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Fleming Rutledge is a preacher and teacher known throughout the mainline Protestant denominations of the US, Canada and parts of the UK. She is the author of seven books and has received a grant from the Louisville Foundation to complete a book about the meaning of the Crucifixion.
One of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, she served for fourteen years on the clergy staff at Grace Church on Lower Broadway at Tenth Street, New York City. Fleming and her husband celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2009 and have two daughters and two grandchildren. She is a native of Franklin, Virginia.
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Ruminations: Gene Robinson and the universal gospelSaturday, January 17, 2009Gene Robinson and the universal gospelThe basic problem with Bishop Gene Robinson is not that he is openly and actively homosexual. The real problem is that he does not believe Christianity is a universal faith, nor does he believe that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures have a universal message. Why do I say that? Well, because of some things he said that are quoted in The New York Times. In an article about his being chosen to give a public prayer at the time of the inauguration (not at the inaugural ceremony itself), he said that he had been reading former inaugural prayers and was "horrified" at how "aggressively Christian" they are. He says that his prayer at the time of the inauguration will not be a Christian prayer at all, "and I won't be quoting Scripture or anything like that." He said he might offer a prayer to the "God of our many understandings" (using AA language).I can certainly imagine a situation in which prayer to "God" without Trinitarian language might be called for, for instance in an emergency situation like a battlefield or under bombardment where there were people of many faiths. I believe that Christians can pray with Jews to "God." Possibly even with Muslims. But for a Bishop of the Christian Church to say (aggressively) that he is shocked by Christian prayers offered at past inaugurations and that he will not offer a Christian prayer suggests that he does not really believe that the Christian gospel is truly universal (I do not use that wimpy word "inclusive"). What does this mean? Does it mean that Christian clergy and other Christians should not offer prayers at official functions at all? Maybe. Does it mean that we should simply do away with all prayer at public events? Maybe. I don't know. But what I do know is that we (especially those of us on the evangelical left) must do a much better job of teaching the universal message of (for instance) Isaiah 40-55, some of the Psalms, and Romans 9-11. P. S. Having now heard most of Bp. Robinson's prayer on NPR, I find some of it very impressive (asking "the God of our many understandings" to bless us with more tears concerning suffering, more anger against injustice-- reminiscent of William Sloane Coffin's famous public prayers). The point is not the prayer itself. The point is that Bp. Robinson, in his quoted remarks, discloses his lack of faith in and understanding of the radically universal message of the Scriptures which he disdained to quote.
Permanent Link for this Post: http://www.generousorthodoxy.org/ruminations/2009/01/gene-robinson-and-universal-gospel.htm |
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7 Comments:
I don't know what's the matter with Vicki Gene Robinson; perhaps it's the same, sorry situation sung in the Johnny Cash ballad called "A Boy named Sue"?
Theologically, Robinson's homosexuality, like his alcoholism, would be a symptom, not a cause, of unrighteousness.
But the "basic problem" I see is w/a Christian church that would ordain and then consecrate as bishop a man whose lifestyle seems so at odds w/the very gospel he claims to stand for.
Or, unlike Paul, is Robinson simply ashamed of it?
I'm extremely interested in the comments thusfar. If anything, the message from Obama is that all voices are worthy to be heard ... can we extrapolate that perhaps all voices have something to teach us, if we are willing to listen? This includes both the maniacally conservative as well as the raging liberal?
Come on folks
"I don't know what's the matter with Vicki Gene Robinson; perhaps it's the same, sorry situation sung in the Johnny Cash ballad called 'A Boy named Sue'?"
By ANNMARIE TIMMINS
Monitor staff
"... Robinson was born in Lexington, Ky., in 1947, in a delivery that went so wrong the doctor told his father he needed a name for the baby's birth and death certificates. Charles and Imogene Robinson had counted on a girl, so Robinson's father named the baby Vicky Imogene Robinson."
http://www.deimel.org/church
_resources/monitor_profile.htm
Apparently the "y" was later changed to an "i".
Re Christianity Today
“… Fleming Rutledge, the first woman ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church, apparently agrees.”
The basic problem with Bishop Gene Robinson is not that he is openly and actively homosexual. The real problem is that he does not believe Christianity is a universal faith, nor does he believe that the Hebrew and Christian scriptures have a universal message," she wrote after Robinson previewed his prayer in a New York Times interview.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/januaryweb-only/103-32.0.html
Rutledge was not the first woman (regularly) ordained in TEC re the 2006 General Convention News
“… At the 1973 General Convention, the House of Deputies again defeated a resolution to change the canons to permit the ordination of women. Following the 1973 convention, 11 women deacons took part in "irregular" priestly ordinations in Philadelphia on July 29, 1974, and another four in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 1975.
"Extensive and often bitter debate and ecclesiastical and civil court actions have grown out of these actions," the Episcopal News Service reported.
The Rev. Jacqueline Means became the first woman to be regularly ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church on January 1, 1977.”
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/75383_73867_ENG_HTM.htm
Bishop Robinson incarnates the difficulties of Liberal Protestantism: so kind, so well-intentioned, so admirable in its concern for the outsider; but so insipid, so devoid of theological vitality, so therapeutic and self-referential. Liberal Protestantism is like an educational toy: the sensitive, over-protective parents think it's wonderful, but no kid really wants to play with it.
"... Liberal Protestantism is like an educational toy: the sensitive, over-protective parents think it's wonderful, but no kid really wants to play with it."
So they pack-up and go play in the Southern Cone.
Maybe if Robinson believed Christianity is a "universal faith," i.e., the truth, he would not believe it is fine for him to be an actively homosexual "bishop" in a Christian church. The problem with Robinson is his lack of faith.
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