Albert Mohler: A Tale of Two Bishops

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reducing a question to scale can sometimes be a helpful intellectual step toward understanding. Just how wide is the divide between liberal and conservative Christianity? Just look at the current issue of TIME magazine.

Reporter David van Biema profiles two bishops of the Anglican Communion in "Gay Bishop vs. Straight Bishop," published June 7, 2008. Van Biema looks at the divide in the Anglican Communion through these two bishops. The first, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, is the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. An openly homosexual man, his election as bishop set the stage for a world-wide controversy that threatens to tear the world-wide Anglican Communion asunder.

This past weekend, Bishop Robinson and his partner Mark Andrew were united in a civil ceremony Saturday in the narthex of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord, New Hampshire [see Religion News Service coverage]. The ceremony came exactly five years after his election as bishop. When he announced the date for the ceremony, Bishop Robinson said that he had always wished to be a "June bride."

Van Biema also profiles the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, who was recently elected a bishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria. He, along with several other ministers, eventually decided that the Episcopal Church U.S. was beyond repair or recovery after, among other things, the election of Bishop Robinson. They along with their churches, have sought oversight from more conservative Anglican churches in what is now called the "Global South" -- a great swatch of the world's map ranging from South America to Africa. the rest