Openly Gay Episcopal Bishop to Deliver Invocation at Lincoln Memorial

By Laurie Goodstein
January 12, 2009, 2:57 pm

President-elect Barack Obama has asked Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop who helped advise him on gay rights issues during the campaign, to deliver the invocation at a kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, two days before the inauguration itself.

The move was seen among many gay advocates an antidote to Mr. Obama’s decision to give the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent megachurch pastor from California who opposes gay marriage, the high-profile role of giving the invocation at the inaugural ceremonies on Jan. 20.

Bishop Robinson is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, and his consecration in 2003 set off a growing rift in that church’s parent body, the Anglican Communion. Since then, Bishop Robinson has become an internationally known spokesman for gay rights – a hero to some and an object of scorn to others. He and his long-standing partner had a church wedding last summer.

Bishop Robinson said in a telephone interview on Monday that he believed that his inclusion in inaugural events had been under consideration before the controversy over Mr. Warren, but that Mr. Obama and his team were also seeking to heal the pain that Mr. Warren’s selection had caused among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocates.

“They called up and said this has actually been in the works for a long time,” Bishop Robinson said, “and at the same time, we understand that people in the LGBT community have been somewhat wounded by this choice and it’s our hope that your selection will go a long way to heal those divides.”

He added, “In many ways it just proves that Barack Obama is exactly who he says he was and would be as president - which is someone who is casting a wide net that will include all Americans.”

Bishop Robinson said he had learned of the invitation about two and a half weeks ago, but that he and the transition team agreed to break the news today in the Concord Monitor, Bishop Robinson’s local newspaper in New Hampshire.

The event that Bishop Robinson will participate in is on Sunday, Jan. 18 – the first day of formal inaugural festivities in Washington. It will be broadcast later that night on HBO, which will provide a free signal so that people who don’t have HBO can also watch it, said Linda Douglass, chief spokesperson for the presidential inaugural committee.

Mr. Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend, and the event will include entertainers whose participation is still being finalized, Ms. Douglass said.

In recent years, and especially during the inaugurations of President George W. Bush, ministers gave explicitly Christian prayers. Bishop Robinson said he had been rereading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”

Bishop Robinson said, “I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”

He said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language he said he learned from the 12-step program he has attended for his alcohol addiction.

Gay rights leaders said they regarded Bishop Robinson’s inclusion as an indication of Mr. Obama’s support. Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay advocacy group, said, “We have to be prepared for a roller coaster ride, but know that the decision to include Gene Robinson is a symbolic indication that at the end of this administration GLBT people will have made more advances in the direction of equality that at any other time of our history.”

Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, a gay rights group, said, “Bishop Robinson is a world historical figure at this point. He is at the center of the Episcopal Church’s embrace of gay people and a symbol of inclusion even when it’s difficult. And to choose him, of all the other figures that could have been chosen, even as a balance to Rick Waren, I think it still is a very powerful statement.”

He said he thought that gay people and their supporters would help heal their anger over the president-elect’s decision to give Rick Warren such a high profile spot in the inaugural ceremonies. But he said, “At the end of the day, policy is more important than who stands at the inauguration.”

This article comes from The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/

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