Now it’s the Christian haters who are appalled by Obama’s choice of invocation-slingers. Take it away, Bill Donohue…

“President-elect Barack Obama says he wants to unite Americans, and yet he chooses the most polarizing person in the Episcopal Church, Bishop Gene Robinson, to offer a prayer at one of his inaugural events. Robinson, who dumped his wife and children to live with another man, is not just an embarrassment to rank-and-file Episcopalians, he has a record of offending Catholics, as well.”

Yeah, Robinson’s an embarrassment to rank-and-file Episcopalians—you know, the rank-and-file Episcopalians who elected him bishop. And what did Robinson do to offend Catholics? He spoke out against the Catholic Church’s efforts to purge gay men from the priesthood and he lead a retreat for embattled gay Catholic priests. The Catholic Church has a long history of poaching disgruntled Anglican priests, so you can see why Robinson’s taste-of-your-own-medicine outreach pissed ’em off.

But here’s what Bill wants us to remember, kids: uniting Americans is fine and dandy—so long as your definition of “unity” excludes and/or outrages gays and lesbians.

33 replies on “Ah… That’s Better…”

  6. Tired of polarizing religious leaders screwing up the holidays, the inauguration, the schools, the national parks, and SDOT’s snow removal efforts? Try separation of church and state.

  7. Religious bigots are sickening. Random variation in biology defies the oversimplifications of religion. Eventually, those who define sex by religious concepts instead of more rational medical and legal concepts will be flushed down the toilet of history, much as were the adherents of the geocentric theory of the solar system. Objectivity will prevail in the long run.

  9. Rightwing asshole religious fanatic extremist outrage
    to counter the
    leftwing asshole homosexual fanatic extremist outrage of Savage…
    ah, the chosen one Obama has truly brought balance to the force….

  10. Well hey hey hey!!!!
    This ain’t so bad. This seems a whole lot more fair….and it does give some credence to his whole uniting America despite their divisions. I like this move a lot.

  12. The Bishop will NOT be praying at THE Inauguration.

    He will be praying at “an Inaugural event.”

    BIG difference.

    FEW notice.

    Same shit, different day.

  13. I like that the right wing is all up in arms over this, but abandoning your children is a dick move regardless of which way you swing.

  14. Yeah, straight people never abandon their children! Never , ever, ever! And they certainly don’t leave their wives. Never, ever!
    And certainly not Catholics. Never ever! Those Catholics are so holy! They fairly glow! All going to “heaven” them!

  16. It was only those crazy liberals in Gene Robinson’s diocese that elected him. There are certainly “rank-and-file” Episcopalians elsewhere who strongly disapprove, but then again, those not in Robinson’s diocese really have very little reason to complain; that’s why the whole system was set up like that.

    @7 Um, it is perfectly easy to both be religious without coming into some conflict with biology. What fundementalists (and I include die hard atheists) forget is that with an all powerful deity, there is no reason to assume he must work in the narrow channels that have been traditionally claimed. There is no conflict between science and religion, only between narrow dogmas (like religion is “oversimplified.”)

  19. Gene didn’t dump his wife and kids. She is still one of his best friends, and they split amicably. Also, he has a close relationship with his kids. That’s more than I can say about many divorced hetero fathers.

    I had the pleasure of meeting Gene two years ago when he came back to visit his alma mater. He was one of the most sincere clergymen that I’d ever met. And he’s hilarious.

  20. “But here’s what Bill wants us to remember, kids: uniting Americans is fine and dandy—so long as your definition of ‘unity’ excludes and/or outrages gays and lesbians.”

    And atheists. How about an inaugural event where nobody insults the voters of America by giving all the credit for putting Obama in the White House to their imaginary friends?

  22. My in-laws run the Episcopal Bookstore in town and think Gene Robinson rocks. So do many of their customers who buy his book. So do I, and I’m an atheist.
    Some chunk of the offended Episcopalians have skipped off to be members of the more conservative Anglican church. Not sure what’s happened recently, since a couple of gay Anglican priests got married in the UK over the summer.
    Sounds like June Bride Gene is giving the opening prayer, which is not the same as Warren’s day-off thing, but still damn cool.

  23. Wait, Bill Donohue is from the “Catholic League”, right? the group that’s basically him and a computer? Why does anyone care what he has to say?

  25. It occurs to me that these angry Christians have proven our point beautifully. We’ve said over and over that trying to meet these people halfway is pointless. They won’t compromise; they won’t respect us. Giving them a platform won’t appease them. We were called intolerant and unfair for saying so.

    Obama finally says, “Alright, alright! Here are some crumbs!” And he gives us a separate-but-equal place at the kiddie table. And what happens. Yelling and screaming from the Christian right.

    Because meeting them halfway doesn’t work. Compromise with them will never work. When will it be OK for us to finally say that some people’s ideologies aren’t worth respecting?

  30. This is ridiculous! Gene Robinson DID NOT dump his wife! She knew that Gene was gay when they got married and they tried to see if marriage would make the gay go away! It didn’t! Gene determined that he could not live up to the holy vows he made to his wife, because he was still gay after marriage, so they BOTH decided that it was best for their family to have their marriage annulled! They BOTH agreed to a divorce!!! This was fair to his wife, to their kids and it was fair to Gene!

  31. Bill Donohue is a jerk…the average bishop would just as soon enter a Trappist monastery and take the vow of silence. He speaks for noone but himself. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtin. He rants and raves like someone who has forgotten his meds.

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