Should We Be Happy for Bishop Robinson?

By Mark Riley

So what if it looks like a bone to the gay community. President-Elect Obama's invitation to Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson to deliver the invocation at a pre-inaugural event is a good thing.




It at least shows Obama's paying attention. Frankly, I still have problems with having Rick Warren being asked to play a central role in the inauguration itself.



Warren, the pastor of a California mega-church, has been asked to open the swearing in next Tuesday. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban that passed last November. No matter. Bishop Robinson says his inclusion isn't a reaction to the anger that swept the gay and lesbian community at the news of Warren's role. We should believe him, I guess.

I had the privilege of interviewing Bishop Robinson not long after he was consecrated by the Episcopal Church. That act in 2003 caused a growing rift in the Anglican Communion, parent body of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Robinson struck me then as a humble man with a fine tuned sense of humor, precisely the kind of person who would make a great bishop in the church I had rejoined after more than 30 years.

You'll note (I hope) that I haven't referred to Bishop Robinson as "The openly gay Bishop". That's because it seems everyone else in the media does, and I'm sick of it. Bishop Gene Robinson shouldn't be defined by his sexuality and more than Rick Warren is. Nobody refers to him as "The openly straight Pastor", nor should they.

Unlike a lot of other clergy, Gene Robinson has publicly admitted his human frailty, having been in a 12 step program for alcohol addiction. He says the language he'll likely use in his invocation Sunday will come from what he learned there. That all his colleagues in the Episcopal Church haven't embraced him is a travesty. In my brief time with him, however, I didn't detect any real anger at the people who have shunned him.

I have learned that lesson from other clergy in my own church, both gay and straight. They seem to have remarkable patience in the face of their enemies, far more than I think I could muster if I were in their shoes. In that context, the inclusion of Bishop Gene Robinson isn't just a good thing, but a triumph.

I just wish Barack Obama would switch the roles at the inauguration of Bishop Robinson and Pastor Warren.

What do you think?