Robertson unhinged over new female Bishop [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:21 AM on November 2, 2006.

Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is terrified. The Episcopal Church has elected a new Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts-Schori, the first woman in over half a millennium of chief Bishops.

For its part, CBN can't even bring itself to use the Church's language, claiming that she'll be "installed" as the head of the Episcopal Church, as opposed to the way it appears on their website: "She was elected June 18 by her colleagues in the House of Bishops from among seven nominees. The House of Deputies confirmed her election the same day."

"Appalled is too weak a word to describe this thing," giggles Robertson.

Their problem, he says, is not that she's a woman, even though he does have a little woman problem, calling feminism a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." The problem, rather, is that she does not exclude gays from any services (including marriage) and because she believes that Jesus Christ is not the only path to God. Or, put another way, that 4-5 billion inhabitants of Earth still have a shot at heaven. Jefferts-Schori has said: "if we insist that we know the one way to God, we've put God in a very small box."

Here's the really interesting coincidence: Robertson uses a clunky flying analogy to critique Jefferts-Schori's acceptance of different paths to God. He says,

"I'm a pilot, I"m not a very good pilot, and i haven't flown a plane in a long time. But I wanna tell you something. When I'm coming in to land, there's like a 50-foot runway. And I'd better be on that runway're i'm gonna kill myself and the passengers with me.

You don't want all the ways to the control tower, you want one way; you want the main runway or if there's a side runway, you want that one.** But there is one way, the Bible says there's only one way to God; He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father but by Him.

He then goes on to claim that the Episcopalian Church has denied it's raison d'etre (French traitor!!)...

Well, Marion, er Pat, coincidence has it that the Episcopal Church's new Bishop is not only a liberal, pluralist woman, but she's also an accomplished scientist and pilot. And this pilot knows the way to a God that bestows love, as opposed to your terror, bigotry and division. A God that even loves you and your comically stupid metaphors.

**I can't bear to leave this be. Is he joking? I mean, is there some side runway to Jesus? Does Jesus know this?

Tagged as: gays, religious right, pat robertson, episcopalians

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.