Posted on 08/04/2003 5:43:13 PM PDT by churchillbuff
Episcopalian Vote on Gay Bishop Postponed
Reuters Monday, August 4, 2003; 7:57 PM
By Sarah Tippit
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Episcopal bishops postponed a vote at the last minute on Monday on the church's first openly gay bishop to investigate charges of sexual misconduct.
"We have two concerns: one, his relationship to the Web site of Outright.org, and two, an e-mail accusation of inappropriate conduct circulated to a group of bishops," New Hampshire Bishop Douglas Theuner told his fellow [snip]...in reference to the Rev. Gene Robinson, who was set to succeed him as Bishop of New Hampshire.
...[snip] A highly visible figure during the church's convention over the past week, Robinson was not available to comment.
Church officials gave reporters copies of a recent e-mail sent to bishops by a man identified as David Lewis of Manchester, Vermont, claiming that Robinson touched him improperly "a couple of years ago" and calling him a "grab-assing skirt-chaser."
"My personal experience with him is he does not maintain appropriate boundaries with men. ..."[snip]...
The church will also look into a Web site for Outright, a group Robinson co-founded to help gay teens, that both his supporters and opponents say recently had links to pornographic Web sites.
A check of the Web site on Monday, http://outright.org, revealed no links. A Robinson supporter, Rev. Susan Russell, said the links showed up six months ago without Robinson's knowledge and had been removed.
Conservative church member David Anderson said Robinson should have been aware of the links. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The following e-mail was forwarded to all the Bishops whose names and e-mail addresses are on the General Conference Bishops List.
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 8:57PM
Subject: THe vote about Gene
I did not believe it would come to this.
PLEASE DO allow the development of some sort of blessing of committed same-sex relationships. That symbolism is important and overdue.
However, PLEASE DO NOT consent to the consecration of Gene Robinson as a bishop. Better a suspension of all the rules and tradition and a draft of Louis Crew from the floor than approval of Gene Robinson!
If you knew that a married straight male priest known for big parish leadership and fundraising as well as prophetic theological outspokenness was also a grab-assing skirt-chaser whose improprieties has nearly brought law suits against the church, would you even hesitate to withhold consent for such a priest to be consecrated a bishop in the apostolic succession?
Well, as outstanding as Gene Robinson may have been thus far as a priest and diocesan administrator, my personal experience of him is that he has does not maintain appropriate boundaries with men. I believe this is an alarming weakness of character that alone makes Gene unsuitable for the office of bishop.
When I first encountered Gene at a Province 1 convocation a couple of years ago he put his hands on me inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation. NO GAY MAN HAS EVER BEHAVED TOWARDS ME THIS WAY -- and I have had over 25 years of associations with gay male colleagues in the Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Diego show business communities.
If I were a straight woman reporting heterosexual harassment by a straight male priest, would you hesitate to take the matter seriously? Well, I am a straight man reporting homosexual harassment by a gay male priest from another diocese.
Now I thank you for your prayerful consideration before you vote.
David Lewis
In other words, a meat market.
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