Meeting Gene Robinson
The trails are currently playing on television for William Crawley Meets . . . and the interview launching the series is with Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be consecrated a bishop in the history of the church. The programmes are broadcast on Tuesdays at 11.05 p.m. on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One NI.
I interviewed Gene Robinson in the library of General Theological Seminary in New York City, where he trained as an Anglican priest in the early 1970s. We chose this venue carefully: it was while he was a student at General Seminary that he both went into counselling to try to overcome his homosexual feelings and met and married his wife. His marriage ended in 1986 and he formed a relationship with his current partner, Mark Andrews, three years later.
I'll write a little more about my reaction to meeting Gene Robinson on Tuesday and after the TV interview is broadcast we'll be encouraging viewers to come to my blog to share their reactions. Look out for that -- it's the first substantial TV interview Gene Robinson has ever given on television this side of the Atlantic.
Comments
There was a newspaper report some months ago that Bishop Robinson felt himself to be under very considerable pressure. I hope he feels slighly less beleaguered now, though I am sure the schism in the American Episcopal Church has been much on his mind.
I cannot see why homosexuals should not have the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexuals. As long as people do not harm others and do not cause a public nuisance, then there can be no objection to their private likes and dislikes.
Prejudice against homosexuals, which has often been justified by citing ancient prejudice preserved in the Old Testament, has caused untold misery for millions of people who simply felt more attracted to their own sex than to the other. What harm does it do anyone else if two people of the same sex enjoy each other's company, and/or fall in love, and/or have sex? It is no-one's business but their own.
The idea that there is a spirit in charge of the cosmos and that it only approves heterosexual acts is such improbable stuff that I am amazed that anyone can take it seriously. That is why I am a Humanist.