National Coming Out Day Observance September 25, 2005

The Office of the Chaplain at Carleton College announces a service as a part of National Coming Out Day at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Carleton College Skinner Memorial Chapel Lounge. The service will be led by the Rev. Mel White, Ph.D., co-founder of Soulforce, a group working to stop spiritual and political oppression for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. White?s sermon is titled, ?Coming Out as an Act of Faith.? White will also give a talk, titled ?Sexuality, Faith and Justice,? the same evening at 8 p.m. in Severance Great Hall. The events are free and open to the public.

Raised as an evangelical Christian and taught that homosexuality was a sin, White tried to overcome his homosexual orientation for decades through prayer, psychotherapy, exorcism, electric shock, marriage and family. His struggle and steps to understand and accept his homosexuality, reconcile it with his Christian faith, and express his sexuality respectfully and responsibly, are described in his book, titled ?Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America,? published in 1994.

In 1993, he came out publicly when he was installed as dean at the Dallas Cathedral of Hope of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC) and he has devoted himself full-time to minister to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and the transgendered and to work on their behalf in the media, in the political process and with fellow religious leaders.

Dismayed by the increasing confrontational tone on both sides the homosexual issue, White was inspired by the nonviolence movements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., to develop a program based on their principles. These principles were called satyagraha or ?soul force? by Gandhi, who based many of them on the teachings of Jesus. White adopted them to address the suffering of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. In 1998, he co-founded Soulforce Inc. with his partner, Gary Nixon. He continues to serve as a pastor and writer while leading Soulforce.

In 1997, White was awarded the American Civil Liberty Union?s National Civil Liberties Award for his efforts to apply the ?soul force? principles of Gandhi and King to the struggle for justice for sexual minorities.

White did graduate work in communications and film at the University of Southern California and received his doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary, where he then became a professor for over a decade. During this time, he also worked as an evangelical pastor. He has produced, written and directed 53 documentary films and television specials. He has written more than 16 books (nine bestsellers), he wrote about the Philippines? Ninoy and Corazon Aquino (?Aquino?), the Jonestown tragedy (?Deceived?), David Rothenberg, the child burned by his father (?David?) and talk show host/producer Mike Douglas (?When the Going Gets Tough?). In addition, he has been the ghostwriter on several books for fellow evangelicals, including Billy Graham (?Approaching Hoofbeats?), Pat Robertson (?America?s Date with Destiny?), Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell (?If I Should Die Before I Wake? and ?Strength for the Journey?).

The events are being co-sponsored by Carleton?s Office of the Chaplain and the Gender and Sexuality Center. For more information and disability accommodations, call the Carleton Chaplain?s office at (507) 646-4003.