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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — In 2008, when the Right Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was excluded from a global Anglican gathering because of his sexuality, Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday, came to his defense. “Gene Robinson is a wonderful human being, and I am proud to belong to the same church as he,” Tutu wrote in the foreword to a book Robinson published that year. Robinson, who in 2003 became the U.S. Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, said Sunday he has been trying to live up to those words ever since. “It was quite surreal because I was...

Conservative Christians are using religious liberty as a basis to oppress the marginalized as well as traumatize parents of children who identify as LGBTQ, according to a retired Episcopal Church bishop and a filmmaker. Retired New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson and filmmaker Daniel Karslake were hosted for a discussion by the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), an unofficial United Methodist LGBTQ caucus, on July 15. The bishop and the film producer equated God’s purposes with intersectional identity politics of the Left. Robinson was the first man openly in a same-sex partnership to be consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church and...

 This is what the millennials might call “beyond beyond.”This is beyond President Obama’s typical Chicago-style politics.  This is beyond the more vile tenets of the Alinsky catechism.  Hell, this is beyond the bozo Soviet nonsense that John Paul II had to put up with.No, what we have here is special.  We haven’t seen such a raw, naked attempt by a secular head of state to manipulate a pope in centuries.  This here is Borgia crap, and not just any Borgia crap.  This is top-shelf, vintage Borgia crap at it’s finest.You see, President Obama has hatched a plan. It is a...

He was born in a barn to penniless parents who were part of a people under occupation. Get it? So why do so many of us not get it? I’m against the War on Christmas. No not that one! Wishing someone “Happy Holidays” doesn’t rob Christmas of its meaning—after all, being sensitive to others’ religious beliefs ought to be the attitude of every Christian. And not the one that says we have over-commercialized Christmas—after all, there’s nothing wrong with a time of year when we purchase thoughtful gifts for those we love.

With about a month to go before the elections, let's loosen up our lever-pulling arms by inviting NewsBusters readers to vote on the lamest excuse offered by three Morning Joe panelists today for President Obama's failure to heed the intelligence about the threat ISIS posed. 1. Columbia prof Dorian Warren: congressional intelligence committees are to blame for not raising the issues with President Obama. 2. Mike Barnicle: James Clapper is to blame for not assembling the intelligence to the point that it got the president's full attention. 3. Eugene Robinson: not fair to blame the president considering there could have...

Life is hard. And it just keeps on coming, ready or not. Somewhere inside me, I guess I thought that life in “retirement” would be more peaceful, easier somehow. But I am also not naïve enough to believe it for long. Recently, my partner and husband of 25-plus years and I decided to get divorced. While the details of our situation will remain appropriately private, I am seeking to be as open and honest in the midst of this decision as I have been in other dramatic moments of my life—coming out in 1986, falling in love, and accepting the...

Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop rocked Anglican Communion, has announced his divorce from his longtime partner and husband. Robinson, who retired in 2013 as the Bishop of New Hampshire, and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew, were married in a private civil union in 2008. The announcement was made public Saturday (May 3) in a statement to the Diocese of New Hampshire. “As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for us — not a decision entered into lightly or without much counseling,” Robinson wrote in a letter. “We ask...

Obama pulled a surprise move Monday at the White House’s Easter Prayer Breakfast when he selected Gene Robinson to lead the closing prayer. Robinson is famously known as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. Talking Points Memo’s Tom Kludt spotted the following tweet from Robinson, who was in attendance: Bishop Gene Robinson @BishopGRobinson POTUS "preaches" at the Easter prayer breakfast. Then, out of the blue, asks ME to close with prayer. OMG! #privilege Robinson, 66, became diocesan bishop of New Hampshire in March 2004. He retired in January 2013 and is currently a senior fellow at the progressive Center for...

Gene Robinson, recognized as the first openly gay bishop in a major Protestant denomination, has called on Pope Francis to change the Roman Catholic Church's official doctrine that defines homosexuality as a disorder, arguing that such a teaching is "the basis for discrimination, rejection and violence the world over." The Vatican has repeatedly said that Pope Francis is not seeking to make doctrine changes, however. "If Pope Francis is to be believed in all the kindly pronouncements of his first year (and I do), his good tone should be followed by the tough work of changing the systems of belief,...

The story of the first gay Bishop of the American Episcopal Church, Gene Robinson, is fascinating. His parents were poor, ignorant, redneck, tobacco farmers, who were fundamentalist Christians. Robinson was a gay child raised in the Bible Belt state of Kentucky, where he was taught hateful religious right doctrines that the definition of marriage is one man joined to one woman, and that no other form of sexual behavior was permitted. Robinson's hillbilly redneck parents also required their child to attend Sunday School, where he had a perfect attendance record for 13 years. In these Christian religious schools, he was...

UPDATE: Hours after apology, Exodus International announces plans to close and begin a separate ministry. Melissa Steffan Update (June 19): Exodus International announced Wednesday night it will shut down and start a separate ministry for a "new generation." “We’re not negating the ways God used Exodus to positively affect thousands of people, but a new generation of Christians is looking for change – and they want to be heard,” said board member Tony Moore. The announcement came hours after issuing an apology to the gay community. At the time, Exodus leaders had shared little about their next steps, and the...

WASHINGTON – Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church, believes that voucher programs that benefit religious schools are a "tragedy." The controversial bishop of New Hampshire told The Christian Post on Monday his views on vouchers at an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress on the issue of poverty reduction. "I am a believer in public education and I believe every dollar diverted from public education either by religious schools or by charter schools is a tragedy," said Robinson. "[A voucher] takes away from this great mission that is so embedded in the life...

It was St. Peter Damian, a Doctor of the Church, who explained that the vice of sodomy "surpasses the enormity of all others," because, "Without fail, it brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust: It leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind . . . It opens up Hell and closes the gates of Paradise . . . It is this vice that...

The most powerful propaganda is often the most subtle. If a person is portrayed as doing great, humanitarian things versus doing divisive or hurtful things, that person's cause and message are also given a psychological boost. In today's culture wars the mainstream media does this in spades. When writing about people involved in these issues, there is rarely any middle ground -- as we've warned pro-family people for years. Although the casual reader may not realize it, the media takes this very seriously. On Dec. 5 the Boston Globe ran a prominent feature article on Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the...

Across the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, congregants and clergy today reacted with heavy hearts to word that Bishop V. Gene Robinson is retiring. Robinson, 63, whose consecration seven years ago as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church divided the Anglican Communion worldwide, yesterday announced at the annual convention of the New Hampshire diocese that he plans to retire in January 2013, short of the mandatory 72-year-old retirement age for Episcopal bishops. He cited death threats and the considerable strain that the worldwide rift has placed on him, his family, and the church.

A United Methodist congregation should conduct same-sex marriages despite the possibility of negative consequences, according to Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. "I'm here to tell you that when you speak about God's limitless, boundless and unimaginable love, you will get into trouble: I promise you, I know this," Robinson said to the congregation. Robinson both gave a sermon at the invitation of Foundry's Senior Pastor, Dean Snyder, as well as answered questions from church members during an informal session following the Sunday morning worship services. Robinson's sermon was part of a month-long "outstanding preacher" series...

It all began on a hot southern summer day on Indigo Creek Trail much like an episode of one of those to catch a predator shows that are so popular these days and leave honest folk with their mouths slack from incredulity and disgust with the only difference being that instead of a perp coming to a decoy house stocked with fresh made lemonade or sweet tea, cameras, and an moralizing media finger wagger the authorities were instead coming to the house of one Frank Lombard and his male house mate. Frank was a successful gay man so much so...

Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the only openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, has been asked to give the invocation at the first official inaugural activity, a welcome event with the president-elect on Sunday afternoon on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Robinson had been critical of president-elect Barack Obama for asking Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor who encouraged voters to overturn same-sex marriage in California, to deliver the invocation at the inauguration. Episcopal Cafe has an e-mail from Robinson: "I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to...

A conservative Christian activist says it's a sad omen for the Obama administration and the United States that Barack Obama has been seeking guidance from the Episcopal Church's first openly homosexual bishop. The Times of London reports that the president-elect sought out New Hampshire homosexual bishop Vicki Gene Robinson for advice three times during his presidential campaign. Robinson, whose ordination in the Episcopal Church has caused a deep rift within the Anglican Communion, was reportedly sought out by Obama to discuss what it feels like to be "first." Robinson notes in their three private conversations, Obama voiced his support for...

Now Bishop Robinson intends to make the Catholic Church his new mission field for his crusade.In a report first confirmed by the Associated Press and confirmed in numerous Press and Media venues, Bishop Robinson has acknowledged that he led a “confidential retreat” of 75 Roman Catholic Priests in 2005 at which he encouraged their open dissent from the teaching of the Church and their overt disobedience to their vowed celibacy. His intention now seems to be to take his self styled libertine revolution into the Catholic Church.