Death Threats. In the Name Of God. Hmm.

Who does that sound like? Unfortunately, they're not all in Waziristan. Take New Hampshire, for instance, when Gene Robinson was elected an Episcopal bishop.

Sticking Up For Morality (With A Shotgun)

As he and other clergy lobby Congress for gay rights, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson reveals that his life is still apparently at risk:

[H]e spoke of a scare earlier this year in which a man was arrested while driving with a sawed-off shotgun, a map to his home, and photographs of the bishop and his partner taken from the Internet.

Devesting Ourselves Of The Power Vested In Us

Visiting St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City, California, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson says the church should call a truce over gay marriage by confining itself to blessing prior civil marriages:

Robinson said he favored the system used in France and other parts of Europe in which civil marriage – performed by government officials – is completely separate from religious vows. In the U.S., the civil and religious ceremonies are often combined with the cleric signing the government marriage license.

"In this country, it has become very confusing about where the civil action begins and ends and where the religious action begins and ends, because we have asked clergy to be agents of the state," said Robinson, the bishop of New Hampshire.

Works on paper. But American couples are pretty attached to having their preachers tie the knot. I doubt they'll want to give it up to solve the church's nettlesome theological debate.

Elect First, Think Later

Speaking at Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson discusses being lectured by the Archbishop of Canterbury about preparatory steps the Episcopal Church should've taken to prepare the church and the world for the election of an openly gay bishop. Bishop Gene demurred:

I said, "You know, in 1974 the 11 women who were irregularly ordained in Philadelphia, they weren't following the rules, they were breaking the rules. But it turned out to be the right thing, and two years later we began regularly ordaining women in this church." And I said, "Had they not done that, how long do you think it would have taken this church to get around to it? Would we still have an all-male priesthood?" It seems to me that, by God's grace, we sometimes do the right thing and then think our way to it.

Have Prayer Book, Will Travel

Another prayer in the public square by Gene Robinson:

The first openly gay bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church led a prayer in the Maryland Senate Monday night in which he asked God to bless the legislators with "anger at discrimination in all its forms."

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson also asked for the legislators to be blessed with "freedom from fear," including fear of their next election and criticism from unpopular votes during the invocation prayer.

Robinson is a bishop in New Hampshire, but he is in Annapolis to lobby for a gay marriage bill and a measure that prohibits discrimination against transgender people.

Plus The AC Broke On The Bus To The Pyramids

At their meeting in Egypt, cordiality among Anglican primates begins to dissipate as the archbishop of Sudan calls on New Hampshire's openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, and all the clergy who participated in his consecration, to resign.

Thinking Carefully About Prayer

Pastor Mark Roberts offers a detailed analysis of the inaugural prayers of Rick Warren and Gene Robinson.

Koo-koo-ka-choo, Bishop Robinson

The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson and his daughter, Ella, with the President

With the Christian church in disunion for the last, oh, roughly 2,000 years, interesting that a politician is acting a unifier. Gail Russell Chaddock:

"Rick Warren and Gene Robinson are symbols and represent large constituencies – and were in that sense daring choices," says Charles Haynes, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington. "But I think the mood of the country is to say: This is what we want. People want to see the president trying to represent the country as a whole. If there ever was a moment when we have to have a cease-fire in the cultural wars, it's now. Given the nature of the problem the country faces, we cannot afford to demonize each other, to tear each other down."

Hat tip to Greg Larkin

Inaugural Pastors

Bishop Gene Robinson on his Sunday prayer and Pastor Rick Warren.

HBO Ends Silencing Of Gene Robinson

The New York Times reports that HBO will include the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson's prayer in future showings of its program on Sunday's inaugural concert. The PE's inaugural committee took the heat for what it called an error. A video made by an audience member is below:

"O God Of Our Many Understandings"

Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson's prayer at the beginning of today's inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial:

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace. Amen.

The photo above wasn't easy to find. No sign of Bishop Robinson so far at the New York Times or MSNBC. The first openly gay bishop, praying from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the official commencement of Presidential inaugural festivities, is a big story. But HBO didn't broadcast the prayer or even an excerpt in its concert coverage. Fox News reports that HBO, having bought the rights to the event, won't release the video and audio of +Gene's prayer.

Why are the media virtually muzzling him? (The Rev. Susan Russell recaps some print and on-line coverage here.) Perhaps it's because the only Christians the secular media want to lift up are the ones with whom they disagree or who are easily parodied or discounted. Whatever you think about +Gene or the controversies in the Episcopal Church over gay and lesbian people, a progressive Christian with a gentle spirit and a prayer-full of inoffensive and practical advice for us and the President-elect -- a pastor who could give faith a good name in a faith-skeptical elite culture -- evidently doesn't fit the media profile.

Many criticized Bishop Robinson for choosing not to mention Christ and invoking the "God of many understandings." It's a difficult call for anyone praying in a public setting outside of church who wants to be true to his or her faith tradition without being offensive to those who don't share it. How many thousands of Jews, Muslims, Hindi, and Buddhists were listening from the Washington mall, how many tens of millions watching on television? No one praying in such a setting wants to exclude anyone.

Of course the bishop could have injected a Christian element his prayer by speaking of God's forgiving, redeeming, sanctifying work. That he chose not to was a little disappointing. Yet what will Pastor Rick Warren choose to do on Tuesday? He faces the same challenge Bishop Robinson did: Honoring his beliefs without leaving out any faithful persons. In Southern Baptist style, will Pastor Rick use his national prayer as an altar call to those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and savior, or will he find a way to include a grace note about those who believe but aren't Christians?

As for videos such as this, which accuses +Gene of being satanic for honoring other faiths, I'd say this: If there is a being called Satan (which I definitely don't rule out), and if that being wanted people to think a certain way about Christians in order ultimately to destroy the faith, he would cause such videos to be produced and identified as Christian.

Dissident Churches Agree To Disagree On Women

Good point from the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson:

The partnership [of dissident Episcopalians angered about TEC's position on gay and lesbian people] claims to represent 1,000 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of 100,000.

"It makes me very sad and it is so unnecessary," Robinson said. "No one wanted them to leave ... But you can't keep people from leaving."

He noted, for instance, "This coalition of breakaway groups totally disagree on the ordination of women, but they have agreed to set that aside."

(Two breakaway dioceses, Fort Worth and San Joaquin, have refused to accept women as priests.)

Why, asked Robinson, could the church at large not "set aside" its disagreements on homosexuality and stay in communion?

Winners, Losers, And The Miracle Of Grace

It was quiet this afternoon outside the Cathedral Center of St. Paul, headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. But there was jubilation within as word came down from the California Supreme Court that three congregations which left the Episcopal Church after the ordination of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire must return their properties to the Diocese.

My wife and colleague Kathy and I were downtown for a noon meeting. We visited the Cathedral Center in Echo Park afterwards. It seemed to be the place to be today, if only briefly. This news van was the first to arrive for a 2 p.m. news conference. It was national news several years ago when our congregations in Newport Beach, Long Beach, and North Hollywood voted to join the Anglican Province of Uganda. When they tried to keep their buildings and property, our Diocese sued.

Today's unanimous ruling is expected to complicate the lives of 100 other congregations around the country who have left TEC without leaving their buildings. It's not clear yet whether the dissenting LA churches will try to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here's Bishop J. Jon Bruno's statement from the Cathedral Center:

"The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is overjoyed with the conclusive opinion of the California Supreme Court.

"We have prevailed in all areas of law addressed in this case.

"We look forward to the possibility of reconciliation with these congregations, and we assure that this Diocese and the people of The Episcopal Church that we will continue mission and ministry in the areas of these congregations.

"The mission of The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles continues, as our prayer book states, 'to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.' We will continue to seek this reconciliation with fellow Christians in the communities of Long Beach, Newport Beach, and North Hollywood, as well as La Crescenta, where Episcopal church properties continue as part of the Diocese of Los Angeles in accordance with the Court's opinion announced today.

"We acknowledge that this opinion establishes a precedent. We further note the pastoral concerns at this time within The Episcopal Church, which continues in its mission of service, especially in providing food, shelter, medicine, and pastoral care to those in greatest need locally and globally, respecting the dignity of every human being."

Political and legal entanglements are a fact of human life, including in the church. And yet neither elections nor legal rulings can settle theological disputes or heal spiritual or interpersonal wounds. Long after voters and judges leave off, the work of God's grace persists.

O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

Where Did We Put Those Newcomer Cards?

The Washington Post's Sally Quinn says the church-shopping Obamas should go Episcopal -- specifically Washington National Cathedral, because of its inclusiveness:

The first black bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, John Walker, presided there. Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church, was inducted there. And Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of the Diocese of New Hampshire was the first openly gay bishop in Christendom.

"We are a place that welcomes people of all faiths and no faith," says [Cathedral Dean the Very Rev. Sam] Lloyd, echoing Barack Obama's words of two years ago. "Whatever we once were," Obama said then, "we're no longer just a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation and a Buddhist nation and a Hindu nation and a nation of nonbelievers."