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Soulforce (organization)
Soulforce is a U.S.-based social justice organization that works to end the religious and political oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people. The organization's co-executive directors are Alba Onofrio and Yaz Mendez Nuñez. History It was founded in 1998 by Gary Nixon and his husband Mel White, who was a ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and others until he came out as a gay man. Programs Equality Ride Since 2006, Soulforce has supported a project called the Equality Ride. Led by young adults, it targets Christian colleges. In 2007 it was divided into two different trips (eastern and western), each leg visiting 15-20 different colleges. Other rides were launched in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. GiveBackIX Right to Serve Campaign In 2006 Soulforce organized the Right to Serve Campaign, the first nationally organized youth effort to bring attention to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soulforce Sq Logo
Soulforce is a U.S.-based social justice organization that works to end the religious and political oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) people. The organization's co-executive directors are Alba Onofrio and Yaz Mendez Nuñez. History It was founded in 1998 by Gary Nixon and his husband Mel White, who was a ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, and others until he came out as a gay man. Programs Equality Ride Since 2006, Soulforce has supported a project called the Equality Ride. Led by young adults, it targets Christian colleges. In 2007 it was divided into two different trips (eastern and western), each leg visiting 15-20 different colleges. Other rides were launched in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. GiveBackIX Right to Serve Campaign In 2006 Soulforce organized the Right to Serve Campaign, the first nationally organized youth effort to bring attention to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christian figure, and according to a biographer, was "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century. Graham held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television, with some still being re-broadcast into the 21st century. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual crusades, evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. He also hosted the radio show ''Hour of Decision'' from 1950 to 1954. He repudiated racial segregation and insisted on racial integration for his revivals and crusades, starting in 1953. He later invited Martin Luther King Jr. to preach jointly at a revival in New York City in 1957. In addition to his religious aims, he helped shape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonviolence Organizations Based In The United States
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosophy of abstention from violence. It may be based on moral, religious or spiritual principles, or the reasons for it may be strategic or pragmatic. Failure to distinguish between the two types of nonviolent approaches can lead to distortion in the concept's meaning and effectiveness, which can subsequently result in confusion among the audience. Although both principled and pragmatic nonviolent approaches preach for nonviolence, they may have distinct motives, goals, philosophies, and techniques. However, rather than debating the best practice between the two approaches, both can indicate alternative paths for those who do not want to use violence. These forms of nonviolence approaches (pragmatic and principled) will be discussed in the later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LGBT-welcoming Church Programs
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) affirming religious groups, otherwise referred to as gay-affirming religious groups, are religious groups that welcome LGBT people as their members, do not consider homosexuality as a sin or negative, and affirm LGBT rights and relationships. They include entire religious denominations, as well as individual congregations and places of worship. Some groups are mainly composed of non-LGBT members and they also have specific programs to welcome LGBT people into them, while other groups are mainly composed of LGBT members. Abrahamic religions Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) have traditionally affirmed and endorsed a patriarchal and heteronormative approach towards human sexuality, favouring exclusively penetrative vaginal intercourse between men and women within the boundaries of marriage over all other forms of human sexual activity, including autoeroticism, masturbati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Reitan
Jacob "Jake" Reitan (born 1982) is an LGBT activist who founded the Soulforce Equality Ride. Reitan was born in 1982 in Mankato, Minnesota into a Lutheran family and is one of four siblings. He came out to his parents while a junior in high school.''Daily Helmsman''David Hanners, "Activist rethinking Christianity's view of homosexuality," January 17, 2011 accessed March 10, 2012 In high school, he helped create the first gay-straight alliance at Mankato West High School.''Tampa Bay Times''Waveney Ann Moore, "They ask, and tell," June 25, 2006 accessed March 10, 2012 He graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, majoring in Communication Studies and Political Science. He received his masters from Harvard Divinity School and his J.D. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.Huffington Post"Jacob Reitan" accessed March 10, 2012 After some experimentation in 2005, he and Haven Herrin launched Soulforce's Equality Ride Project in 2006. He w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and forms military policy with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), both federal executive departments, acting as the principal organs by which military policy is carried out. All six armed services are among the eight uniformed services of the United States. From their inception during the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. Armed Forces have played a decisive role in the history of the United States. They helped forge a sense of national unity and identity through victories in the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War. They played a critical role in the American Civil War, keeping the Confederacy from seceding from the republic and preserving the uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don't Ask, Don't Tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of non-heterosexual people, instituted during the Clinton administration. The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160 (Title 10 of the United States Code §654), which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equality Ride
The Equality Ride is a periodic LGBT rights bus tour made for young adults and sponsored by Soulforce, a national LGBT nonprofit organization. They seek to debate LGBT issues with students at conservative Christian colleges and military academies and secular universities.Charisma NowMichelle Van Loon, "'Equality Ride' Targets Christian Colleges," May 31, 2006, accessed March 9, 2012 Early Rides Jacob Reitan, a 23-year-old Christian activist from Minnesota and director of youth programs for Soulforce, initiated the rides. In 2005, he conducted trial runs at Liberty University in the spring and at the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall. At Liberty University he spoke informally to students. According to organizers, they tried without success to donate books about homosexuality to the library. Reitan said they asked the University to designate some place on campus where students could talk about being gay without fear of being expelled or having their parents informed. They were als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (born March 22, 1930) is an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, former presidential candidate, and former Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocates a conservative Christian ideology and is known for his past activities in Republican party politics. He is associated with the Charismatic Movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He serves as chancellor and CEO of Regent University and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). On Robertson's own account, he originally set out to be a businessman. He graduated near the top of his class at Yale Law School in 1955 but later failed the New York bar exam, which he described as a minor setback since he never planned to practice law and he already had a career with a major corporation on Wall Street. He became a Christian while having dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia with an author and WWII veteran, Cornelius Vanderbreggen. After his conversion, Rob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelism, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979. Early life and education Falwell and his twin brother Gene were born in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia, on August 11, 1933, the sons of Helen Virginia (''née'' Beasley) and Carey Hezekiah Falwell. His father was an entrepreneur and one-time Rum-runner, bootlegger who was agnostic who shot and killed his own brother Garland and died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1948 at the age of 55. His paternal grandfather was a staunch atheist. Falwell was a member of a group in Fairview Heights known to the police as "the Wall Gang" because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive their due from society. In the current movements for social justice, the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility, the creation of safety nets, and economic justice. Social justice assigns rights and duties in the institutions of society, which enables people to receive the basic benefits and burdens of cooperation. The relevant institutions often include taxation, social insurance, public health, public school, public services, labor law and regulation of markets, to ensure distribution of wealth, and equal opportunity. Interpretations that relate justice to a reciprocal relationship to society are mediated by differences in cultural traditions, some of which emphasize t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel White
James Melville "Mel" White (born June 26, 1940) is an American clergyman and author. White was a behind-the-scenes member of the Evangelical Protestant movement through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, writing film and television specials and ghostwriting autobiographies for televangelists such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham. After years of writing for the Christian right, he came out as gay in 1994Steve InskeeReligion, Politics a Potent Mix for Jerry FalwellNPR June 30, 2006 and devoted himself full-time to minister to lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people, also writing extensively on the subject of gay Christians. Life and career White was born in Santa Clara, California, the son of Faythe Alvera (Rear) and Olin "Carl" White. White graduated from Warner Pacific College and married Lyla Lee Loehr. They had two children, one of whom is the actor and filmmaker Mike White. After receiving his BA from Warner Pacific College, then graduating with an MA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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