”Bishop” Robinson of the Episcopal Church has been picked by Obama to offer a prayer at his inauguration. Robinson is an openly homosexual man who was elevated to the level of bishop in New Hampshire after leaving his wife and children. President-Elect Obama has also chosen Protestant Pastor Rick Warren to pray during the ceremonies. As of right now there will be no prayers offered by Catholic or Jewish clergy.
In a recent NPR radio interview, “Bishop” Robinson made the following statements: (emphasis added)
Robinson: I have actually read back over the inaugural prayers of the last 30 or 40 years and frankly I’ve been shocked at how aggressively Christian they are. And my intention is not to invoke the name of Jesus but to make this a prayer for Christians and non-Christians alike. Although I hold the scripture to be the word of God, those scriptures are holy to me and Jews and Christians, but to many other faith traditions they have their own sacred texts. And so rather than insert that and really exclude them from the prayer by doing so, I want this to be a prayer to the god of our many understandings and a prayer that all people of faith can join me in.
Host: The god of many understandings?
Robinson: “Yes. I was treated for alcoholism three years ago and grateful to be sober today. And one of the things that I’ve learned in 12 step programs is this phrase, ‘the god of my understanding’. It allows people to pray to a God of really many understandings. And let’s face it, each one of us has a different understanding of God. No one of us can fully understand God or else God wouldn’t be God.”
Actually, Mr. Robinson, praying to a “God of my understanding” sounds almost exactly like man making God in his own image. Mr. Robinson has apparently built a god to his liking. Whatever else this is, it isn’t Christianity. No wonder so many Episcopalians are coming home to the Catholic Church.
Of course, many of God’s ways and much of the Trinity will remain a mystery to human understanding. Yet we can understand what God has Divinely Revealed to us through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. This fact eliminates and nullifies Robinson’s comments that “each one of us has a different understanding of God. No one of us can fully understand God or else God wouldn’t be God.”
A God that we imagine, apart from the Truth that we know of Him, is a fickle god of our own making. In short, a god of my understanding is a false idol. A God who is completely unknowable to us certainly isn’t “Our Father,” it certainly isn’t YAHWEH, thus Robinson’s god of many understandings isn’t the God of the Scriptures. A man cannot have a relationship with an “understanding.” A man can only have a relationship with a Person.
Since the God of Christianity has revealed Himself through Divine Revelation, and since those revelations do not fit with Robinson’s homosexuality, he has built a god for himself; a god as fragile as he is.
However, if Robinson believes in the Holy Scriptures, as he claims, he should know that his prayer will not be heard by God since he is intentionally not directing his prayer to Him. So, why even pray? Why not give everyone a high-five or a stiff pat on the back? Why not sing a few feel-good songs or do some interpretive dance? What does he expect to accomplish with this prayer?
Anyone with any level of common sense left in them can see the folly of Robinson’s thought and his lack of theology. It is madness.
*As a final note, Robinson may call himself a bishop, he may be called a bishop by others, but he is NOT a bishop in the Christian Church. He is playing make believe here, too, just like he’s going to play make believe with his prayer. The Episcopal “Church” doesn’t have valid bishops, a valid priesthood, or a real Eucharist.
Join me in prayers for Mr. Robinson, President-Elect Obama, Rick Warren, and everyone else in our country. Ask, as is asked at every Holy Mass, that God look not on our sins, but on the faith of His Church.
In Jesus name, my God, have mercy; on us and on the whole world.
In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.
