THE INNER and OUTER AGONY OF BISHOPS PAUL MOORE AND EUGENE ROBINSON:

THE INNER and OUTER AGONY OF BISHOPS PAUL MOORE AND EUGENE ROBINSON:

                       The Reflections of an African American United Methodist Minister

I write these words as an outsider. I am neither an Episcopalian, nor a scholar, active pastor or well known as a commentator. Yet, as a Christian who is making his journey through this Lenten Season, I feel compelled to share these words. I of course, do not know the Presiding Bishop nor any of the staff in the Episcopal Center. But, I do know two Episcopalian friends; Byron Rushing and Ed Rodman whose lives have touched my life in profound ways. Possibly, because I mention their names, these poorly crafted words might attract some attention.

My Methodist-preacher father used to say before some of his sermons; "I'm just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody." He of course was referring to that "somebody" whose name was/is Jesus. My father emphasized a Jesus who was Savior, I tend to speak of Jesus as a Savior who Liberates. My prayer is that despite the inner agony that Bishop Paul Moore experienced and the outer agony that is being thrust against Bishop Eugene Robinson, Paul Moore as he lived and Eugene Robinson as he lives, knew/knows the liberating power that is to be found in the Incarnation. God was/is in Christ, not only to reconcile, but also to liberate.

I of course have followed in my reading the negative responses of persons within and beyond the Anglican Communion to the open same gender partner relatonship of Bishop Robinson. I have wondered about those negative responses as I have wondered about some of the negative legislation of my United Methodist Church toward same gender loving people. There is a negativity in the Church toward same gender relationships that provokes an almost war-like emotion among many that often becomes verbally abusive. I have remembered those words condemning capital punishment, "Why do we keep on killing people to prove that killing people is wrong?" I ask, "Why, when there is so much pain in the world, do we avoid responding to that pain by spending so much time, biblically and legislatively 'killing' same gender loving persons?"

I read the story written by the eldest daughter of Bishop Paul Moore that exposed his same gender relationship. I never met Bishop Moore, but he was a hero for me from afar because of his commitment to Urban Matters. As I read the story, I could "feel" the ambivalence, pain and agony that must have been his as he I am sure was authentically committed to his family, even as he found meaning and solace in his same gender relationship. 

When will we in the Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church and others Churches, acknowledge and transform our contradictions and our hypocrisy vis-a-vis same gender commitments? Bishop Robinson is buffeted and battered and bruised externally as he is open about his commitment to and his relationship with, his loved one. Bishop Moore was I am sure, buffeted and battered and bruised internally, because he found it necessary to conceal that portion of himself that the Church could not accept. 

Could it be that those Christians who think of same gender affirmation and intimacy as an abomination have not, despite their verbiage, been able to accept fully the Jesus my preacher-father affirmed? Salvation for us as individuals is I believe, becoming reconciled within with all that we are, regardless of how other see us. Salvation for the Church, I believe, begins to occur when the Church ceases to cast stones at persons because they fail to meet our heterosexist assumptions. 

Conservative Columnist David Brooks wrote a November 25, 2003 Op-Ed titled, "The moral case for gay marriage" that appeared in the New York Times. Brooks wrote; "It's going to be up to conservatives to make the important moral case for marriage, including gay marriage. Not making it means drifting further into the culture of contingency, which, when it comes to intimate and sacred relations, is an abomination."

Bishop Paul Moore was forced into a relationship of contingency because of the attitudes of the Church. Bishop Gene Robinson is shunned, boycotted and abused by some because he has dared to share openly with the Church the fact of his intimate, sacred and committed relationship. The wounds that both Bishops Moore and Robinson have known have been caused by some in the Church who may not have yet understood the inclusive acceptance of that Jesus my father used to preach about. May the internal and external wounds that these two Bishops have known push the Church to become the 
"Wounded Healer" that Henri Nouwen wrote about.

Gilbert H. Caldwell
Asbury Park, New Jersey