Gene Robinson Divorces, We Say Farewell

You whined, you cried, you cajoled, all the way, OMG, to the White House itself, until you had turned the church into a sexual pretzel. #Privilege

Some said you were like Gef, Great Britain's most famous talking mongoose, who claimed to be clever, the ghost of a weasel, a spirit, the eighth Wonder of the World; who could split the atom and produced a flow of swearing and strange boastful, ludicrous and blasphemous talk, and on one occasion claimed to be the Holy Ghost himself.

But it is over, now. Gene Robinson, the most famous gay bishop the world has ever seen, and perhaps will ever see, has decided to divorce his husband. 

The sun has set, Bishop Robinson, on your blockbuster movie, Love Free or Die. 

We say farewell, Gene, but you get ten out of ten coveted Alien Head Awards.

LSP

10X

The Episcopal Church Launches Into Deep Space!

The Episcopal Church is now well and truly off on a deep space quest to go where other churches have never gone before. I know. I was there at the launch, at the shrinking church's 77th General Convention, in Indianapolis.

Gene Robinson, with friend

What happened? Apart from press room rumors that bishop Gene Robinson was getting a divorce from his "beloved Mark" and living estranged in separate hotel rooms. Apart from that and gender neutral bathrooms, what happened?

Famously, a rite, or ceremony, for gay-marriage, which hits the pews in Advent and appears to be the first of its kind.  Chalk that up for history and with it the declining church's new gender rules. These make it a crime to exclude people from governing positions in the small denomination if they've had a sex-change. Gender reassignment surgery? The Episcopal Church is the place for you, if you can find it that is, which is hard because it's shrinking at a rate of 50,000 members a year.

weaving the circle 

But who knows, maybe the church's new mission oriented budget will turn things around, get the mothership back on the planet, as it were. Unlikely, given that 42% of the denomination's $111 million budget is going to be spent on administration and governance, with $12 million earmarked for legal costs and $1 million for church planting. Mission and growth? You do the math.

you're very small from way out here

A small minority of traditionally minded bishops did mount a fight-back of sorts, signing the Indianapolis Statement, which protests their church's accelerating trajectory into the icy void.

All well and good, traditional bishops, you have my total sympathy. But remember, in space no one can hear you scream.

The Episcopal Church was last seen leaving earth orbit.

LSP