Good try, Ruth

Ruth Gledhill is the first journalist to put to Gene Robinson the questions he should answer about the in-your-face timing of his civil union and his need for the "legal protections" a civil union purportedly provides someone being threatened. She is the first person to press him about the exact nature of the threats against him.

She specifically asked him what "protections" it was he needed that required his nuptials so soon before Lambeth. He did not answer the question. There's a reason he did not answer the question. That's because it is simply not true that he gets any legal "protections" from a civil union that he could not otherwise have in some other fashion. And if, as he says, the threats are the reason he needs these protections, then why is he not singing "for God's sake get me to the church on time" and getting on with it--since he says he's already getting such threats? Gene Robinson is lying. He is getting civilly unionized when he is just so he can make a point. But he is too much of a coward to be honest, or is too invested in his lie, or he truly believes everyone listening to him is too stupid to realize exactly what he's doing and that he's lying. Or maybe he thinks he's being clever and cute. Most likely it is all of these.

Ms Gledhill admirably pressed him on what the nature of the threats were. At first he said he could not talk about them, given counsel he had received from "the security people" that he works with. (Interesting he did not mention the police--why would he not have involved them if there were real threats to his person?). But then he just couldn't help himself, and went on to talk about messages just left on his home phone from British callers that he apparently interprets as threats, suggesting that they were prompted by newspaper articles in Britain about him. He could not pass up the opportunity to again portray himself as victim (and not-so-subtly adding the British press to his growing list of persecutors). Want to bet we'll never hear of any arrests, despite the ease with which such calls can be traced?

It's a good thing that Gene Robinson keeps talking about himself (and talking, and talking, and talking, and talking . . . .). In doing so he makes it ever more apparent that this is a fellow with some serious problems of self-image, a seriously inflated need to be the center of attention, a serious neediness for the affirmation of others, and a seriously weird absorption with himself. Whether this is a result of his choice to move from bisexuality to homosexuality, or his recurring alcoholism, or his genetic predisposition, or his tragically odd upbringing is hardly relevant. Someone with this distorted a personality and outlook has no business being a priest or bishop.

Rowan Williams, whatever his views about homosexuality, must be shaking his head in amazement that this guy is the reason the whole Anglican Communion is about to shatter.