From the Pulpit: ‘Hate is Evil’

Bishop Gene Robinson preached a barn-burner at the Cathedral this morning, taking a look at what Christians are called to do in the face of evil.

Bishop Robinson, you will recall, was the first openly gay man elected a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, in 2003. He is a longtime friend of the Cathedral and frequently returns to preach from the Canterbury Pulpit.

This time, he focused on his longtime friend, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first transgender person to be elected to Congress. McBride has been the focus of intense scrutiny among her new colleagues as House Republicans persuaded Speaker Mike Johnson to ban transgender women from using single-sex bathrooms in the Capitol.

Bishop Robinson had a few things to say about that:

The transgender community community has been used and mocked and demonized throughout this campaign, using misinformation to stoke up fear and promote animus towards this vulnerable minority who already experiences unheard-of levels of violence. And why? For political gain.

And the effect is somewhere, right now, this morning in Idaho or Mississippi or Arizona, some kid who is wondering about his or her gender identity sinks a little further into a lonely and dark place, more afraid and isolated than before, perhaps contemplating self harm and more convinced that they will never get to live their lives as their authentic selves or be beloved by God.

There is no evidence there anywhere of men posing as transgender in order to sexually assault women in their bathrooms. None.

This is a solution in search of a problem. You know, someone who sees a threat where no threat actually exists is actually paranoid. The solution to which is not a restrictive bathroom ban, but rather a good therapist — not for the trans person, but for the paranoid one. Or maybe they just don’t know any better.

But listen, willful ignorance can be a way of hating, too.

In just a few moments. It will be our great honor to baptize these children. And among the first things that we will ask the sponsors of those to be baptized is: ‘Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?’ I don’t believe anyone is inherently evil because we are all children of God, made in God’s image and worthy of God’s love and one another’s love. But children of God can also do evil things. The Bible knows it and God knows it, and so do we.

Hate is evil. Attacking the vulnerable is evil. Full stop. The Baptismal Covenant wisely acknowledges that evil exists, and that we should resist it. It’s the first part of our commitment to God in our baptism. And the second part of our Baptismal Covenant are the ways in which we promise to behave in the face of evil. Ways that offer hope to the vulnerable and hope for ourselves that these promises might provide a way for us to remain human in an inhuman time.

That may not sound like much considering what we may be up against, but it’s our calling and it is a godly calling taken upon ourselves in baptism.

So here’s the thing. God’s love is ever more expansive, pulling surprising people into God’s embrace after years of being told we didn’t belong. If God has anything to do with it, this community of love is going to grow and widen and deepen and welcome people who are like us. So my advice to you is get used to it because it’s the way God is and it’s the way God is always going to be. And God is going to undo our penchant for us vs. them until there is no more them, just us.