CHARITY IN THE CRUCIBLE

Writing in The Spectator (former editor: Boris Johnson), writer and fellow freelance theologian Theo Hobson meets Gene Robinson, the only openly gay Anglican bishop, who says that homosexuals are more open to the Christian message of radical change.

"His book, In the Eye of the Storm, is pinch-yourself bold in its association of homosexuality with authentic Christian faith. Being gay, he says, is his ‘little window into some of what it must be like to be a woman, or a person of colour, or a person in a wheelchair — and countless other categories the dominant culture has controlled, diminished and oppressed’. So being gay enables Christian empathy. No wonder I’ve always found it so tough," says Theo.

On the book, Richard Harries, former Anglican Bishop of Oxford, writes: "‘This is Gene Robinson’s own story, told with simplicity and humility and revealing his passionate faith. He recounts how his experience has made him particularly close to vulnerable groups, such as the inmates of a women’s prison, and how we all need one another for our very salvation. This honest account will encourage anyone seriously committed to the message of Jesus, and shows him deeply committed within the Anglican Communion, even to those who vilify him."