Homosexual leader a speaker at NCC commission meeting
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, September 26, 2000
NEW YORK – Mel White, one of the most outspoken gay activists in the nation, is a speaker at a meeting of the National Council of Churches Communications Commission Sept. 25-29.
White is founder of Soulforce, the organization that has targeted mainline denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), to promote ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexuals and marriages of gay couples.
He is also dean of the 14,000-member Cathedral of Hope of the Metropolitan Community Church in Dallas. The Metropolitan Community Church is a national, primarily gay denomination that has unsuccessfully sought to become a member of the National Council of Churches.
Carol Fouke, communications director for the National Council of Churches, said she personally invited White to speak at the meeting of the NCC Communications Commission. However, she said his role is to talk about handling crisis communications, not the gay agenda.
She said White is paying his own expenses to attend the meeting.
In June, White led a Soulforce demonstration during the meeting of the PCUSA’s 2000 General Assembly. He also led demonstrations at the quadrennial meeting of the United Methodist Church. In both cases, several Soulforce demonstrators were arrested.
Methodists voted 2-1 against ordination of practicing homosexuals and against allowing ministers to conduct union services for gay couples. The General Assembly voted by a narrow margin to ask Presbyterians to ratify a Book of Order prohibition against ministers conducting union services.
Fouke said White was invited to speak to the communications representatives of NCC member denominations because of his education and professional background, not because of his gay activism.
The nation’s major media have given White a stage for his gay agenda. He has written numerous books, some as an evangelical before he publicly acknowledged his homosexuality, and has produced motion pictures and TV documentaries.