First Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop Treated for Alcoholism
V. Gene Robinson became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop and his 2003 ordination in the diocese of New Hampshire split the Episcopal Church around the world. The Church’s official web site bio describes Bishop Robinson:
“Gene enjoys entertaining and cooking, gardening, music and running. He is the father of two grown daughters and the proud, new grandfather of little Morgan Isabella. He lives with his partner, Mark Andrew, who is employed by the State of New Hampshire’s Department of Safety. “
He divorced his wife and left his children to move in with his homosexual lover. So, here’s a question: Would he had been as celebrated as a champion if he left his wife and children for another woman instead?
In April of 2005, Robinson met with Planned Parenthood and said in this interview:
Little has been written about your stance on reproductive rights. Are you pro-choice?
Bishop: Absolutely. The reason I love the Episcopal Church is that it actually trusts us to be adults. In a world where everyone tries to paint things as black or white, Episcopalians feel pretty comfortable in the gray areas.
There’s some great Church policy. The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism gave this critical report about Bishop Robinson’s leadership:
Increasingly, in one diocese after another, the word is out that many are facing serious financial problems. Not surprisingly, most of them are revisionist, and the cracks and fissures are widening as moderate and revisionist bishops realize that the Episcopal Church’s pansexual agenda is causing a major dropoff in monies as orthodox parishioners flee to safer spiritual havens.
V. Gene Robinson’s consecration is coming home to roost, and if the Windsor Report is snubbed and ignored at the next General Convention, then the spiritual pain and loss of monies will only increase.
Consider the following:
The DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA has a shortfall of between $500,000 and $950,000, and the diocese can barely raise $300,000 from its parishes. Officials will dip into unrestricted net assets again to keep the diocese afloat. And the standing committee wants Bishop Bennison’s head on a platter for his unrestrained spending habits (not his theological utterances), which may have depleted the UNA from $4 million to zero. They will need an audit to know for sure.
Now, Bishop Robinson has more problems. He has admitted that he is an alcoholic and is getting treatment. He gave this statment:
“I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on Feb. 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol.”
The President of the Standing Committee of New Hampshire posted this letter of support on the Episcopal diocese web site:
The Episcopal Church, through its General Convention, has long recognized alcoholism as a treatable human disease, not a failure of character or will.
The members of the Standing Committee fully support and stand with our bishop and his family as he confronts the effects of alcohol on his life, and we commend him for his courageous example to us all, as we pray daily for him and for his ministry among us.
The Bishop’s alcoholism isn’t the real problem; everyone has “issues”. However, his alcoholism is yet another nail in the coffin of “progressive Episcopalianism”. Divorcing his wife for a gay lover; abandoning his children; dividing the Church; sending the financial status of the Church into disarray; being an alcoholic; these are Bishop Robinson’s accomplishments. Not only he is responsible for screwing up the Church he was installed to serve, but also those within the Church who supported his installation.
This disaster is the result of “moral progression”; that is, thinking that Jesus was just a man of his time, limited by social and scientific advancement, and that now we know better, we’re now a modern religion. Truth and moral absolutes are timeless. Of this religious progressive movement, arrogance is the root, “spiritual progression” is the tree and divorce, adultery, abortion, broken homes, alcoholism and division are the fruit. What a terrible thing to happen in the name of God.
Cross-posted at Amy’s Blog
February 16th, 2006 at 8:59 am
it’s believed he’s not really an alcoholic, but that he just drinks to get that taste out of his mouth
February 16th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
If you want to be truly effective, perhaps you should fact-check a little more rather than spreading lies about Robinson.
Gene Robinson did not leave his wife, nor desert his family.
Their divorce was a joint decision and one that included a church service where they asked for each other’s forgiveness and both pledged to raise their daughters together. After his wife remarried, he met his current partner, Mark, while on vacation. Furthermore, both his ex-wife and his daughter Ella gave full support to his consecration as a bishop. His other daughter couldn’t be there because she was giving birth. (Christianity Today article, BBC article, Guardian article, Anglicans Online article)
February 16th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Jared,
Thank you for your comment. After further searching, you’re right; I was wrong… to the degree that his family supports him and the divorce was mutally agreed upon and procured amicably.
However, the chance that they would still be married despite his homosexual preference if he were truly acting according to the dictates of both Jesus and St. Paul are very high. Love and responsibility go hand and hand.
At any rate, your’e right that misrepresented that part of his life. Thank you for the links.
This doesn’t make an impact the fact that the Church is in choas, and in fact that it is so embraced (divorce, same sex unions, etc.) in the Episcopal church is a big part of why the church is in a crisis.
February 19th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Amy, is it possible for you to change the wording in your post, then, since Jared is right to observe its inaccuracy?
The media has made this mistake many times, alas–
http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/?p=3952#comment-82078
February 19th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Kendall, I made the change on my personal blog but cannot on California Conservative. I’ll make a request.