Pledge To Raise Your Voice

As pastors and church leaders, we are granted special access to the joys and hurts of God’s people. But much too often we abuse that privilege in God’s name, by promoting God’s love with conditions and wrath with fearful living. We unfairly judge people, make them wrong, and exclude them from being shown hospitality in the nature of what we have been taught is holy.This is not the truth.

Many Voices is offering an alternative to the rhetoric, arguments, divisions and impasses in our lives. In the words of the Pledge to Raise My Voice: My soul is troubled by the continuing isolation, condemnation, and ill treatment that are too often accepted in our churches and community toward our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers.

As leaders, we can be models of what it means to learn, listen and love across our differences. You’re invited to enter into an earnest agreement by signing the Pledge to Raise My Voice:

As an African American Christian minister, proudly rooted in the spiritual heritage of liberation and freedom, I am dedicated to the struggle for justice for all people, especially those on the margins of society.

My soul is troubled by the continuing isolation, condemnation, and ill treatment that is too often accepted in our churches and community toward our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers.

In faith and solidarity, I pledge to honor their dignity and worth. I resolve to listen to and learn from their stories, experiences, and truths. I promise to gracefully embrace their loved ones and families. I will Raise My Voice in love and celebration of their lives. I commit to grow and share in respectful dialogue with my ministerial peers who hold different perspectives.

I make this pledge out of faithfulness to my calling, devotion to do justice, and steadfast commitment to a God whose unfailing love for us knows no limits or bounds, as expressed through the life of Jesus Christ.

We need you. God’s people need you! If you are ready to sign this pledge, please add your name today. In addition, take time to listen to the powerful, affirming words of the Rev. Dr. Louis Shockley.

Photo by Andrew Snow: Bishop Yvette Flunder raises her voice for marriage equality in front of the Supreme Court on March 26, 2013