<\/p>\nThe fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family, and YOU. Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as Bishop, have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and in some ways, YOU. While I believe that these attitudes, mostly outside the Diocese, have not distracted me from my service to you, I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that they have certainly added a burden and certain anxiety to my episcopate. While my resignation may not stop such pressures completely, it does seem to be the right time for me to initiate the nearly-two-year process for your election of a new bishop. A three-month overlap will allow for a smooth and appropriate transition.<\/p>\n
<\/sup><\/div>\n
<\/sup><\/p>\n <\/p>\nThere are still things left for me to do. First and foremost, there is continuing to be a good bishop for you during the next two years. I don’t intend to be a “lame duck,” as you deserve a bishop during this interim that is “on all burners” for the remaining two years. I intend to continue to be fully engaged as your Bishop in the remaining time we lead the diocese together. You can do YOUR part by not sweeping me aside, either literally or emotionally, over the next two years, while I lead as your Bishop Diocesan.<\/p>\n
<\/sup><\/div>\n
<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/p>\nLet me assure you that I am in good health – having lost 25 pounds put on over the last seven years in part by eating all your good food!! Especially that coconut cream pie in Colebrook! I continue in my fifth year of sobriety, which has been a total blessing to me. I continue to treasure my work and ministry with you, and it is a total joy and privilege to serve you and to serve God in this holy collaboration with you. After two more final, vigorous years with you, there are other things that I hope to do, in a new chapter in my life and ministry.<\/div>\n
<\/sup><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It would be easy to quip that at least Bishop Robinson tells us who he’s sexually attracted to, unlike the Priests of Pedophilia in the Catholic Church or the Philandering Evangelicals like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, Eddie Long, etc. But, to be honest, it’s unfair to even put him in the group with such people. He sounds like a regular guy living out his regular life doing whatever regular Bishops in the Episcopal Church do. I gather he had an alcohol problem that he took care of two years after becoming a Bishop. That was probably more important than his sexual orientation in how he performed in his job. <\/div>\n
The fate of the "firsts" isn’t altogether easy. Those black kids that were the "firsts" mostly had difficult, maybe disappointing lives. The "first" women certainly took a hit. Look at Speaker Nancy Pelosi. For that matter, look at President Obama. There has never been a negative campaign so intense leveled at such obviously competent people in my lifetime. It has not been at all pretty. But I guess that’s how it goes for "firsts."<\/p>\n
I grew up with something that seems pertinent. My father’s parents were Italian Immigrants who never spoke English. He grew up poor in a coal miner family in a coal miner town where the sea of immigrants from Continental Europe fleeing poverty worked in mines owned by established British [mainly Irish] former immigrants. He was the object of prejudice and over-performed [academics, football] to prove himself. He came South to play football, and stayed because the South wasn’t prejudiced [something I see as a monumental irony]. He may have worked his way out of the prejudice, but the scars remained – deep scars. Those scars had an huge effect on my life, but indirectly. If I was directly ever the object of prejudice because of my Italian extraction, I never knew it. I got to grow up "equal" – a regular, straight, "white guy" on a regular street in a regular town. <\/p>\n
With Americans born Black, Hispanic, Gay, even Female, such an assimilation is not really possible. There’s no "geographic cure." And so, at least for now, they’ve had to live abnormal lives like my father’s – and it can be pretty expensive. As a child, I just didn’t get it. I didn’t understand the paranoia or the pressured injunctions to succeed, but I got enough of the latter to be pleased to retire at 62 to a quiet life off the grid. My father retired at 51, exhausted. I guess it takes more than a generation for the effects of prejudice to wear away even in the best of circumstances. <\/p>\n
I understand completely why Bishop Robinson is bowing out at 65. I hope he gets a chance to get off the grid too…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gay Episcopal bishop to retire amid death threats Raw Story from Agence France-Presse November 6th, 2010 WASHINGTON — The first openly gay US Episcopal bishop, whose consecration rocked the worldwide Anglican fellowship, has said he will retire early because death threats and controversy had placed "constant strain" on his family. Bishop Gene Robinson of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"http:\/\/rawstory.com\/images\/new\/generobinson.jpg\")
WASHINGTON — The first openly gay US Episcopal bishop, whose consecration rocked the worldwide Anglican fellowship, has said he will retire early because death threats and controversy had placed "constant strain" on his family. Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire said he would retire in 2013, when he will be 65.<\/p>\n