← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · kminta
Thread ID: 8801 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2003-08-06
2003-08-06 03:21 | User Profile
*Just one more example of what happens when abnormal behavior is made normal. *
[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21844-2003Aug5.html]Episcopal Church Confirms Gay Bishop[/url] Last-Minute Charges Rejected Before 62-43 Vote
By Alan Cooperman Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 6, 2003; Page A01
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 5 -- Surmounting threats of a schism and eleventh-hour allegations of misconduct, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson won confirmation today as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Senior bishops voted 62 to 43, with two abstentions, to approve Robinson's election by Episcopalians in New Hampshire, capping a rollercoaster of emotional debate, soulful prayer and unexpected accusations at the General Convention here.
A church committee paved the way for the final vote by clearing Robinson, 56, of allegations that he inappropriately touched a man in Vermont and was affiliated with a youth organization whose Web site had an indirect link to pornography on the Internet. The allegations arose Monday, just hours before the bishops originally were scheduled to vote, throwing the convention into turmoil and causing a 24-hour delay.
Moments after the results of the confirmation vote were announced, more than a dozen conservative bishops announced they would appeal to the heads of the 38 regional churches that make up the 75 million-member Anglican Communion.
"With grief too deep for words, the bishops who stand before you must reject this action," they said in a statement read by Bishop Robert W. Duncan of Pittsburgh. "We are calling upon the primates of the Anglican Communion, under the presidency of the archbishop of Canterbury . . . to intervene in the pastoral emergency that has overtaken us." Because the Anglican Communion is a federation of autonomous churches, however, it is unclear what power its leaders have to intervene.
Robinson pledged to work toward reconciliation, and told reporters, "I am proud to be in a church which works to be a safe place for all of God's children." Gay rights advocates called Robinson's victory a major step toward full acceptance of gays in the Episcopal Church and in American society. Mindful that a national debate is raging over same-sex marriage, they said the church had added its moral voice to those encouraging gays to form life-long, monogamous relationships.
"This is an example to the country, to the culture and to other denominations that diversity is something to be celebrated and that the entire family of God is enriched by individuals who commit themselves to each other," said the Rev. Susan Russell, executive director of Claiming the Blessing, an Episcopal group pushing for an official rite for blessing same-sex unions.
Opponents said the outcome is a step toward moral disintegration in America. They predicted that it would cause thousands of Episcopalians to join more conservative denominations or Episcopal splinter groups.
"The Episcopal Church will emerge from this convention broken, wounded, divided and desperately polarized," Bishop Edward Little of Indiana warned during final debate.
Leaders of the American Anglican Council, a group that has warned for weeks that Robinson's election could provoke a schism, contended that the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church USA is effectively pulling away from the Anglican Communion, which is descended from the Church of England.
But they said the impact will not be immediate.
"The repercussions will start when people go home to their congregations, when rectors meet parishioners at the church door, when people start to say, 'I'm out of here,' " said the Rev. David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council. "What it's not going to be is some sudden, rapid, poorly thought-through type of response."
Anderson said he will organize a national meeting of conservative Episcopalians in October to consider their options, including the possibility of forming orthodox parishes into a new Anglican province in the United States.
Robinson, 56, is divorced and has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, 50, since 1989. Though Episcopalians in New Hampshire elected him as a bishop on June 7, church rules required the consent of both houses of the church's General Convention, which meets every three years.
On Sunday, the House of Deputies, which consists of more than 800 priests and lay delegates from dioceses across the nation, approved Robinson's election by a 2 to 1 majority after an emotional debate.
Then on Monday, just hours before the church's 107 senior bishops were to take a final vote, opponents circulated two allegations. The more serious was contained in an e-mail message from a Vermont man accusing Robinson of "homosexual harassment" and urging the bishops not to confirm his election.
Griswold, as presiding bishop, assigned Bishop Gordon P. Scruton of western Massachusetts to oversee an investigation. Scruton reported today that his committee spoke by telephone with the Vermont man, who complained that Robinson "made him feel uncomfortable" by touching his arm and back during two brief conversations at a church gathering in 1999.
Scruton noted that the incident took place in public, and he said the Vermont man "acknowledged that other people could have seen the exchange as natural and normal." The man also said he did not wish to bring a formal charge, "had no desire to pursue the matter any further" and regretted using the word "harassment" in an e-mail complaint he sent to many Episcopal bishops late Sunday evening, Scruton said.
Scruton did not name the man, who identified himself in the e-mail as David Lewis of Manchester, Vt.
Friends in Vermont said today that Lewis is active in his parish, Zion Episcopal Church, and had once studied to become an Episcopal priest. Lewis could not be reached for comment; neighbors said he had gone out of town after the news media attention that followed disclosure of his e-mail. Zion's senior warden, Lou Midura, said that Lewis "would like everyone to know that his statement was meant to be privately conveyed to the governing body of the Episcopal Church."
Becky Nowrath, a member of the church for 30 years, said that she was shocked and dismayed when she heard the news about Lewis's allegations. "I just don't know where this came from," she said. "He is a kind, gentle man, and not one to go for attention. But if he meant this to stay quiet, this was not the thing to do. It will have a huge impact on the congregation."
The other allegation was that Robinson was closely associated with Outright, a gay youth counseling group whose Web site had an indirect link to pornography. Scruton said his investigation found that Robinson helped found the group's New Hampshire chapter in 1995 but had not been involved with it since 1998, four years before the Web site was created.
"I see no evidence that Canon Robinson was aware of or associated with the Web site or its contents," Scruton concluded.
*Staff writer Jonathan Finer contributed to this report *
From Manchester, Vt.
é 2003 The Washington Post Company
2003-08-06 03:44 | User Profile
Keep pushin' on all fronts, cornholers. More "Supreme" Court "victories"! More Fag TV! More polesmoking bishops! More, I say! Get the complacent Bible Belters & La Z Boys so enraged they'll rise up off their knees at last to annihilate you all.
2003-08-06 03:50 | User Profile
kminta,
Tragic as this story sounds, should this surprise anyone in the year 2003? At this point in time how can there be any principled Christians left in the Episcopal Church and most other churches in the National Council of Churches that practice theological liberalism and preach a social gospel?
The devout were compelled to leave long ago by Romans 16:17
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
2003-08-06 03:53 | User Profile
And the sooner the better. Get rid of all the dykes too. What a bunch of losers these people are. The ultimate narcissists.
Next the fags will try to make pedophilia legal and define anyone who objects as a "hater" cuz afterall, pedophiles got rights too! Now a days you can't go to a rest stop or even the woods without running into these people boinking each other. What's next? Marriage between a man and a dog or a man and his sheep? We need some 'hate crime' legislation around that too. :taz:
2003-08-06 04:06 | User Profile
[url=http://www.godhatesfags.com]godhatesfags.com[/url]
Check out this site. Just the news that Reverand Phelps will be showing up in some city to protest fagotry has been known to cause severe spasms in certain parts of the anatomy of the rump rangers and their fellow deviants. :blink:
2003-08-06 23:36 | User Profile
I find it interesting that the secularists who promote the everything goes lifestyle, including homosexuality, beastiality, pedophilia, etal, are always screaming that God and the Bible are irrevelent, and that you can't shove morality based upon religion on them.
However when seeking acceptance within mainstream institutions they scream God made me this way, you can't discriminate.
Since logically both cannot be true...
2003-08-07 14:37 | User Profile
The Reverend Gene Robinson. Putting the piss back in Episcopal.
2003-08-08 11:34 | User Profile
On a somewhat related note: Episcopal teaching on [url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/peace-justice/article_71.asp]The Sin Of Racism[/url] which the Birdman linked to recently.
2003-08-08 13:50 | User Profile
Any religion that prides itself in its egalitarian submission before God will inevitably be anti-racist and far too "tolerant" for its own good.
As Nietzsche said, Christianity is a trap laid by Jews :)
2003-08-08 14:41 | User Profile
As Nietzsche said, Christianity is a trap laid by Jews
The Episcopal Church is certainly kosher. It can now rightly be called the Church of the Holy Queers. Goes to show that Christanity can adapt to any perversion, all in the name of social progress. After fifty years of Jewish control of our media and entertainment factories, it's difficult to disentangle what aspects of our culture are American and which are kosher manifestations of our national suicide.
-Z-
2003-08-08 15:00 | User Profile
**On a somewhat related note: Episcopal teaching on The Sin Of Racism which the Birdman linked to recently. **
Yep.
...and by their fruits ye shall know them.