After the Episcopal Church OK'd the
ordination of gay bishops, televangelist Pat Robertson said he
supports the demise of the church.
Robertson's latest anti-gay comments
came Tuesday, the day after the Episcopal Church voted in favor of
lifting their three-year moratorium on the consecration of gay
bishops. The self-imposed pause was initiated after the church
consecrated its first openly gay bishop, Rev. Gene Robinson of New
Hampshire, in 2003.
Robertson made his remarks while
discussing the leadership of the Episcopal Church of America on the
Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club.
“They have lost their way. They were
taken over by this controversy having to do with same-sex marriage
and the ordination of homosexual bishops. Once they got into that
morass and lost their way from scriptural teaching, they didn't have
much denomination left,” Robertson said.
“There is a very vibrant denomination
coming along, it is called the American Anglican Church, and
thousands of people are moving toward it. It's amazing that their
presiding bishop is from Rwanda. But nevertheless, they are filled
with the flame of the Holy Spirit and we congratulate them.”
“And there will be no tears in my
life if the Episcopal Church of America just quietly goes out of
business,” Robertson added.
The American Anglican Church is the
100,000-member church that has splintered from the Episcopal Church
over the issues of gay clergy and gay marriage. The Anglican
Communion – of which the Episcopal Church is the American branch –
is one of the largest religious denominations with 77 million members
worldwide.
Later in the week, the church also gave
bishops the discretion to offer a blessing to gay and lesbian
marriages.
Robinson, the sixty-one-year-old bishop
at the center of the controversy over gay clergy, told the New
York Times that the church is unlikely to fracture.
“I think it will hold,” Robinson,
who lives in Weare, New Hampshire with his husband, said. “Now
that we've done the, quote, unthinkable, the church won't look much
differently than before. Opponents of marriage equality predict the
end of Western civilization as we know it if gay couples are allowed
to marry. And then when it comes, there's no big whoop.”
Last month, Robertson advised a mother
to love her gay son who is going to hell, adding that being gay was a
result of abuse.
On the day after Maine legalized gay
marriage, Robertson called allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry
“the beginning in a long downward slide” to legalized child
molestation.
“We haven't taken this to its
ultimate conclusion,” Robertson told viewers.
“How can we rule that polygamy is
illegal when you say that homosexual marriage is legal. … And what
about bestiality and ultimately what about child molestation and
pedophilia? … You mark my words, this is just the beginning in a
long downward slide in relation to all the things that we consider to
be abhorrent.”
Weeks earlier, Robertson suggested a
hate crimes bill currently before Congress that protects gay, lesbian
and transgender persons against violent bias-related crimes would
protect someone who “likes to have sex with ducks” or “little
boys.”
“You got somebody, he's really weird,
and his sexual orientation is that he likes to have sex with ducks.
Is he protected under hate crime? Is he protected if he likes to
have sex with little boys?” Robertson asked.
Robertson's renewed interest in
attacking gay men and lesbians comes in the wake of a wave of
victories for gay advocates, including the legalization of gay
marriage in four states – and recognition in the District of
Columbia – this year, and a recent upturn of support for gay and
lesbian rights.