Posted on 10/16/2007 10:59:30 AM PDT by kaehurowing
Gay clergyman bemoans U.S. reputation as forcing its ways on other cultures
By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com
The perception of Americans as aggressors affected the politics within the Anglican Church, said the gay clergyman whose election as bishop set off upheaval within the 77-million member global Anglican Communion.
"The worldview of America, seen as swaggering around the world and having our way and all others be damned, the energy around this issue (gay clergy) has as much to do with that perception as it does with Scriptures," Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church, told a Honolulu audience last night.
The 60-year-old bishop of New Hampshire was in Hawaii on the way to meet Anglican bishops in Pacific Rim countries during a three-month sabbatical. He said he wants other prelates to "see it as a face, not as an issue."
"Most bishops I know believe that 20 years from now we will have ordination of gays and lesbians and blessings of same-gender unions," he said.
Robinson was invited to speak to Integrity Honolulu, a local branch of a national organization of gay, lesbian and transgender Episcopalians. Members of the diocese and others were also in the audience of about 60 people at St. Clement's Church in Makiki.
The rift between the 2.3 million-member American church and other national churches in the Anglican alliance began when the ruling body of the U.S. church approved his ordination in 2003. African and Asian churches rebuked the Americans, and conservative U.S. Episcopalians sought to overthrow the existing American church.
Just last month the U.S. House of Bishops moved to mollify the more conservative elements of the church by agreeing to hold off on ordaining homosexuals and promising not to establish an official blessing ceremony for same-gender couples.
Nine Hawaii delegates to the 2003 General Convention, including former Honolulu Bishop Richard Chang, voted with the majority favoring Robinson's consecration. "We don't have to be frightened that the church is falling apart," Robinson said.
He said opposition to homosexuals in the church comes from a "small, passionate and vocal" group.
Robinson had been executive assistant to the former New Hampshire bishop for 17 years when the diocesan electing body chose him as bishop, an action that required consent of the national church. He was married when he was ordained as a priest in 1973. He was divorced in 1986 and is the father of two daughters. He has lived openly with his partner of several years.
"I'm proud that we're willing to have this fight in public ... and that we can hold together while we figure it out."
Hey “Bishop”, why don’t you go to Iran and preach your viewpoints there? I’m sure there’s a lot of boy over there to “convert”. I’m sure that culture will welcome you.
The purpose of every Bishop in the Church, both here and abroad, should be two-fold: serve the spiritual needs of his or her flock, and lesser than that, tend the institution of the Church itself for future generations. "Bishop" Robinson does neither of these things. He denigrates the Church. He denigrates the Bible. He fails to serve the spiritual needs of his flock. And, as the quotes in this article display, he concerns himself first with the "social" issue of the "right" to have homosexual relations.
I "bemoan" the fact that this poor excuse for a "clergyman" is currently a representative of my Church, and a member of its House of Bishops. More than a few strange ducks are in the House of Lords, without serious harm to England. But strange ducks in the House of Bishops are positive harm.
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Which cultures have had hundreds of years of open homosexuality on display, same sex partners getting married, and raising turkey baster babies?
Seems like the Lavender Mafia has been pushing their OWN ways on the cultures around the world since the end of WWII.
So he's taking a break to get a Pacific Rim job for a couple of months?
Yet Robinson inflicts his perversion on the entire Episcopal Church..... Hmmmmm.....
Ummm... that would be none! Yet we're supposed to turn our entire culture and ethos upside down to accommodate this microscopic perverted minority with a loud voice. Malignant narcissism writ large....
What he doesn’t realize is that he is describing, perfectly, the perception the remainder of the Anglican Communion has of the American church. ECUSA has arrogantly and clearly thumbed it collective noses at the rest of the world saying if you want any of our deep pocket dollars, accept our heresies or get lost.
The great commission could not be better served. If christ were here he would cast out demons and unclean spirits in Vicky Gene and his cohorts.
We were Episcopalians and saw in 1996 that the house of bishops was not going to enforce their own rules (written and unwritten) when they decided that the ordination of actively gay priests in pennsylvania could not be stopped or opposed because they saw no specified controlling legal authority in the ECUSA church organizational documents prohibiting such an ordination.
If an ECUSA house of bishops can't find a reason to do the right thing then they are better lawyers than men of faith.
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