces, belts and eyeglasses.  We lay locked in smelly, noisy cells. But we were not stripped of our dignity and we reemerged renewed in hope.  However imperceptibly, we were changed and the church was changed.

The struggle continues.  There will be other seasons of sowing and weeping (and rejoicing!) before we bring the harvest in.  As I write this Jim and I are about to go to the Reconciling Ministries Network Convocation called “Hearts on Fire” at United Methodism’s Lake Junaluska Assembly grounds as guests of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the church.  Even though we are “paying guests,” this is causing great wailing and gnashing of teeth, not unlike the day a generation or two ago when Junaluska accepted racial integration. 

In fact, as we prepare to go, we hear the news that the KKK will be there to greet us with signs that read “Queers on Fire” and that quote the verse from scripture (Leviticus 20:13) that supposedly condemns gay people--“they shall surely be put to death.” 

But Bishops and other leaders of the Southeastern Jurisdiction are insisting on United Methodism’s commitment to inclusiveness. 

This is another “teaching moment,” a prophetic moment in the Church. 

The prophetic word of God is still at work among us.

May it always be so!