The brutal winter storms that swept across much of the country had an outsized impact on Eastern Louisiana, where our host, Rev. Welton Gaddy, lives and works. With ice-covered roads and widespread power outages the norm, we took the week off from taping State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio program and podcast, and instead are re-airing a favorite interview from our 15 years of continuous broadcasting.
Over the past four decades, we have seen many significant changes in organized religion. Few of those changes have been as frighteningly disorienting for some and desperately welcome for others as has been the inclusion, to varying degrees, of openly Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered persons in mainline denominations.
The history of these changes parallels the career timeline of the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, who served as the openly gay Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire from 2003 until his retirement in 2013.
In his life and in his ministry, he has broken barriers and opened doors for many, often at great personal cost. You’ll hear Bishop Gene reflect about the course his ministry has taken, the challenges he’s faced as an openly gay bishop, and his take on some of the social issues unexpectedly dominating our political discourse.
When Welton sat down with him for a far-ranging and insightful conversation in 2012, the occasion was the release of Macky Alston’s powerful biographical documentary titled Love Free or Die.
Bishop Gene is the author of In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God and God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage. In retirement, he serves as Vice-President and Senior Pastor of the Chautauqua Institution, an is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
You can watch video of this interview and read the transcript by clicking here.
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