Look at Your Own Church First, Bishop Robinson

KENILWORTH, 6 NOVEMBER 2005 — Bishop Gene Robinson has been accused of being blinkered about his own church after he launched an attack on the Vatican’s attitudes to homosexuality.

Speaking on his whistle-stop tour of Britain, during which he met the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr Robinson has been quoted as saying: “Let’s keep our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in our prayers. I cannot imagine how discouraging it would be to have a church hierarchy doing what it does. I find it so vile that they think they are going to end the child abuse scandal by throwing out homosexuals from seminaries. It’s an act of violence that needs to be confronted.”

George Broadhead, secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), said: “While we agree that the Vatican needs to be confronted and challenged on its poisonous attitudes to homosexuality (and we in GALHA, and other secular groups like OutRage!, have been doing just that for many years) we think that Mr Robinson should be looking at his own church first. After all, it wasn’t the Pope who said ‘Homosexuality or lesbianism or bestiality is to us a form of slavery’. That honour goes to the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola.

“And there is still agitation by factions of Anglicanism in the US against gay rights. Not only is gay marriage being outlawed in state after state – after much religious opposition – but basic human rights are being denied to gays – such as the right to medical treatment for same-sex partners that is taken for granted by married heterosexual couples. Gay rights are rolling back at a very swift rate in America and homophobic Anglicans bear some responsibility for this. So, we say to Gene Robinson: We appreciate your courage in standing firm against bigotry, but before you tackle the Vatican, you should get the mote out of the eye of your own Church first.”