Wednesday, September 27, 2000

WILMINGTON, NC -- The Rev. Mel White will lecture on "Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America" at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 11, in the UNCW Warwick Center Ballroom. This free public presentation is sponsored by the university's Office of Campus Diversity, Dean of Students Office and PRIDE, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied student organization on the UNCW campus.

For 30 years, White has served the Christian community as a pastor, seminary professor, author and filmmaker. As a communications consultant and ghost writer, his clients included Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Oliver North and Pat Robertson. After three decades of counseling and "anti-gay" therapy, White reconciled his Christian theology and sexual orientation and "came out" in a letter to Falwell in 1991. At his 1993 installation as dean of the Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church in Dallas, Texas, White proclaimed, "I am gay. I am proud. And God loves me without reservation."

A follower of the "soul force" principles of Gandhi and King, White received the American Civil Liberties Union's National Civil Liberties Award in 1997 in recognition of his efforts in the struggle for justice for sexual minorities. In 1999, White and partner Gary Nixon founded Soulforce Inc., a non-profit corporation dedicated to teaching and applying the principles of non-violence in the cause of justice, not just for sexual orientation, but "for all God's children who suffer injustice and discrimination."

White earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Warner Pacific College in 1962 and a master's degree in communications from the University of Portland in 1963. While working on a doctorate in communications and film studies from the University of Southern California, he received a Rockefeller grant to begin a doctorate in religious studies. He completed his doctorate at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and served for more than a decade as a professor of communications and preaching.

As a filmmaker, he produced more than 50 motion pictures and television documentaries. He served as a consultant to major film studies including Warner Bros. for the motion picture The Mission and Universal Studios for Cry Freedom. He has also produced three Soulforce videos: The Rhetoric of Intolerance, The Trials of Jimmy Creech and How Can I Be Sure that God Loves Me, Too? He is also the author of 16 books.

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For more information, contact the UNCW Office of Campus Diversity

at 910/962-3832.