http://www.umr.org/news/111099/creech.htm

Gay activists vow to disrupt church trial of Jimmy Creech
– 11/10/99
By Paul McKay
Associate Editor, United Methodist Reporter

Supporters of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, a United Methodist pastor who faces a
second church trial next week in Nebraska for performing a same-sex union
ceremony, have vowed to stop the trial through a non-violent "Soulforce
Intervention."
"Soulforce" is a group led by Dr. Mel White, a gay
activist and former seminary professor who was a ghost writer for
nationally known conservative evangelicals before he went public with his
homosexuality.
Dr. White told the Reporter that he and other
supporters of Mr. Creech are committed to stopping the trial in the spirit
of "Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King" if retired Bishop William Boyd
Grove, the presiding officer, and Bishop Joel Martinez of the Nebraska
Annual Conference, decide to go through with it.
Mr. Creech is a clergy member of the Nebraska Annual
Conference but is on leave and living in North Carolina. Bishop Grove, of
Charleston, West Va., told the Reporter that "it would not be appropriate
for the presiding officer to make any reply at all to this." Bishop
Martinez was unavailable for comment, but Nebraska Conference
spokeswoman Cheryl Edwards said the trial will go on as scheduled, Nov.
17-18, at Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Island, Neb.
Dr. White issued a letter last week addressed to
Bishop Grove, Bishop Martinez and "to the good people of The United
Methodist Church" demanding that the trial be called off for the sake of
the safety and welfare of all gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered
people.
"We're pleading with the bishops and all United
Methodists to understand the damage that this trial is going to do them,"
Dr. White told the Reporter. "We're saying that if you go through with
it, you need to know that the consequences will be dire."
Dr. White said a trial, no matter what the outcome,
would give gay-bashers fuel for inflammatory rhetoric and send a message
to homophobes that violence against homosexuals is, in effect, OK. Noting
that Methodist founders John and Charles Wesley stood up for "outcasts,"
Dr. White said the church needs to stand up in the same way for
homosexuals who love God.
"This great church is defrocking Jimmy Creech, one of
its best and brightest, for standing up and taking the kind of stand
that the Wesleys took," Dr. White said.
"If this trial goes through, the fundamentalists like
Pat Robertson and James Dobson will have a field day with their
rhetoric against gays. Just when Jerry Falwell has stood up
and applauded us (gays) and asked to meet with us again, the whole
country will be stirred up into thinking again that gays are bad."
Bouyed by a recent meeting with the Rev. Falwell – in which the
independent Baptist evangelist made amends with Dr. White and a coalition
of gay-rights activists – Dr. White said it is ironic that The United
Methodist Church is still pursuing charges against Mr. Creech.
"It's ironic that the same month that Jerry Falwell broke bread
with us, the United Methodists are trying one of their own for doing just
that," Dr. White said.
Dr. White said the open letter to the two bishops and
to United Methodists in general was intended as a "plea," despite the
threat of disrupting the trial.
Dr. White was a writer for Mr. Falwell, among others,
before Dr. White wrote the best-selling book Stranger at the Gate, an
account of his struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality after being
married 23 years and raising two daughters.
Dr. White said he and Creech's other supporters wept
when Mr. Creech was tried on charges of violating church regulations in
the Book of Discipline the first time. As to why they are committed to
disrupting this trial through a form of civil disobedience, Dr. White
said, "It's not enough to sit by and weep anymore. We're giving (United
Methodists) a chance to take a stand."
Mr. Creech was acquitted by default in March 1998 of
violating a church law that prohibits pastors from conducting same-sex
unions. He presided at a ceremony for a lesbian
couple in September 1997 at First United Methodist Church of Omaha, Neb.,
where he was then senior pastor. The trial jury fell one vote short of
voting to convict him of "disobedience to the order and discipline of The
United Methodist Church."
Bishop Martinez planned to move Mr. Creech from the
First-Omaha pulpit the following June, but Mr. Creech opted instead to
take a leave of absence from the active ministry.
Then he defied the denomination again on April 24 this
year when he performed a service of holy union for two men in
Chapel Hill, N.C., where Mr. Creech has resided since he went on leave.
Dr. White said the open letter to the two bishops and
to United Methodists in general – as well as a news released issued by
"Soulforce," were not intended as an ultimatum despite the threat of
disrupting the trial. The press release and letter, he said, comprise a
"plea."
Dr. White noted that Mr. Creech has been invited to
conduct a same-gender holy union in Grand Island on the eve fo the trail.
Dr. White urged clergy from The United Methodist Church to stand in
solidarity with Mr. Creech.
Mr. Creech said he is aware of the consequences of his
actions. "If this is my last act as a United Methodist minister," he
said, "I am glad that it is a celebration of God's love."