Gay U.S. bishop says hurt by African critics

Section: Religion

Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Gay American bishop Gene Robinson on Tuesday compared the stance of some senior African members of the Anglican Church, who have accused homosexuals of bestiality, with that of American racists and slavers in years gone by.

Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 drove a deep schism through the world's 77-mllion strong Anglican Communion, said in an interview on Britain's BBC radio he was hurt by fierce criticism of him from African church leaders.

"It's very painful for me," he said. "Coming out of the experience of the United States, where we treated people from Africa as less than human, where we used scripture to justify their slavery and their continued bondage ... it's very very painful to have those people in Africa in some sense using the same thinking against gay and lesbian people and against me."

Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire in the United States, said he had no regrets about accepting his consecration despite knowing that the fierce row over homosexuality it has prompted had forced the Anglican Church to "risk its life."

"I love the Anglican Church and I value the Communion, and I will do anything short of standing down to benefit the Communion," he said. "But I will not reject God's call to me.

"If I were to disappear tomorrow, does anyone think these questions are going to go away?"

Robinson, who is divorced and has two daughters from a previous marriage, is planning to "marry" Mark Andrew, his gay partner of more than 18 years, in a civil partnership ceremony in June next year.

He rejected suggestions that his decision to enter the partnership, and his choice of date for the ceremony -- just a few weeks before the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a once-in-a-decade meeting of all Anglican bishops -- was "deliberately provocative."

"My critics would find any date impermissible," he said. "I am certainly not doing that to rub salt in anyone's wounds."

The consecration of Robinson sparked uproar among Anglican traditionalists, particularly in Africa, which is home to more than half the world's Anglicans.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who called gay relations "an aberration unknown even in animal relationships," has set up a parallel conservative movement to allow disgruntled U.S. conservatives to place themselves under his oversight.

Robinson insisted he did not regret his decision to become a bishop. "I have deep regret for the pain that it has caused some people, for the confusion that it has thrown the Church into in some places, but I have never regretted saying yes to God."

"I believe that Peter Akinola ... believes he is following his call to God as best he can. I just wish he could believe that I am following my call as best I can."