Openly gay New Hampshire Bishop
Gene Robinson is in the United Kingdom where he has been excluded
from the Anglican Church's Lambeth Conference of church leaders. On
the BBC1 program the Andrew Marr Show, Robinson said he felt
the church had made a mistake.
Gene Robinson's ordination to bishop in
2003 created a schism between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican
Communion. Many church leaders protested including Robinson at the
conference, pressuring the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams to
exclude him.
Appearing on the show with British out
actor Sir Ian McKellen, Robinson discussed why he was in the UK when
he was not invited to the conference.
“I want the light of Christ to shine
forth from me... God loves me as a gay man. And I want to share that
joy with whomever wants to sit and talk with me.”
“I think miracles happen when people
who are divided by something sit and talk with each other, get to
know one another as human beings, and as brothers and sisters in
Christ. And that's why I'm going, to offer myself in that way.”
“...I think a mistake was made in not
including me in those conversations. I was the only openly gay voice
that might have been at the table. But I will do what I can from the
fringe.”
Sir McKellen, who is an atheist, had
harsher words for the church on the topic of homosexuality: “Looking
at it from the outside, the church thinks it has a particular problem
with some articles, perhaps not of faith, but written in the Bible,
that they refer to. I can remember the Armed Forces not that long
ago saying that they had a particular problem – it had all to do
with discipline. Well, it's just been discovered there is no
discipline problems when you let gay people into the military. And
schools too – well, we have a particular problem. The particular
problem they all got - they share - is homophobia.”
Bishop Robinson has said in the past
that the Bible cannot be the definitive word of God. He explained
that “God didn't stop revealing God's self when the cannon of
scripture was closed at the end of the first century.”
“Jesus Christ says this amazing thing
at the last supper. He says to his disciples: 'There is more that I
would teach you, but cannot bear it right now. So I will send the
Holly Spirit who will lead you to all truth.'... God is now leading
us to the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
people.”
Near the end of the interview, Bishop
Robinson says that young people questioning their sexuality, who are
unfamiliar with the Bible, always quote passages calling
homosexuality an abomination. “They thought they knew what God
thought of them. That they were an abomination. And the church is
responsible for that... And it is going to take religious voices to
undo the hatred that comes from those words.”
Later, at a Sunday church service, Bishop
Robinson was forced to halt a sermon he was delivering at a London
church when a heckler called him a “heretic” and said he should
“repent” from a pew.
The Lambeth Conference begins on
Wednesday.