Bishop Gene Robinson and the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness

There are things in life that are much worse than death says Bishop Gene Robinson.

I couldn’t agree more with the fellow.

Yet with all the happenings and controversial issues on and about religion in the US – the polygamous sect in Eldorado, Texas and Pope Benedict XVI visiting the USA – nothing quite compares to openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson’s interview in the Today’s show with Matt Lauer. His belief that living life to the fullest, being able to love and marry the person you want to, in this case his own life partner Mark Andrew, is something that God wishes him to do.  

Many gays and lesbians have pushed for this principle a long, long time ago –with or without God in the equation. And so, while a lot of countries have already allowed homosexual couples to marry, a man of the cloth marrying another man seems to bring or make a different equation – especially when the foundations of the Church concerns it and it begins to shake.

I am a true believer that everyone has the right to freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Gays, lesbians, transgendered among others have as much rights as any other straight Dick or Jane on the street.  I am not particularly an expert on the subject but I know for sure that the fundamentals of the Church are facing very different and difficult times.

Opening up to changes and new ideas are not the best qualities of the Church. By the capital “C” I mean the institutions of the Catholic or Christian religions. So while gays and lesbians can be just about anybody, a lot of speculations are brought to mind when Bishop Gene Robinson declares he wants to marry Mark Andrew.

Just what is a priest anyway or a bishop for that matter? What concepts are we changing? What history are we making? And what does this all have to do with the Church? I still have to work out the contradictions that keep floating on the surface on my mind.

Personally, I think there is a certain hypocrisy in the Church whose doctrines and interpretations marginalizes a lot of people even when at the core of all its teachings only tells us to love. All this humanistic values they preach are somehow exclusive to a select kind of people.  So I guess Bishop Gene Robinson must be a more contemporary or unconventional man of the cloth.

Isn’t that disturbing or frightening? Why do we offer to judge who is acceptable in God’s eyes or worthy of His love? Are we to live life trying to see whether we pass the qualifying rounds?

Now, the simple act and desire of one man brings to surface many issues the Church has ignored for a long time.  It has failed to answer or acknowledge many pressing issues of the times as though banners and vinyl signs weren’t raised to bring many issues to light. Well, it’ll surely be a tight squeeze this time around.

And while I ponder and sort my own voice on this issue – I suggest the rest of us do the same. This is not just one man’s life, but everybody else’s – who are gay, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered, who are straight, who belongs to the church, who fights for liberty and rights, and who fights for the pursuit of happiness.