With less than a month before the upcoming Sept. 30 deadline handed to The Episcopal Church to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or bless same-sex unions, this commentary is being republished by request. It was originally published Monday, November 3, 2003.
The consecration of Reverend V. Gene Robinson as the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire will long be remembered in the history of the church as a craven act of moral rebellion and the rejection of Holy Scripture. November 2, 2003 is a day that will live in biblical infamy.In the days leading up to his consecration, Bishop Robinson had rejected calls by Anglican leaders in the worldwide communion to stand down from his election. Similarly, presiding Bishop Frank Griswold deflected the calls from his fellow primates around the world to avoid schism in the church through the election of an openly homosexual man as bishop of the church.
Robinson, always ready to play the martyr, said just before his consecration: "If in my own prayer life I were to discern that God were asking me to stop, then I would do so. But I must say I've been praying about this long and hard, and where my mind and heart are at the moment is that God wants me to move forward with this."
Robinson declared that he is "extremely at peace about this decision." Not to appear callous, he also insisted that he constantly worries about "the fact that this is causing so much pain and difficulty for some people. I don't relish that at all, and yet I believe that out of that pain the church is going to be a better place."
Here we have a classic expression of an individual asserting his own autonomy over biblical authority. Gene Robinson does not really care what the Bible has to say about his homosexuality. Indeed, he has conceded that the Bible condemns homosexual activity, but also asserts that the Bible should not have the last word in the matter. To the contrary, Robinson and his allies package his election and consecration as bishop as a great moral advance as the Episcopal Church (USA) leaves the dark ages of sexual repression and enters the brave new world of celebrated homosexuality.
