Out Gay Bishop Retires Early

Well you fundies, you’ve done it. You’ve edged Bishop Gene Robinson out before his time:

An openly gay bishop whose appointment split the Anglican church is to resign, saying the last seven years had “taken their toll” on him, his family and his flock.

The Right Rev Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, revealed his plans yesterday, at at annual diocesan meeting. He will be 65 when he steps down, seven years below the retirement age.

He told the convention that being in the eye of the storm had proved too much.

He said: “Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and in some ways, you.

“While I believe that these attitudes, mostly outside the diocese, have not distracted me from my service to you, I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that they have certainly added a burden and certain anxiety to my episcopate.”

Terrible news. Gene Robinson is a great man, who I’ve had the pleasure to listen to in conversation. I will never in my life be a religious individual but what he said two years ago made fantastic sense:

This is the God I know in my life – who loves me, interacts with me, teaches and summons me closer and closer to God’s truth. This God is alive and well and active in the church – not locked up in scripture 2,000 years ago, having said everything that needed to be said, but rather still interacting with us, calling us to love one another as he loves us. It is the brilliance of Anglicanism that we first and foremost read scripture, and then interpret it in light of church tradition and human reason.

It’s appalling that this voice of reason should be edged out of mainstream Christianity at this point in its history. Its choice is after all compassion:

or intolerance and hatred:

Hopefully equally loud voices from within will take up his mantle, as he continues his work from outside the Church.