Posted on 05/02/2006 5:39:26 PM PDT by sionnsar
Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson encouraged attendants of a gay Republican convention to continue fighting for social and political equality.
"It's not a lot to ask," he said, "and it would make God very happy."
Robinson, who spoke April 28 at the Log Cabin Republicans National Convention in Washington, D.C., said the struggle for gay rights ultimately is a struggle for inclusion.
He challenged members of the nation's largest gay GOP group to seek fair and equal treatment in society, in politics and in church.
Robinson echoed other convention speakers - including Alan Duncan, the first openly gay Conservative in the U.K.'s Parliament - who criticized the GOP push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
"The notion that my love for my partner somehow undermines another person's marriage is just idiocy," he said. "Isn't it?"
Duncan, who spoke April 29, said U.S. laws shouldn't be "ideologically driven." He condemned leaders of the GOP in the America, who are generally ideological brethren with his own Tory Party in the U.K., for maintaining an "unholy alliance with the Religious Right."
"It's the duty of the state to intervene when two people hate each other," he said, "not when they love each other."
Former Sen. John Danforth also criticized the conservative push to ban gay marriage through a constitutional amendment.
He called the effort silly, and cited it as the latest example of how the political influence of evangelical Christians is hurting the GOP.
Danforth, a Missouri Republican and an Episcopal priest, said history has shown that attempts to regulate human behavior with constitutional amendments are misguided.
"Once before, the Constitution was amended to try to deal with matters of human behavior; that was prohibition. That was such a flop that that was repealed 13 years later," Danforth said.
Referring to the marriage amendment, he added that perhaps at some point in history there was a constitutional amendment proposed that was "sillier than this one, but I don't know of one."
The Senate is scheduled to vote in June on a constitutional amendment that its supporters hope will head off any decision in the federal courts that could legalize gay marriage.
The measure would need to be approved by two-thirds of those voting in the House and Senate and then be ratified by at least 38 state legislatures.
But Danforth said he is opposed.
"The basic concept of the Republican Party is to interpret the Constitution narrowly, not expansively, so that legislatures, and especially state legislatures, can work out over a period of time the social issues in our country," he said.
Log Cabin also honored retiring Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) at the April 29 event, which capped off the group's annual convention - perhaps the last for longtime LCR President Patrick Guerriero. Kolbe, who is openly gay, is completing his 11th term in the House representing a district near Tuscon.
Kolbe called on Log Cabin members to stand up for gay rights, both at home and around the world. A video tribute for Kolbe featured Vice President Dick Cheney and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. God would not be happy.
How on earth can a supposed "Christian" say that God would be happy with homosexuality?
What's next, having an Episcopal bishop suggest God wants active adulterers to stand up for their practice? Or that one can best glorify God by having sex with animals?
I thought Victor/Victoria was in alcohol rehab. What's he doing speaking to the LCRs?
Which god,Bacchus?
Robinson just bought his ticket to the hot place.
ping
Danforth is NUTS!! Or he has a gay son or daughter or else HE or his wife is gay. NO ONE that is GODLY would say that Homosexuality is good. Robinson and Danforth are what has happened to the Episcopal Church in America. VERY SAD!!
Didn't think God wanted the opinion of gays and lesbians regarding how "happy" He is with their sins. I think the word is disgusted.
He was in for a month. He's long since out.
(And can one say this? His name is not his doing...)
Is a month long enough for rehab to do any good? I thought they kept you for 8-10 weeks or longer.
If his parents were so hot to have a daughter that they gave their son two girls' names, what the heck else went on while that kid was raised?
The notion that my counterfeit twenties somehow undermine another person's legitimate currency is just idiocy. Isn't it?
Vicki Gene has destroyed the Episcopalian Church and now he wants to do the same for the Republican Party.
His Master must be really proud of him!
List. Gag.
Good Point--Muslims worship Allah, but I doubt very seriously it is the same God that I worship.....This guy believes that he knows the mind of G-d--he doesn't:
Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Romans 1:24 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Oh, I forgot--they replaced the Tanach with their own sick brand of beliefs (they don't like that mean Jewish G-d of the 'Old Testament.')
In Washington state the Republican party is already a joke. At best.
Were I him, I'd move my co-ordinance
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