Catholic World News News Feature

Gay Episcopal bishop addresses abortion-rights activists April 20, 2005

The first openly gay bishop of a major US denomination, Bishop V. Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Church USA, addressed Planned Parenthood's fifth annual prayer breakfast in Washington on Friday, April 15.

Bishop Robinson was quoted in the Washington Times as directing his comments regarding "people of faith" and suggesting that Planned Parenthood should target them so as to "promote abortion rights and comprehensive sex education."

The main theme of Robinson's comments dealt with the reasons surrounding last year's election results in the United States. The large number of people who voted for President George W. Bush was, according to Robinson, a result of the disconnect between religious people and the pro-abortion mind-set, saying, "In this last election we see what the ultimate result of divorce from communities of faith will do to us."

Robinson believes that the only way to defend the pro-abortion mind-set is to reach out religiously. He noted, "Our defense against religious people has to be a religious defense. ... We must use people of faith to counter the faith-based arguments against us."

In essence, Robinson advocated the complete reinterpretation of the Scriptures. "We have allowed the Bible to be taken hostage, and it is being wielded by folks who would use it to hit us over the head. We have to take back those Scriptures," he said. "You know, those stories are our stories. I tell this to lesbian folk all the time: The story of freedom in Exodus is our story. ... That's my story, and they can't have it. ... We need to teach people about nuance, about holding things in tension, that this can be true and that can be true, and somewhere between is the right answer. It's a very adult way of living, you know. What an unimaginative God it would be if God only put one meaning in any verse of Scripture."

Robinson gained worldwide notoriety in 2003 when he was elevated to the office of bishop within the Episcopal Church. Robinson had left his wife and two young daughters in 1986 and moved in with a man. His stand on abortion, however, mirrors faithfully the Episcopal Church’s position on abortion, adopted in a resolution during its 71st General Convention in 1994, stating: "While we acknowledge that in this country it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion, as Christians we believe strongly that if this right is exercised, it should be used only in extreme situations. We emphatically oppose abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection, or any reason of mere convenience."

Planned Parenthood has made limited inroads in gaining support from Christians. The Rev. Ignacio Castuera, a Methodist and Planned Parenthood's national chaplain, indicated that the size of their clergy network is around 1,400 pastors and clergy, mostly on the East and West coasts. However, Castuera said, "when you move further into the country it gets harder. ... In the center of the country we have a lot more conservative perspectives on the Bible and sex."

The pro-abortion advocacy of some clergy is not going unchallenged however. David Bereit, national director of the pro-life group Stop Planned Parenthood (STOPP), said his organization is "not going to allow Planned Parenthood to hijack Christianity." According to the Washington Times , Bereit said his group will work to build coalitions of churches which will then try to remove Planned Parenthood materials from public school sex education courses and lobby government against funding the group.