Gay bishop likened to black civil rights campaigners
-25/02/05
The dean and president of the influential Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, USA, has forthrightly backed the openly gay Anglican Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, and has said that his cause and that of lesbian and gay people is akin to the demand for civil and human rights for black people in America since the 1960s.
Bishop Steven Charleston was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 in the UK earlier this morning. He described Bishop Robinson, who has been shunned by many Anglican leaders across the world, and by a small but vocal section of his own church, as ìa champion of human rightsî.
Bishop Charleston said that gay people like Bishop Robinson standing up for recognition and respect was like the action of people of colour in the USA who had ìrefused to be moved t the back of the bus.î
He was referring to the famous Alabama bus boycott over racial segregation, which played a key role in the growth of the civil rights movement in the USA and the work of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King and others.
ìGene Robinson is saying, ëI want to be treated like an honest, decent human being and you do not treat me like oneí,î said Bishop Charleston.
The support for the Bishop of New Hampshire comes at a time when Anglican primates from around the world are continuing to argue bitterly about the theological appropriateness or otherwise of sanctioning the recognition of lesbian and gay people in the ministerial offices of the church.
Gay bishop likened to black civil rights campaigners
-25/02/05
The dean and president of the influential Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, USA, has forthrightly backed the openly gay Anglican Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, and has said that his cause and that of lesbian and gay people is akin to the demand for civil and human rights for black people in America since the 1960s.
Bishop Steven Charleston was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 in the UK earlier this morning. He described Bishop Robinson, who has been shunned by many Anglican leaders across the world, and by a small but vocal section of his own church, as ìa champion of human rightsî.
Bishop Charleston said that gay people like Bishop Robinson standing up for recognition and respect was like the action of people of colour in the USA who had ìrefused to be moved t the back of the bus.î
He was referring to the famous Alabama bus boycott over racial segregation, which played a key role in the growth of the civil rights movement in the USA and the work of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King and others.
ìGene Robinson is saying, ëI want to be treated like an honest, decent human being and you do not treat me like oneí,î said Bishop Charleston.
The support for the Bishop of New Hampshire comes at a time when Anglican primates from around the world are continuing to argue bitterly about the theological appropriateness or otherwise of sanctioning the recognition of lesbian and gay people in the ministerial offices of the church.