The Buzz: Q&A: Bishop Gene Robinson

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to become bishop in a major Christian denomination, is set to lead devotionals and talk about his role with community members later this week.

An internationally controversial religious leader who strikes up a firestorm of fervent debate in many places, Bishop Robinson, of the Episcopal Church in America, comes to Jackson as guest of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

If it’s any indication of the divisiveness that often precedes/follows Robinson, the majority of the local “church professionals” – the various clergy and other church leaders within Jackson Hole’s organized Christianity– are not expected to attend a lunch discussion with him organized by St. John’s, said Father Ken Asel, the church’s rector.

Robinson will preach at St. John’s 10 a.m. Sunday, and on Monday lead a two-hour Bible study at 10 a.m. and a public discussion at 7 p.m.

Jackson Hole Weekly: What is the message you’re bringing to Jackson Hole and to St. John’s?

Bishop Gene Robinson: It’ll be a variation of the message I tried to give my whole life and ministry, which is that God’s love is broader, deeper, wider than anything that we can imagine and God’s love for us really knows no bounds. And I think the history of Christianity is really about whether or not we can believe in something that‘s miraculously wonderful, and what kind of a difference it makes in our lives.

In the last 50 years, we’ve struggled with the place of people of color, we’ve struggled with women and now we’re struggling with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, and I think what we’re seeing currently in the church is really a replay of the same questions that we’ve been asking for the whole life of the church. I think it’s a very exciting time to be a Christian and certainly an Episcopalian.

JHW: There’s a schism in the Episcopal Church now.  Do you see it dividing into liberal and conservative branches, or do you feel like it’s already divided?

GR: I think it’s really important to remember that the number of people who have left the Episcopal Church is really quite small. To read the newspapers you would think this was about a 50-50 split, what we’re really seeing is 3 or 4 or 5 percent of people walking. I do see a unified church, I mean in some sense, the 96 percent of the church that remains part of the Episcopal Church is united in the way that Episcopalians have always been united, which is under an umbrella that welcomes a diversity of opinions. If there’s anything that characterizes Episcopalians, it’s that we don’t agree on everything and that’s been our great strength –that we have been able to hold together while disagreeing about lots of things.

You take any Episcopal congregation in America and you’ll have the full spectrum of opinions on abortion, stem cell research, who should be president, whether or not we should be in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is one of the first times that anyone has ever suggested that our non-agreement about those kinds of things means we should split.

JHW: An old friend and colleague of yours told me he sees homosexuality as a non-issue among younger generations. Do you agree?

GR: Absolutely. It’s really hard to find someone under 30 who thinks this is a big deal at all, and there’s a reason for that. That’s because they have beloved friends whom they know are gay or lesbian and they know that all of the awful things that are said about LGBT people are simply not true about their friends.

Twenty years ago, most Americans would have told you they didn’t know anyone gay. Is there a family left in America today that doesn’t know some relatives to be gay or some coworker or former classmate?

Now when you’re talking about the issue, a face pops up, and the kinds of things you were willing to say about a whole class of people, none of which you knew, you’re no longer willing to say. That’s just true in spades for young. Our high school and college-age young people know plenty of young poeple who are gay and they just don’t get what all the turmoil is about. And the polling shows they’re not interested in joining any church that is going to take a negative attitude toward gay and lesbian people. So if churches are interested in evangelism and keeping young poeple involved, they better listen up, because young poeple are not interested in a church that’s going to exclude their gay and lesbian friends.

JHW: I read you were excluded from the 2008 Lambeth’s Conference of Bishops around the Archbishop of Canterbury.  I know it was a very unpleasant time, but may I ask how you found solace when you were excluded from what was such an important event to you?

GR: It was a very difficut experience. Not only was I excluded from that conference but I’m the first newly-elected and consecrated bishop since that conference began in 1867 to have ever been exluded, so it was huge. The irony was that at the opening service for that conference, in Canterbury Cathedral, which I did not attend because I promised the Archbishop of Canterbury I would not come and make any kind of trouble, the closing hymn was called “All are Welcomed.” The irony of that is just unbelievable, we talk about everyone being at the table and then the person most talked about is not allowed at the table.

It was very, very difficult. You asked me kind of where did I find solace – every morning I worshipped with four Franciscan monks at the small Franciscan house there in Canterbury. I would go there at seven o’clock every morning and pray with the monks at their small chapel in an old mill building suspended above a stream. I found so much comfort and welcome and peace there. That gave me my spiritual grounding to withstand the kind of nonstop rejection I experience there at the conference. It was really a lifesaver for me.

Also, I had stayed outside of Canterbury because of the death threats I had gotten. We had to stay at a secret location so as to be safe.

JHW: Can you discuss Gene Robinson, the clergyman, and Gene Robinson, the social activist, is there a distinction between the two or do you see yourself as one lightning rod package?

GR: You know, the source of my social action is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I believe that Jesus called us to be in the world and as best we could to make heaven on Earth, and Jesus was always, always, always interested in reaching out to the marginalized, the outcast, the disenfranchised. And it seemed to be quite clear that followers of his should be engaged with the world and trying to literally make heaven on Earth and so my social actions come out of the gospel of Jesus and that’s what I try to bring to it.

There are plenty of people who are committed to one cause or another, but what I try to do is bring my understanding of God’s will for human kind to that debate. I try to bring the light of scripture to the social action, so for me it’s not different actions or two different people, it’s the logical follow-through on the gospel itself. So I don’t feel schizophrenic at all. JHW

COURTESY BProud PHOTOGRAPHY
Bishop Gene Robinson speaks 7 p.m., Monday at St. John’s EC.

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