Sitting in the sun-kissed grounds of a London church, U.S.Bishop Gene Robinson reflected in sombre mood on what it meant to be the first openly gay bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican church.
Robinson, a divorced father of two, has received death threats and wore a bulletproof vest at his consecration back in 2003. Two uniformed police officers stood guard last month as he entered into a civil partnership with his longtime partner. He was heckled when preaching in London over the weekend.
“I take the threats very seriously, I have to,” he said. “But I am not interested in being a martyr, I just want to be a bishop.”
Robinson’s visit to Britain concides with the Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly meeting of bishops from the worldwide Anglican Communion, but he has not been invited to attend. So he has several speaking engagements outside of the conference, including a sermon at Saint Mary’s Church in the Putney section of London on Sunday where he urged Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to show firmer leadership and get conservative foes to tone down homophobic taunts.
In an interview with Reuters, there was no hiding the disappointment in his voice when talking about Williams’ decision not to invite him. And he repeated that he felt it was high time Williams took a stand against Conservative opponents who taunted him with homophobic mockery.
“There is no place in the Christian Church for someone to say Satan has entered the church with my consecration or that gay people are lower than dogs,” the 61-year-old bishop said.
“You cannot say those kind of things about gays and lesbians people and then be shocked when there is violence against them,” he said.
Clearly exasperated with a navel-gazing church obsessed with its own internal problems, he said human sexuality was an important issue but added “I would agree with many Africans that there are so many more important things to be dealing with.”
But he was clearly proud of what he had achieved in trying to sweep hypocrisy away, saying: “I would like to think I have raised the issue of how destructive ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ can be.”
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In all the arguing over Gene Robinson’s homosexuality, a number of important points are missed, sometimes deliberately! It is NOT a sin to a homosexual, to say but it is a sin to be a practising homosexual, that’s a simple biblical fact and the church is not ‘homophobic’ to point that out. Quite deliberately many of those supporting Gene Robinson will say that they are defending rights: just for once I would like to hear about responsibilities! The fact that a single hetrosexual man should not have sex is every bit as difficult for him as a homosexual not engaging is any sexual acts, but I don’t hear too many single hetrosexuals in the church screaming that they are being denied their rights!
- Posted by Henry GibsonI pray for Gene Robinson and those who support him.
Tonight I watched a fascinating movie entitled “Because the Bible Tells Me So” which details the clash between literalist religions and homosexuality. In it, Gene Robinson was profiled (along with many other stories). In curiousity, I googled his name and found this article and this discussion thread. I would encourage everyone to view this movie, although I am realistic to know that many of you are so entrenched in your position that you may not be open to seeing another point of view. In truth, we have more in common with others based on being simply human than we have that is different. Yet so many of us choose to put our attention on the differences—race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation—whatever it is that we focus on to make us be “us versus them”. Why must we have a “them” to judge negatively, to hate, to condemn? How can we switch our focus and attention from how we see we are different to more be on how we are alike? The irony really is that when we judge others, that says more about us than it does about the other person.
- Posted by Rev MarkMrs. Boyle says: “I frankly would not want to be counseled by someone who does not understand the intricate relationship between a man and a women.”
So you wouldn’t be comfortable with a single bishop? How many persons of the opposite gender must a candidate date before he/she is acceptable? Is there an examination before ordination to help decide the candidate’s fitness for couples counseling?
How about priests who don’t have children? Would you be uncomfortable with someone who hasn’t raised children and therefore (by your reasoning) does not understand the intricate relationship between a parent and a child. Would it be better if we didn’t allow childless persons to be ordained? And how many children is enough? Should they be required to have at least one boy and one girl? Boys and girls are different, you know, so they’d better have experience with both.
(Of course that’s ridiculous. That’s my point.)
P.S. Being gay is not an infirmity.
- Posted by Matt AlgrenGreat comments RBP! I could not agree more. Did you see the video of Gene Robinson driven from the pulpit by people who stood up to him from the congregation. I wish I could have been there!
- Posted by Mrs. Boylehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7504472.st m
James says: “He left his wife for another man.”
Did he? All the information I’ve found says they met well after the divorce.
Clive watson says: “If there are fellings or urges to have sex with a man . . .”
I’m going to stop you there, because you’re making a common mistake when discussing homosexuality. It isn’t just about sex any more than heterosexuality is just about sex. That’s a piece of it, but it certainly isn’t the whole of the issue.
As for what the Bible says, I’m of the camp who say that it’s been mistranslated, misused, and misappropriated for some time.
Interesting that my anti-spam word is ‘love’.
- Posted by Matt AlgrenJesus loves all people even Gay folks. Gays are not lower than dogs, nor has Satan has entered the Church but a Gay person should not be at the helm of Christ’s Church. Homosexuality is a infirmity like being born blind or deaf. I frankly would not want to be counseled by someone who does not understand the intricate relationship between a man and a women. I would not fly on a plane with a blind pilot nor will I sail in a Church with a Gay person at the wheel. I am coming from the background of a biologist and a creature attracted to its own sex is not a working model, good people!
- Posted by Mrs. BoyleIs the constant taunting and destructive language in any way beneficial, or an appropriate illustration of the mainstream opposition to the Bishop’s lifestyle? Certainly not.
I find it ironic, however, that Bishop Robinson shuns the concept of physical martyrdom, yet openly acknowledges and embraces this psychological gauntlet as if the whole world ought to pity his ordeal.
The bottom is simply that his sin, just as any other sin, is evil in the sight of God. It is against the very nature of whoe He is. Those that would emphasize Bishop Robinson’s certain sin over others are ignorant of God’s holiness; all sin is detestable.
But rememeber; just as we cannot describe this man, or any that choose this way of life, as “lower than dogs”, we must remember that before God we are all filthy, in need of redemption. As long as Bishop Robinson refuses to recognize that spiritual corrosion, then he will continue to stand in error before a Holy God.
- Posted by Jonathan………”Satan has entered the church with my consecration”……….from his own lips!
- Posted by SandyI’ve been in the Episcopal Church all my life and I can tell you this issue has destroyed the Church. Tear the pages out of your Bible that you don’t agree with and you might as well believe that the whole book is a lie. The more these twisted ideas get shoved into my face the more I will push back. I will not be mowed down by those that turn wrong into right just to please their own desires. If someone wants to “update” God’s word then let them start their own Church and stop trying to bring down a Church that has been already established. When Jesus stopped the crowd from stoning the woman to death for adultery he didn’t tell the woman to continue with her sinful lifestyle. He said go and sin no more….
- Posted by RBPInteresting how Gene Robinson now wants to play the ‘victim’.
He left his wife for another man.
Most people would call that adultery and imomoral.
Yet the Episcopal Church decided to make him a spiritual leader!
Let’s call black white, and that which is immoral, good.
- Posted by JamesAnd let’s when people object, cast ourselves as a victim.
Clive Watson
Why should anybody be concerned what the bible says about anything? The old testements are fables of a neolithic tribe formalised as a self agrandised history, the morality is indicative of the time and we are better than that.
- Posted by steve bowenHomosexuality is now known to have a strong genetic and developmental component. At the risk of commiting the naturalistic fallacy even if religious apologists can’t see it as “good”, they should at least be tolerant of its existence. If god makes someone homosexual (which is the implication for believers)he presumeably meant then to live that way.
Oh crap could we please not have another article about Gene media-tart Robinson and his oh-look-at-moi unsourced, unamed unsubstantiated threats. It’s a mockery on those Christians who are truly suffering for their faith. Why doesn’t the media see the cognitive dissonance in a man who continues to bleat about being “a simple country bishop” and yet spends most of the time outside his own country talking about himself while his dioces shrinks and shrinks.
You get better sense from Roseanne Barr:
And you’re better off heeding Camille Paglia’s warning about the Gay Inquisition and the media’s complicity in it.
- Posted by saintWith regard to the comments made by Clive Watson (Below)
If the bible is so clear on homosexuality it is also clear that slavery is acceptable.
Leviticus 25:44-46: “Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.
Exodus 21:1-4: “If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve”
Jesus has nothing to say about homosexuality, except that we should all love each other. It’s strange that so many Christians are filled by hate, yet they protest love. The bible is open to interpretation (and all other religions), that’s why there are so many different churches and so many religious wars!
My thoughts are: if you agree that the bible says that homosexuality is unacceptable, it must also be true that slavery is acceptable. I rest my case.
- Posted by AdrianWill GOD will ever forgive you westerners, i wonder.
- Posted by BobbyIn what sense is a book that is mysogynistic, homophobic dictatorial and retributional good!??
- Posted by steve bowenWhat the heck has homophobic got to do with anything, that expression in itself is an attack on the very word of God. God is very clear in scripture about homosexuality. If there are fellings or urges to have sex with a man then this calls for what is known in scripture as self control. Also simple obedience to the word and just abstaining from anything that the bible tells us to abstain from…and homosexuality is one of them. If being driven by a sexual feeling is all that drive and motivates a person above and beyond our our good friend and councilor, Holy Ghost…then are we surprised that god was so sick of those in sodom and gomorah that they were no longer needed. We should take heed from this example in scripture and keep a heart of daily repentance and simply stay obedient to how the bible tells us to live. There is more power in the name of Jesus than any other force that is known to man for us to live and love by. Thank you for the opportunity for me to comment on this.
- Posted by Clive watsonHe needs to be sacked.
- Posted by tylerI can’t help but repect Gene Robinson for his openess and honesty in the midst of Anglican hypocrisy and homophobia. It is a bit of a shame though that such an otherwise intelligent person is wasting time with religion at all, when there are real issues out in the world someone with a social calling could be working on. He should the church worry about what their imaginary friend thinks about sexuality and leave them to it.
- Posted by steve bowenBusiness as usual for Ubishops. Haven’t read the good
book since…………..ever? You wonder why you get so
much greif from people when you don’t know what is right
or wrong. Too bad. It’s your bed….lie in it. Alone.
Fight all you want to so you can feel better about your-
- Posted by alselves while you air to the whole world how gross you are. People watch what you do all day long. What a
picture!
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