Bishop promises un-Christian prayer

The Other McCain/NYTimes.com ^ | January 13, 2009 | Robert Stacy McCain

[Free ThinkerNY]

What did you expect of the un-Christian clergyman?

Bishop Robinson said he had been reading inaugural prayers through history and was "horrified" at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”
"I am very clear," he said, "that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won't be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer."
Bishop Robinson said he might address the prayer to "the God of our many understandings," language that he said he learned from the 12-step program he attended for his alcohol addiction.

Way to go, Vicki Gene.

[Mandingo Conservative]

I don’t like this bishop guy - I really know who he is, but to play devil’s advocate he does have a point. Not everyone in America is a Christian. There is no state religion - I can see if there was a law or if the Constitution said Christianity was the sanctioned faith. I mean to be fair, what about Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, those Wiccans, Bahias...I know this sounds liberal saying this -

Maybe they should have a chaplin for all the different religions?

[servantboy777]

Vicki is the first openly homosexual w/partner to be “falsely ordained” as a bishop.

The Episcopal church even made a mockery of their own canons in regards to who may serve in this capacity.

The bible even lays out the guidelines for who may serve....Vicki doesn't come close to the biblical guidelines. 1Tim 3:2.

The liberals in the church make it up as they go. God's word means nothing to them. They do not want to be accountable, so they change the rules so they do not have to face their sin.

These people are simply mocking God.

[Interesting Times]

Maybe they should have a chaplin for all the different religions?

Certainly. But we'll have to include a voodoo chicken sacrifice to avoid being intolerant and undiverse.

[BrokenSmile]

We now worship in a conservative Anglican church that holds God’s word as sacred.

Really? How do you square a belief that God's word is sacred with the reason the Anglican Church exists?

[SES1066]

As a former fellow Episcopalian I see this wolf in clerical clothing as an excellent example of a careerist who has destroyed the cohesion and logic of my organized faith for his selfish reasons. His espoused logic echos the Unitarian-Universalist 'creed' far more than the beliefs I learned in the Episcopal prayerbook of my youth. Excellent exemplar of why the church of so many of the Founders is rapidly becoming a trust-fund non-entity!

[informavoracious]

That would be the solution. Multiple chaplains each representing his faith. Doing it the V. Gene Monologue way renders the prayer meaningless. Of course, that might be the real intent anyway.

[informavoracious]

"Maybe they should have a chaplin..."

Charlie, or Geraldine?

[messierhunter]

Not everyone prays, hypocrite. If you truly wanted to live by what you claim to believe, you wouldn't so much as show up in a robe in public, let alone say a generic prayer that might offend the atheists.

I wonder if he truly feels like no one should be allowed to display their faith in public in any way, and that making his prayer "un-christian" is just a step towards acheiving that goal.

[messierhunter]

Not everyone in America is a Christian. There is no state religion

Everyone in America, however, is allowed to exercise their faith in public. That goes for Obama as well. He has every right to invite as many or as few priests, pastors, rabbis, etc to his inaugural ceremonies as he wants. That is his personal decision and it has nothing to do with establishing a state religion. He has as much right to invite Vicki as he does Warren. I may prefer one choice over the other myself, but it's not my choice or anyone else's but Obama's.

[zot]

Why am I not surprised?

Yeah, this is what I also expected of him.

[RichInOC]

The Episcopal Church needs to beat its bishops.

[servantboy777]

>>Really? How do you square a belief that God's word is sacred with the reason the Anglican Church exists?”

So how does Papal infallibility square with scripture?
So how does Limbo square with scripture?
So how does Peter being the rock square with scripture?
So how does Purgatory square with scripture?
So how does planting lil Joseph the carpenter statues in the front yard to sell a home square with scripture?
So how does putting Mary on the same plane with Jesus square with scripture?
So how does Mary being perpetually a virgin square with scripture?
So how does forgiveness for a priest committing horrible sins against a child more forgivable than divorce square with scripture?
So how does celibacy of priest square with scripture?
So how does using the Apocrypha square with scripture?

Thank the Lord for the reformation. We'd all be sitting in church listening to the priest in Latin, not knowing what the heck scripture really says.