CNN.Com: Episcopalians delay vote on gay bishop
I’m not in favor of his consecration as bishop because he is in a same-sex relationship but… I also think that someone is pulling some pretty nasty tricks to keep him from being bishop. If these allegations are true, why were they not brought up in the months between when the people of his diocese first elected him bishop and the General Convention?
From the email alleging the misconduct:
“My personal experience of him is that he … does not maintain appropriate boundaries with men. I believe this is an alarming weakness of character that alone makes Gene unsuitable for the office of bishop.
“When I first encountered Gene at a … convocation a couple of years ago he put his hands on me inappropriately every time I engaged him in conversation. NO GAY MAN HAS EVER BEHAVED TOWARDS ME THIS WAY [capitals in original] — and I have had over 25 years of associations with gay male colleagues in the Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Diego show business communities.
“If I were a straight woman reporting heterosexual harassment by a straight male priest, would you hesitate to take the matter seriously? Well, I am a straight man reporting homosexual harassment by a gay male priest from another diocese.”
Out of fairness here, the final vote is being delayed to look into the charges. Still… how exactly did Canon Robinson touch this man inappropriately? Did he hold his hand to long? Did he touch his shoulders? Did this person wait to report it until he found out that Canon Robinson was gay???
I know that given my past I shouldn’t be so skeptical of this man’s allegations because I too was afraid of being believed about this at one point. Still… why did this person wait until the eve of the final vote to report this? That makes it just really suspicious.
The other charge is that a website that the Canon started has links to erotic pictures. Canon Robinson denies having anything to do with the site for a few years. My questions: what made these pictures so erotic? Two men holding hands? Was it straight-up pr0n? Do they really think that someone with that much to lose (I’m talking Canon Robinson) would affiliate himself with a site like that???
I’m really disappointed here. I mean, yeah… I don’t want him consecrated, but give the man a fair shot!
Much like you, I don’t agree that Canon Robinson ought to be consecrated, but at the same time I feel he deserves a fair shot and the decision ought to be left up to God. I’m also getting so tired of this whole mess… Since I’m from the Concord, NH area, it’s been plastered all over the papers for what seems like forever.