YouTube video

Paul Jay speaks to Bishop Gene Robinson at the Tides Foundation’s Momentum conference in San
Francisco. They talk about the demonization of the two sides of the health reform debate. Robinson
says that the “loving your enemy has nothing whatsoever to do with liking your enemy. For me, as a
Christian, I am never given the license of treating my enemy as anything less than a child of God. I don’t
resort to the kinds of tactics that I would describe as immoral to fight an immoral attack on me. I think
each side demonizes the other. I think the antidote to that is to believe, as I do, that that opposition
comes out of fear, it actually doesn’t come out of hatred. I think that what we’ve failed to do is to ask the
question of “what are they afraid of?” and try to speak to that, not to the presenting issue.” Full
presentation at the Momentum conference found at
http://fora.tv/2009/09/07/POWER_Bishop_Gene_Robinson_on_Finding_the_Strength_Within

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Gene Robinson is the ninth bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He is considered the first internationally recognized and ordained a bishop in a major Christian denomination to be openly queer and non-celibate. In 2009 he gave the opening prayer at Barack Obama's inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, and was later honored by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) with the Stephen F. Kolzak Media Award.