Throughout the rest of the book, Robinson seeks to convince the reader of the need for legal gay marriage in all fifty states and at the federal level. Chapters with titles such as “Why Marriage Now?” “Don’t Children Need a Mother and a Father?” and “What Would Jesus Do?” attempt to counter commonly heard objections to homosexual unions. Robinson concludes the book with his final chapter, “God Believes in Love,” where he makes the case that God’s bountiful love puts no restrictions upon the gender of those expressing their love for one another.
God Believes in Love is a deeply personal story told with conviction, but it comes up short in a number of areas. The most glaring is the undercurrent of self-centeredness which arises from time to time in its narrative. As in all divorce stories told by the uninjured party, Robinson’s is one in which everyone concerned has benefitted greatly from the break up. His wife was freed from a relationship with a man who couldn’t love her in a truly marital way. His daughters benefitted from a happier father, and they built a new and wonderful relationship with their new stepdad, Mark. Above all, Robinson was able to be “true to himself,” the highest in our current table of virtues. But one wonders how his ex-wife and daughters remember those difficult years when Robinson decided to disassemble their family (the children were four and eight years old).
While Robinson served as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, he surprisingly uses far more secular arguments than theological ones.
[blockquote] …he surprisingly uses far more secular arguments than theological ones[/blockquote]
No surprise there.
[blockquote] But perhaps the most astounding of all his biblical propositions on marriage was his observation that Jesus and the apostle that He loved, John the Apostle, were homosexual “soulmates,†while perhaps not lovers.[/blockquote]
In any other Church, the man would have been deposed. In TEc, he will probably be made a Saint.
“But perhaps the most astounding of all his biblical propositions on marriage was his observation that Jesus and the apostle that He loved, John the Apostle, were homosexual “soulmates,†while perhaps not lovers.”
Those caught up in the sin of homosexuality will see everything through a homosexual lens.
In any other times, and not so long ago, the man would have been more than deposed.
I’ve heard of a “theological” argument that the post-resurrection Jesus was homosexual – he wouldn’t let Mary touch him, but later invited Thomas to (wink-wink) touch him.
I haven’t read the book and I don’t intend to. When it has come from the usual place, when it looks like poop, and when it smells like poop, it’s poop. No need to taste it.