Author Topic: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer  (Read 1394 times)

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Offline happyg

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Caroline May

President Obama tapped the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop to lead the closing Easter Prayer, Monday.

According to Talking Points Memo, Obama unexpectedly called on Gene Robinson to lead the closing prayer.

Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, tweeted about the honor, ironically taking the Lord’s name in vain in the process.

“POTUS ‘preaches’ at the Easter prayer breakfast. Then, out of the blue, asks ME to close with prayer. OMG!” he tweeted with a picture.

Quote
Bishop Gene Robinson   @BishopGRobinson 
Follow
POTUS "preaches" at the Easter prayer breakfast. Then, out of the blue, asks ME to close with prayer. OMG! #privilege

 
10:58 AM - 14 Apr 2014

“OMG,” for the uninitiated, is short for “Oh my God.”

Robinson retired as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire last year. He is currently a fellow at the Center for American Progress.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/14/first-openly-gay-episcopal-bishop-delivers-closing-easter-prayer/#ixzz2yu2lLDNJ

Offline truth_seeker

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2014, 11:02:14 pm »
Who cares? People are free to select their own religion, or none at all.

The people I like the LEAST are those worried and yapping constantly about other's religions, as if they and they alone have all the answers.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline mountaineer

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2014, 02:47:54 pm »
Quote
The people I like the LEAST are those worried and yapping constantly about other's religions, as if they and they alone have all the answers.
If you don't believe your "religion" is the truth, what good is it?

Obammy selected Robinson in order to thumb his nose at the hateful, bigoted, intolerant, racist homophobe Christians who actually believe what the Bible says is true, e.g., I Corinthians 6:9-10.
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2014, 01:57:41 pm »
More about the freak show of attendees at the Institute on Religion and Democracy's blog, Juicy Ecumenism.

A snippet:
Quote

Retired Episcopal Church Bishop Gene Robinson (left) sits with White House Advisor Valerie Jarret and the Rev. Al Sharpton (right) at Monday's White House Easter Prayer Breakfast (photo: White House)



Rev. Debra Haffner   @RevDebra 
@rcrc Harry Knox and I at White House. And we were seated at the table next to the President! 
11:14 AM - 14 Apr 2014

Haffner poses with Harry Knox, President of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). Knox is also a former religious outreach official for the homosexual advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and past Executive Director of Integrity USA, the Episcopal Church’s unofficial LGBT caucus. (photo: Debra Haffner)
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2014, 11:37:41 pm »
Hey, here's another headline that begins "first openly gay bishop" ...
Quote
1st openly gay Episcopal bishop to divorce husband
Associated Press
By RACHEL ZOLL
4 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who became a symbol for gay rights far beyond the church while deeply dividing the world's Anglicans, plans to divorce his husband.

Bishop Gene Robinson has never been fully accepted within the more than 70 million-member Anglican Communion, which is rooted in the Church of England and represented in the United States by the Episcopal Church.

Robinson announced the end of his marriage to Mark Andrew in an email sent to the Diocese of New Hampshire, where he served for nine years before retiring in 2012.

Robinson would not disclose details about the end of their 25-year relationship but wrote Sunday in The Daily Beast he owed a debt to Andrew "for standing by me through the challenges of the last decade."

"It is at least a small comfort to me, as a gay rights and marriage equality advocate, to know that like any marriage, gay and lesbian couples are subject to the same complications and hardships that afflict marriages between heterosexual couples," Robinson wrote. "All of us sincerely intend, when we take our wedding vows, to live up to the ideal of 'til death do us part. But not all of us are able to see this through until death indeed parts us."

Robinson declined to comment further Sunday to The Associated Press.

The bishop endured death threats during his 2003 consecration and intense scrutiny of his personal life, and in 2006, he sought treatment for alcoholism. His election prompted some Episcopal dioceses and parishes to break away and establish the Anglican Church in North America with other theological conservatives overseas. Robinson was barred in 2008 by then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams from the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade global meeting of all Anglican bishops, as Williams struggled to find a way to keep Anglicans united.

But Robinson was also widely celebrated as a pioneer for gay rights, became an advocate for gay marriage and was the subject of several books and a documentary about Christianity, the Bible and same-sex relationships. He delivered the benediction at the opening 2009 inaugural event for President Barack Obama and, after retirement, became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank with close ties to the White House.

Robinson, 66, had been married to a woman and had two children before he and his wife divorced. He and Andrew had been partners for more than a decade when Robinson was elected to lead the New Hampshire Diocese. The two men were joined in a 2008 civil union in New Hampshire, which became a legal marriage when the state recognized gay marriage two years later.

"My belief in marriage is undiminished by the reality of divorcing someone I have loved for a very long time, and will continue to love even as we separate," Robinson wrote. "Love can endure, even if a marriage cannot."

A spokeswoman for Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori referred requests for comment to the Diocese of New Hampshire. A spokeswoman for current New Hampshire Bishop Rob Hirschfeld cited an email he sent to local clergy and wardens urging prayer for Robinson and Andrew.

Robert Lundy, a spokesman for the American Anglican Council, a fellowship for theological conservatives, said the argument against gay marriage is based on the Bible and will not be helped or hurt by the dissolution of any one marriage.

"The teaching of the Bible and the Anglican Communion is very clear that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life," Lundy said in a phone interview.

The Rev. Susan Russell, an Episcopal gay rights leader in the Diocese of Los Angeles who preached at Robinson and Andrew's union, said the end of the men's marriage was tragic, but Robinson would remain an "icon of a faithful Christian man living out his vocation, not by his choice, but by his placement in history."

"Of course, he'll get some slings and arrows," Russell said in a phone interview. "But the paradigm has shifted so dramatically that people more and more get that our marriages are no different than anyone else's marriages, and that includes the reality that some of them fail, no matter our dreams and hopes."

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Offline Dexter

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2014, 02:26:09 pm »
If you don't believe your "religion" is the truth, what good is it?

Obammy selected Robinson in order to thumb his nose at the hateful, bigoted, intolerant, racist homophobe Christians who actually believe what the Bible says is true, e.g., I Corinthians 6:9-10.

Believing what you want to believe is one thing, but trying to tear down the belief systems of other people and claiming your own is superior is pretty arrogant.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
-Socrates

Offline truth_seeker

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2014, 03:15:29 pm »
Believing what you want to believe is one thing, but trying to tear down the belief systems of other people and claiming your own is superior is pretty arrogant.
Certain varieties of "Christians" just KNOW so many things with certainty (e.g. their FAITH), and would have the hand of government impose their beliefs on the rest of our society.

An example was Prohibition.

Certain varieties of muslims similarly know many things with certainty, and have empowered some governments, to impose those beliefs on the rest of societies.

An example is prohibition of alcohol.

To demonstrate their enlightenment, the muslims also punish the victims of rapes, by killing the females, to name a choice example.

Literal interpretations of the Bible or Koran are the basis of the conflicts, and using that as a basis for civil laws.
"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline happyg

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2014, 03:18:30 pm »
Believing what you want to believe is one thing, but trying to tear down the belief systems of other people and claiming your own is superior is pretty arrogant.

So, you believe Obama actually chose the gay minister because of his purity of heart? You don't think he did it to thumb his nose at Christians? Obama doesn't do anything from the 'goodness' of his heart. He is 100% politics when he does things to aggravate one sector of society.

Offline Dexter

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2014, 03:26:19 pm »
So, you believe Obama actually chose the gay minister because of his purity of heart? You don't think he did it to thumb his nose at Christians? Obama doesn't do anything from the 'goodness' of his heart. He is 100% politics when he does things to aggravate one sector of society.

I didn't say anything about Obama or his intentions. I said that trying to push your belief system down the throat of other people is arrogant. We should all be free to believe whatever we want about religion without having self-righteous fools from any belief system harass us.
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline truth_seeker

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2014, 04:32:15 pm »
I didn't say anything about Obama or his intentions. I said that trying to push your belief system down the throat of other people is arrogant. We should all be free to believe whatever we want about religion without having self-righteous fools from any belief system harass us.
Not only arrogant but contrary to the Constitution, which precludes a state favored religion.

"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline mountaineer

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2014, 07:17:27 pm »
I didn't say anything about Obama or his intentions. I said that trying to push your belief system down the throat of other people is arrogant. We should all be free to believe whatever we want about religion without having self-righteous fools from any belief system harass us.
I haven't observed anything of the sort at this forum. Have you? Are you making specific accusations or just expressing a general opinion?
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Offline Dexter

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2014, 02:33:32 am »
I haven't observed anything of the sort at this forum. Have you? Are you making specific accusations or just expressing a general opinion?

It wasn't directed at anybody here. People are very touchy about opinions and ideas that define them as people, so religious ideology can be a very touchy subject. I think people from all denominations are guilty of that sort of behavior. People just need to accept the fact that other people believe different things just as strongly as you believe what you believe, and often times you can never change their minds no matter how much you try.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2014, 02:35:20 am by Dex4974 »
"I know one thing, that I know nothing."
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: First openly gay Episcopal Bishop delivers closing Easter prayer
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2014, 11:28:35 am »
Okay, thanks for the comment. I think the important - and probably difficult - thing is to discern when people really are open to hearing about one's  faith.  I agree with you that no one wants to get beaten over the head with someone else's beliefs, and I understand.
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