Gene Robinson is bishop of the tiny, rural Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, but he's at the center of a storm of controversy raging in the Episcopal Church and throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion involving homosexuality, the priesthood, and the future of the Communion. This book offers an honest, thoughtful portrait of Robinson, the faith that has informed his life, and the controversy that continues to rock his Church.
In August of 2006, Bishop Warren of the Southeastern Synod filed formal charges with the ELCA against Pastor Schmeling because of his committed relationship with Rev. Darin Easler. The Discipline Hearing Committee was compelled by current policy officially removed from the clergy roster in July 2007.
This new version of the film takes us past Pastor Schmeling's removal and to the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, where his trial sparked LGBT pastors and their allies to come out in droves to push for policy change, urging the church to allow pastors in committed same-gender relationships to be rostered.
In this illuminating and moving documentary, hear first-hand from Pastor Bradley, members of St. John's, and participants in the trial, including former ELCA Presiding Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom and Professor David Fredrickson.
Arguments based in doctrine and scripture over the inclusion of homosexual people within Christian congregations and sacraments have done little to persuade the faithful on either side of this debate. Hate is the Sin: Putting Faces on the Debate over Human Sexuality approaches this divisive subject through portraits of the faith of gay and lesbian persons, presents both sides of the controversy, revealing how preformed opinions shape widely divergent interpretations of biblical and theological issues. Included are the true stories of Mary Albing, serving as a pastor while in a lesbian relationship; Jay Wiesner, whose congregation defied the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by ordaining and installing him in an Extraordinary Candidacy Project ceremony; David Glesne, who sought to heal relationships with gays and lesbians and yet deny them ordination and cohabitation; and other accounts of the ways that many congregations have struggled to welcome homosexual people and to realize the Christian message within their own churches. Hate is the Sin is an insightful and detailed account of this contemporary debate and required reading for any person hoping to understand Christianity and the spiritual lives of contemporary Christian people.