"Jesus is the Homosexual Agenda"
At the 75th Episcopalian Convention Bishop Gene Robinson remarked:
Gays are often said to have an "Agenda;" the assumption being the societal legitimacy or acceptance of homosexual behavior. But the truth is, gays are really asking for recognition of homosexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation. And Robinson is taking it even further; the recognition of the homosexual person as accepted and loved by God. If God loves all his children, why should the Episcopal Church exclude gay people? It is a good question.
But Bishop Robinson's words are important for another reason.
Jesus is the agenda, the homosexual agenda -- I believe that with my whole heart . . . .
I am standing here before you believing that I am the beloved child of God because of God’s action in my own life. When I took Jesus Christ to be my lord and savior, I was speaking about a God who is not locked up in scripture 2,000 years ago, but is alive and well and working in my life as we speak. And my agenda is to speak the witness that I know of this living, loving God who loves me for all I am and all that I was created to be, wants the best for me, wants to forgive me of all my sins and raise me up from all my foibles . . . Jesus rarely pointed to himself in the synoptic gospels, he was always pointing to God and that is what homosexuals in the church want to do, to keep pointing to God and saying this God saved me from what the world and the church was telling me about myself.
While the church said I was an abomination, God somehow, miraculously, gracefully got through to me and said, “Wrong. You are my son, my beloved, in who I am well pleased.” I want to tell the world about that kind of God because the world tells people all kinds of reasons why God doesn’t love and accept them and they are all wrong. Because God loves all of God’s children. That’s the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church.
Gays are often said to have an "Agenda;" the assumption being the societal legitimacy or acceptance of homosexual behavior. But the truth is, gays are really asking for recognition of homosexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation. And Robinson is taking it even further; the recognition of the homosexual person as accepted and loved by God. If God loves all his children, why should the Episcopal Church exclude gay people? It is a good question.
But Bishop Robinson's words are important for another reason.
I am standing here before you believing that I am the beloved child of God because of God’s action in my own life.Gene Robinson is saying that God has acted in his own life in a way that convinces Robinson that he is accepable to God.
While the church said I was an abomination, God somehow, miraculously, gracefully got through to me and said, “Wrong. You are my son, my beloved, in who I am well pleased.”If Robinson is acceptable before God, how about former LDS Bishop and frequent 'nacle blogger Chris Williams, who recently came out? Or any gay person, for that matter? If they are an abomination to God, why do a great many openly gay people feel loved, accepted and validated by God? How is it that many report The Spirit working in their lives? If God hates the sin but loves the sinner, why do so many religious, but openly gay, people report a firm conviction, often the result of answer to sincere prayer, that "God loves me just the way I am, the way he intended me to be"? Are they parroting someone else's agenda? For Bishop Robinson, the Homosexual Agenda, in the Episcopal Church, refers to gay people bearing witness that they "know of this living, loving God [who] saved [them] from what the world and the church was telling [them] about [themselves]."
posted by Steven B at 6/22/2006 08:54:00 PM
5 Comments:
I had planned to post something about Hebrew Poetry, but I couldn't resist the title.
Interesting post. I've been reading a fair amount of twelve step literature, and something that struck me about the original program, AA, was that in spite of its roots in the Oxford Groups, they had absolutely no rejection of homosexuals.
Where that takes us, I don't know. But there is a lot I don't know.
Of course God loves the sinners. We are all sinners, even the straights among us. If God quit working through sinners, then he would never make his prescence known... ever.
But you are missing Robinson's point, Ian. Of course God loves the sinners. No one would disagree. Robinson is saying that God has confirmed not only his love, but approval and pleasure. Robinson's message is that Episcopal gays are acceptable to god as gay people.
The view, frequently expressed by LDS members, that God withdraws his Spirit from people who are openly gay and in relationships, apparently does not apply to Episcopal gays.
It doesn't apply to Mormon gays either. I never felt the confirmation of the spirit as strongly as when I came out.
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