Posted on 02/14/2006 9:02:59 AM PST by churchillbuff
Vicki Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire has come out of the closet and admitted that he is an alcoholic. He is now in a rehab clinic.
The bishop wrote saying he was in an alcohol treatment center with the encouragement and support of his partner, daughters and colleagues, and had checked himself in to deal with his increasing dependence on alcohol. He says he will be there for 28 days. "I will be dealing with the disease of alcoholism-which, for years, I have thought of as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether," he wrote in a letter to the Diocese of New Hampshire.
The Episcopal Church's revisionists have already begun to turn him into a hero.
Susan Russell, the President of the pansexual organization, Integrity USA, wrote in a note to her people, "Please keep our brother +Gene in your prayers for a powerful anointing of God's healing grace as we continue to give thanks for his ministry as a Bishop in the Church of God and for his exemplary witness of courageous and faithful honesty."
Here we have a man who was married to a woman with whom he had two children, divorces her, meets a man he shacks up with while he is an Episcopal priest, and then gets consecrated as a bishop, Two years later announces he has an alcohol problem, which the Episcopal Church Left is already spinning to make him look like a victim of his own drinking.
It is one more example of the Left trumpeting sin as a noble cause. The Global South bishops will not be happy, and they will see it as one more nail in the coffin of ECUSA.
There is, of course, a standing joke among Episcopalians, that wherever three or four are gathered together there you will find a fifth, (and it is our good friend Jack Daniels).
Alcoholism is not exactly new, and there is little shame admitting the fact that one has a drinking problem. Many people find Christ for the first time in an AA program, though it is no longer specifically a Christian organization, even though its founders were. I have a number of friends who are recovering alcoholics. (One is on my board).
There would be more shame in declaring you were an alcoholic if you were a Baptist than an Episcopalian. Baptists have a 'no drinking' policy, which for the most part holds up pretty well. Episcopalians, by comparison, drink like fish.
"During my first week here, I have learned so much," said Robinson. "The extraordinary experience of community here will inform my ministry for years to come. I eagerly look forward to continuing my recovery in your midst. Once again, God is proving His desire and ability to bring an Easter out of Good Friday. Please keep me in your prayers and know that you are in mine."
So there is no admission that it is personal failure, just a "disease". It's the same argument that homosexuals use for practicing anal sex. "It is hard wired, I can't help myself." Then the person gets AIDS and dies, cutting 40 years off of his life. Blame it on the disease. Never admit to personal responsibility.
The truth is Bishop Robinson is a fraud. See, I told you so. He's become a poster child of the Episcopal Left. The former Bishop of New Hamphsire, Douglas E. Theuner spent a decade brokering him in as bishop. He and they are saying sin is not, or no longer, a sin.
You cannot go on spinning a lie. Robinson's gay life style is not becoming a Christian. His lifestyle is emptying the church, and now we learn that he is also an alcoholic. What other secrets does he have? Any honest believing Christian believer has to ask what his unrepentant homosexuality has got to do with his alcoholism.
"Recent Gay and Alcoholic epidemiologic and clinical issues reveals that estimates of problematic alcohol use, derived from early literature, for both gay men and lesbians have tended to cluster around a prevalence rate of 30 percent. Despite the use of divergent sampling and measurement techniques, these studies as a whole indicated prevalence rates of problematic alcohol use to be far in excess of the figure of 10 percent usually ascribed to the general population."
Data from an opportunistic sample of gay men being followed in a natural history study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection showed high rates of lifetime alcohol (36 percent) or other drug (48 percent) abuse. See the following link,
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0847/is_n2_v15/ai_12490663#continue
The spiritual conclusion one can draw upon, is that per capita, three times as many homosexual people as straight people report problems with alcohol and substance abuse. Furthermore there is a spiritual principle behind this data that Man wants to cover up his sin, rather than repent of it, rather than seek justification and a life of sanctification.
The Episcopal Left will not see this for what it truly is, but will wrap it in the swaddling clothes of personal victimhood and "courageous honesty."
This writer has no personal axe to grind with the Bishop of New Hampshire, and neither do most orthodox priests I know. Many would fly to his rehab clinic to sit along side him and lead him in prayers for repentance and amendment of life, in all areas of his life.
Gene Robinson checks himself into a rehab clinic to overcome his improper desire for alcohol. But what is truly more important here? Perhaps he should check in with an orthodox church and ask God's help to overcome his improper desire for sodomy. If he did that he might just, single-handedly, turn the church around.
To spin this as Robinson being a victim of his own physiology is to betray the truth that Robinson, like all of us, separates himself from almighty God, and it is only through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have newness of life.
So here's to you Bishop Robinson...Jesus loves you more than you can know, whoa, whoa whoa, hey, hey hey. And he is right beside you waiting to hear your confession.
There would be more shame in declaring you were an alcoholic if you were a Baptist than an Episcopalian. Baptists have a 'no drinking' policy, which for the most part holds up pretty well. Episcopalians, by comparison, drink like fish.
Old habits are hard to break..........so to speak........
As long as there are no other Baptists (from MY church) around........!
Maybe "Book of Daniel" was cancelled too soon.
"... rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether,"
Come on, is this Scrappleface?
What?? Is being a drunkard immoral too?!?!??
Next thing you know, they will condemn adultery.
Sheesh!
< /sarc >
Whew! I thought that was Hereto for a second...can't have that now can we.
Whereas the Eps are known as "Whiskeypalians". Wherever four are gathered there is sure to be a fifth.
Hetero, (sheesh)
Have you seen the hilarious book, "Being Dead is No Excuse: the Southern Ladies' Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral"? They dissect the drinking habits of various denominations. Basically, the Baptists at a funeral reception "drink in the kitchen where the pastor can't see them", and Episcopalians "will never guess a friend might be an alcoholic until he's on the waiting list for his SECOND liver transplant." :)
Do you mean he will be saying "Bottoms UP!" only half as often, if the treatment works?
Well, heavy drinking is/was probably among the least harmful of his activities. More, it even could have impeded them.
The Gay Gene, Swishbish of New Hampster.
If Robinson ever did turn himself around and start preaching against the Culture of Death, it would turn the church upside down. It would be worth the price of admission to watch them distance and backfill, trying to pretend they never liked him in the first place.
Doesn't matter, not going to happen. Meanwhile we wait for the announcement that he is HIV+.
Jesus Christ or the Apostle Paul would have run this clown and all his ilk right out from the midst of the true Body of Christ without hesitation. There is no way they would have allowed such a person to be in a position of leadership in their vicinity. Why do the Episcopalians? Yes we are all sinners, but most of us will admit our sins and try to do better, not gloss over our sins and act as if they are virtues.
Being an alcoholic who is forgivable. What I have a problem with is that here we have a man, and I use the term loosely, who must have known he had a drinking problem when he accepted the call to become Swishbish of New Hampster. This is like coals to Newcastle in terms of his fitness to serve. The ECUSA needs to fire this fellow asap.
They say he is very talented.
I hear that if you plan to take a Baptist fishing, you should take TWO Baptists. Why? Because if you only bring one, he'll drink all your beer.
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