Ed Garren’s Weblog

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. (Photo: Brian Snyder / Reuters)

    Concord, New Hampshire - The first openly gay Episcopal bishop will offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural event for President-elect Barack Obama.

    The selection of New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson for Sunday’s event follows weeks of criticism from gay-rights groups over Obama’s decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration.

    Warren backed the ban on same-sex marriage that passed in his home state of California on the November ballot.

    Robinson said last month the choice of Warren was like a slap in the face. In an interview with the Concord Monitor, he said he doesn’t believe Obama invited him in response to the Warren criticism but said his inclusion won’t go unnoticed by the gay and lesbian community.

    ”It’s important for any minority to see themselves represented in some way,” Robinson told the newspaper for a story in Monday’s editions. “Whether it be a racial minority, an ethnic minority, or in our case, a sexual minority. Just seeing someone like you up front matters.”

    Clark Stevens, a spokesman for the inaugural committee, said Robinson was invited because he had offered his advice to Obama during the campaign and because of his church work. When asked whether Robinson was included to calm the Warren complaints, he said Robinson is “an important figure in the religious community. We are excited that he will be involved.”

    Robinson, 61, said both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the event, and Obama is expected to speak. As for himself, Robinson said he doesn’t yet know what he’ll say, but he knows he won’t use a Bible.

    ”While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans,” Robinson said. “I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation.”

    Robinson said his prayer will be reflective of the times.

    ”I think these are sober and difficult times that we are facing,” he said. “It won’t be a happy, clappy prayer.”

    Robinson’s 2003 consecration has divided the church in the United States and abroad. Last month, theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province.

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Many people have asked me why the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans and Queer communities (and our friends) are so outraged about the selection of “Pastor” Rick Warren to offer the invocation at President Obama’s inauguration. 

Inviting one of the principal supporters of a prejudicial political initiative (Proposition Eight) to give the invocation at the inauguration is the social equivalent of inviting an Orthodox (Jewish) Rabbi and his family to dinner and serving ham and lobster.It’s just plain thoughtless, if not insulting and abusive.    

Many straight “friends” say, “just get over it, what’s the big deal.”  These friends miss two points, the first is that the so called “Christian community (mostly evangelicals who have traditionally fought against other social change like the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, racial desegregation, etc.) have been waging this war against GLBTQ people for over 30 years.  It started with Anita Bryant in 1977.  Ballot initiatives such as Prop. 8 have defined our community for most of it’s existence.  Every four years we have to endure another vote on our rights to exist with dignity. 

The second piece is that many people in this country do not seem to understand that anger, and the appropriate expression of it when one has been violated, is a normal and healthy thing.  Our country was founded on dissent.  All civil rights groups utilize dissent as a means of telling the larger community, “your behavior is no longer acceptable.”In most relationships that are healthy, there is conflict.  

It is incumbent upon all parties involved to let others know when they have been insulted, hurt, or otherwise assaulted.  In other words, anger is the emotion we are given by the creator to protect ourselves from being assaulted.  

How we express that anger is helpful in terms of reconciliation, but the anger must be expressed honestly, and significantly enough that the offense is noted and the offensive behavior corrected.

As a Christian, I live for the day when I can embrace “Evangelicals” as fellow the fellow siblings of God that they are.  But first, they need to “get it” that their behavior kills people and we have no tolerance for it.  

This is not about politics, it is about the spiritual and mental health of an entire community.I’m tired of us being passively polite to people who hate us, or at least engage in hate filled behavior.  

There was nothing passive or polite about the sit in’s and marches during the civil rights era.  The demonstrations and other forms of dissent that black citizens engaged were an effective way to deliver a clear message to white people that they were fed up with segregation.   I lived through it, something few on the west coast can claim.

“Back Home” we tell friends when they piss us off.  We don’t pussy foot around about it.   Friendships are based in strength, not weakness.  We need to make it very clear to “Pastor” Warren that his behavior is abhorrent to God, and he owes God, and us a BIG apology.  He can start with dragging Anita Bryant out of retirement and the two of them can go on the stump with their fellow “Bible Thumpers” to publicly convince their fellows to change.  Anything less is window dressing, and I’m over that too.

If we don’t take responsibility for telling Mr. Warren that he’s wrong, will his blood be on our hands at judgement day?

Martin Luther King spoke in Detroit in 1963 and said (in so many words), “We’ve been pushed around so long, and as much as we want to blame them for all that they have done to us, we will never be truly free until we take responsibility for letting them do it.”

We need to make it clear to everyone that we’ve been insulted, and we’re pissed, and we expect either an apology or some compensatory action, like maybe finally lifting the ban on Gays & Lesbians in the military.  We short change ourselves, patronize President Obama, and let the bullies of the world get away with one more assault on us if we don’t express our anger and demand justice.  That doesn’t mean we hate Obama, or Warren.  It just means we’re angry, and will get over it faster when our issues have been reconciled and we are no longer being constantly assaulted in the name of God by people who are mean spirited and are acting very “UN-Christian.”  

That’s what healthy people do in healthy and loving relationships. If we really love “America” then it is our patriotic duty to object when the rights of all Americans are not being honored.