Bishop Gene Robinson

At first, I was really disappointed that Bishop Gene Robinson was retiring, which is selfish of me. He’s been in documentaries like “For the Bible Tells Me So,” authored successful books about faith and homosexuality, and paved the way for gay men of faith, especially in leadership positions. I had thought he was the only one, but according to an NPR article from last year, “Mary Glasspool, who is also openly gay, was elected bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles.” Admittedly, I have no idea what that means. But knowing that Robinson only considered retirement after finding a successor of sorts made me admire him even more. And “Robinson will be working with the Center for American Progress, a progressive research and policy organization, on issues of faith and gay rights.” So, his retirement was not the gone-forever event it sounded like. His work never ends.
The only time I’ve met Bishop Robinson was at the Creating Change conference of 2013. I had been volunteering with Sean’s Last Wish, an educational anti-violence and LGBT rights outreach organization. His session was popular, and I don’t think I was the only atheist in the room. I had the odd sensation that the Episcopal bishop, a title I wouldn’t know from Catholic priest, was making up for all the damages my experience in a Southern Baptist church as a child had caused. Every atheist and most LGBT people, I think, enter into a phase where religion is to blame for everything. Not literalism or fundamentalism or pure bigotry, but religion itself. Bishop Robinson, in working so hard for the LGBT community of which he is part, could be the answer to bring people of faith and the nonreligious together to fight bigotry. Attacking religion will never achieve what interfaith dialogue (and innerfaith dialogue, as in “For the Bible Tells Me So”) can do. I am so grateful for his contribution to the LGBT community.
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For the Bible Tells Me So. Dir. Daniel G. Karslake. Atticus Group, 2007. Film.
Gross, Terry. "Retired Bishop Gene Robinson On Being Gay And Loving God." National Public Radio.
                 N.p., 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

Abortion as Humanitarian Aid

     The National Right to Life Committee just ousted one of its strongest affiliates, Georgia Right to Life, because the Georgia group refused to support an anti-abortion bill in Congress with exceptions for rape and incest. The primary cause for the schism seems to be a fundamental disagreement about the goals of the pro-life movement—the national group says it wants to eliminate abortion access completely, just like the state affiliate. But “prevailing political winds,” as Dan Becker of Georgia Right to Life calls them, would prevent any anti-abortion bills from proceeding without exceptions. "An overwhelming majority believes abortion should be allowed for rape," David O'Steen, executive director of National Right to Life wrote. According to the AP story, “at least 70 percent of Americans support such access, and less than 25 percent oppose it.”

     Despite this overwhelming majority, Congress still prohibits U.S. foreign aid from subsidizing abortions as family planning. That’s why a coalition of feminist groups and humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders, are urging the president to sign an executive order. According to the Global Justice Center, “thousands of woman have been impregnated by rapists during recent conflicts in Rwanda, Bosnia, Congo, Syria and elsewhere, and yet most major international humanitarian organization balk at offering abortions for fear of jeopardizing their U.S. funding.” Though abortion access is thought of as a domestic issue, its foreign policy aspect is coming into focus, and its lack of attention may be the most dire feminist issue of our time.

  Ellen Willis contends that even domestic anti-abortion rhetoric is not about personal responsibility, or abstinence, as pro-lifers claim. “When all the cant about ‘responsibility’ is stripped away…if the effect of prohibiting abortion is to keep women slaves to their biology, then so be it.” Truly, the comments section of that article speaks wonders to her point—When rape is used as a weapon of war, and unwilling and/or undeveloped women and girls are the victims, opponents of abortion access for them transfer their feelings on a not-yet sentient fetus, and ignore the emotional and physical danger faced by the women and girls. It becomes their punishment simply by having their anatomy. When women are impregnated by willingly having sex, people say it’s their fault, as if women have sole responsibility because of their anatomy. When it’s in a case like war, no one explicitly blames the women, but they consider it an unfortunate result of their body parts, as if that’s all they’re worth.

CRARY, DAVID. "Abortion in Cases of Rape: New Rifts in Old Debate." AP Online. Associated Press,
               12 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Willis, Ellen. "Abortion: Is a Woman a Person?" Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural
                Anthology. By Amy Vita Kesselman, Lily D. McNair, and Nancy Schniedewind. 9th ed.      
              Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1995. 348-51. Print