November 2003

How One Bishop Thought

+Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida

The vote on the consecration of Gene Robinson garnered international publicity. NEAC Director Alfredo Macaya sent us this letter, which Bishop Leo Frade posted on the Diocese of Florida web site to explain the reasoning behind his vote.

I came to this General Convention sincerely convinced that I was going to abstain from voting on the question of consent to the consecration of Canon Robinson.

There are two factors that led me to change my mind:

The first was a meeting with our young people attending “Count Me Faithful.” Our youth wanted to know why I had not made up my mind. Listening to them, I realized that these young people, born in the 1980s, had a perspective on the truth very different from that of a man born in 1943!

In our church, our perspective on the truth changes—there was a time when slavery was considered acceptable, and when it seemed all right to treat blacks, Hispanics, and women as second-class citizens. Our challenge as Christians is not to be stuck in the past but always to be willing to look to the future.

Our young people gave me the challenge to get beyond my own prejudice and to be in touch with the Christ of the future.

The second factor in my decision came through prayer, fasting, and the study of Scripture. In my reading of Acts 15, I was struck by the story of disagreement within the early church, and the way in which Peter and Paul were able to work out their differences. There is a lot of fighting in Acts 15! What were they arguing about? Circumcision, whether it’s appropriate to eat food offered to idols, or any food prohibited as unclean by Jewish law. These things seem unimportant to us now, but they were important to them—they were in the Bible.

This was a very hard decision for me. I know I will be criticized; it is painful not to be able to please all of my brothers and sisters in the church, but I have to please Christ first.

I invite all to crucify their prejudices and to accept the fact that God made each of us in his image, and loves each of us as his child. This is a challenging time for our church, but it is also an opportunity for us to show the world how Christians can love and respect each other, even amid deep differences. I ask your prayers for the church, and for each other—especially those with whom you disagree.