Respecting the dignity of every human being (Bishop Warner defends ordination of Gene Robinson.)

The Seattle Times ^ | Friday, October 31, 2003 | By Vincent W. Warner

[Friend of thunder]

Friday, October 31, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.

Guest columnist

Respecting the dignity of every human being

By Vincent W. Warner

Special to The Times

This weekend when the Rev. Gene Robinson becomes the first openly gay person to become a bishop in the history of Christianity, the effects will be felt worldwide. I hope the ultimate meaning of the event is that the world realizes that in the Episcopal Church, absolutely no one is barred from full participation.

Why is the world paying attention to the consecration of a priest in New Hampshire as a bishop of the Episcopal Church?

It is my hope you will pay attention to the event not because Robinson is an openly gay priest, but because his consecration is a signal that the Episcopal Church acts on the promise made in baptism "to respect the dignity of every human being." It is in our relationships that we learn the true meaning of this phrase.

I have known Gene for 20 years as a friend and a priest and a human being. The Diocese of New Hampshire elected him for the person he is, not just as a symbol for the church.

The election of Robinson by the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, which was confirmed by the Episcopal Church's General Convention this summer, has brought into the forefront both the way the church functions and the vast differences of opinions within the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church around the world. Ultimately, it rests on our understanding of the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The Episcopal Church is an inclusive church where all are welcome. Scripture, tradition and reason are held together as the foundation for the way we understand God working in the world. The struggle comes when the views of understanding Scripture collide.

One view is that several statements in Scripture simply make it impossible for the church to embrace a gay person in ordained leadership. Not now, not ever.

The other view sees Scripture as a living guide for our lives, which, along with tradition and our God-given human reason, serves to help the church and its members faithfully live into God's new future.

As a church leader, I have always followed this second way of understanding God's will for the church, and I believe in our own time God's will is that the church put no obstacles before faithful gays and lesbians as they seek to serve in the church.

Our church has engaged in 30 years of study and dialogue about this issue. We can talk and debate but at some point we have to take a stand. That is what the Episcopal Church did at its convention. We approved Robinson to be a bishop and we recognized that in our church some pastors are offering same-sex blessings to lifelong homosexual relationships.

With the consecration of Robinson, the challenge to the church is to move beyond this event and to take up the work we are called to do in the world. It is our work to help the homeless, bring care and compassion to those who are marginalized or oppressed, to work for justice and peace and to truly see the world at our doorstep as the neighbor we are called to love.

In my role as bishop of the Episcopal Church in Western Washington, I am clear that we are about ministry and mission. Our primary energy in the days ahead will be poured into bringing the reconciling Gospel of love to the world. We want to say to the wider community that in the Episcopal Church, absolutely everyone is welcomed and affirmed.

There are no outcasts. There are no second-class citizens. That is Gospel truth.

The Right Rev. Vincent W. Warner has been bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, covering all of Western Washington, since 1989.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

[Friend of thunder]

I am sure this man, this bishop, – my bishop – thinks that, by condoning the ordination of Gene Robinson, he is doing the right thing, thinks that he is doing Gods will. While I am not a theologian, not a member of the clergy, just a part of the laity, I think he is mistaken.

If he truly “sees Scripture as a living guide for our lives, which, along with tradition and our God-given human reason, serves to help the church and its members faithfully live into God's new future” then he cannot (as I see things) believe it is the inspired word of God. If he does not believe Scripture is the inspired word of God (and he may claim to) how can he determine what is of God and what is of man?

These are troubling times for the Episcopal Church U.S.A., I am not sure what we can do but wait, watch and, pray.

[concerned about politics]

Psalm 12:8
The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

Psalm 26:5
I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.

[concerned about politics]

Psalm 36:3
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good.

[mom-7]

These so called Bishops are going to have a lot to answer for someday. May God have Mercy on them.

[concerned about politics]

Psalm 37:13
but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

[concerned about politics]

While I am not a theologian, not a member of the clergy, just a part of the laity, I think he is mistaken.

Read Romans I. There's no question you're right.
This church has joined the prophacised PC apostate. We were warned it was comming over 2000 years ago.

[Asclepius]

... I hope the ultimate meaning of the event is that the world realizes that in the Episcopal Church, absolutely no one is barred from full participation ...

Well, cool. I cannot wait for the first Moslem bishop. Or the first atheist bishop. Absolutely no one is barred from full participation, said he.

We need to commission a stained glass window for the National Cathedral that depicts a camel leaping nimbly through the eye of a needle. Or the depiction of a big, wide, superhighway clover-leaf entitled THE WAY IS NOT QUITE AS NARROW, OR AS STRAIGHT, AS I SUGGESTED. (All you saints and martyrs and apostles who died for Orthodoxy, hey, what can we say? Mistakes were made.)

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

Disguised in Bishops attire, the man has no interest in Christianity but the advancement and power of his fellow sodomites

[BlessedBeGod]

"...to respect the dignity of every human being" does not mean applauding and affirming their sin.

[Friend of thunder]

"...to respect the dignity of every human being" does not mean applauding and affirming their sin .

That is what I find so disturbing, we are all sinners, but this is denying sin is sin.

[concerned about politics]

Rom 1:21 - Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Rom 1:22 - Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Rom 1:23 - And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Rom 1:24 - Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Rom 1:25 - 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.

Rom 1:26 - 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:

Rom 1:27 - 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 recompence of their error which was meet.

Rom 1:28 - 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;

Rom 1:29 - Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

Rom 1:30 - Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Rom 1:31 - Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Rom 1:32 - Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Maybe God will eventually let him get infected with AIDs like the others.

[MHGinTN]

An ordained Priest is one who pleads on our behalf to the Creator and Savior. Frankly, I don't imagine God receiving the pleadings of an adulterous Priest or a sodomite buggerer unrepentant from degenerate activities. The Episcopal Church is dying and this is but the latest of the death throes. [Something about the whore ... ?]

[nicmarlo]

Jeremiah 2


5 This is what the LORD says:

"What fault did your fathers find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD ,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and rifts,
a land of drought and darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?'
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
'Where is the LORD ?'
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.

9 "Therefore I bring charges against you again,"
declares the LORD .

[aimhigh]

the dignity of every human being

There are no scriptures that speak about the "dignity" of human beings. Instead they speak of our sinfulness, and how we are condemned already. We are in need of a Saviour. Praise God He has come in Jesus.

[rube]

I question the use of the word "dignity" in the title. How that word can be used to refer to someone who lives a lifestyle that incluldes deviant sexual behavior is beyond me.

[I got the rope]

We need to commission a stained glass window for the National Cathedral that depicts a camel leaping nimbly through the eye of a needle. Or the depiction of a big, wide, superhighway clover-leaf entitled THE WAY IS NOT QUITE AS NARROW, OR AS STRAIGHT, AS I SUGGESTED. (All you saints and martyrs and apostles who died for Orthodoxy, hey, what can we say? Mistakes were made.)

Reg...you think you can help us out with this one.

[MHGinTN]

It is a sad commentary on our society that what was once taboo behavior and thus not dignified has become artificially assigned dignity for political correctness ... the wrongness is still the same, just the reaction to wrongness has fall from rationalism slid into the gutter. What the 'bishop' fails to comprehend is the truth that what we tolerate we eventually embrace ... the Episcopal Church is becoming the degeneracy it tolerates and now dignifies.

[Lancey Howard]

The Episcopal Church can be the gay church. It can be their specialty, so to speak. Everybody else can find another church easily enough - - there's certainly plenty of protestant denominations to choose from, and most are pretty similar. Certainly, they all use have the same Bible. So let the Epicopal Church be the "gay church". It could be a good thing, attracting homosexuals who might otherwise shun Christianity to the teachings of Jesus.

[VOA]

That is Gospel truth.

This guy, Robinson and their fellow-travelers wouldn't know the Gospel if it bit
them on the fore-brain.

That's because they are WILLFULLY BLIND.
And think that a person has no greater love than to sanction participation in a
lifestyle that the Almighty condemns...and that is shown to be a health risk
Bad theologically...bad practically in health terms!

I'd almost say anyone who condones this sort of life-style should be prosecuted
for practicing (bad) medicine without a license!

[concerned about politics]

Yep. They're rewriting the Bible so they can have butt sex and still keep their jobs.