IRD Exposes Pro-Homosexual Group's Plan to Invade White House Event

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
January 20, 2006

(AgapePress) - - A spokesman for a Protestant renewal organization warns that homosexual activists are planning to crash a traditional Easter event at the White House this year. Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) says the pro-homosexual religious group Soulforce and the Family Pride Coalition are teaming up in an effort to fill the White House lawn with as many "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families" as possible at the annual Easter Egg Roll on April 17.

Family Pride, an organization that states its purpose as seeking "equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents and their families," is jointly sponsoring the White House demonstration with Soulforce, which claims to advocate freedom for LGBT people from "religious and political oppression." According to a press statement, Family Pride took the lead in reaching out to its constituency by extending invitations to the White House Egg Roll to "LGBT families."

According to an internal Soulforce e-mail message that went out to group members, the high-profile event at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is "an amazing opportunity to reach homes in blue states and red states with positive images" of homosexual families. Tooley, director of IRD's United Methodist committee (UMAction), says this attempt to subvert a venerated White House tradition is very much in keeping with Soulforce's tactics.

Mark Tooley

"Soulforce is a lobby effort to persuade America's churches to abandon their scriptural teachings about homosexuality," Tooley explains. He says the group's members frequently resort to "very radical demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience, and even arrests in order to gain attention and make their political point about demanding acceptance of homosexual behavior within Christianity."

The IRD spokesman believes Soulforce and Family Pride want to turn the White House event on April 17 into a political showcase of the pro-homosexual group's influence and power as well as a demonstration of how mainstream same-sex couples are. However, he says, "I don't know how effective this will be at the Easter Egg Roll."

Soulforce's new executive director, Jeff Lutes, noted in a recent statement that he and his same-sex partner are looking forward to "bringing our son to the White House lawn this Easter, resurrecting the national conversation about real people with real families." He added that they both hope "our President will welcome the full diversity of American families."

The activist group is actively reaching out to its constituency, encouraging everyone interested in the event to contact the event organizers at Family Pride. Still, Soulforce's relentless efforts notwithstanding, Tooley seriously doubts that crashing the White House event will generate the sympathy the pro-homosexual demonstrators are hoping to gain for their agenda.

"I don't think their tactics have been successful at church conventions and other events where they have demonstrated," Tooley says, "so I would doubt that this would be very politically advantageous for them."