Stonewall, a U.K.-based LGBT advocacy organization, has recognized Bishop Gene Robinson with its Hero of the Year award for 2008. The award is voted on by Stonewall supporters and was presented to him at a ceremony in London Thursday night.
In a release about the award, Stonewall cited that Robinson “has bravely endured sustained personal attacks in recent months, as church debate on homosexuality has intensified, [and was] recently barred from Lambeth conference.” He received a standing ovation from the audience at the Victoria and and Albert Museum, where the ceremony was held.
From his comments to the audience, via Pink News:
I have tried to bring God’s voice to the struggle we are all in. God’s voice has been abused in the name of hatred and bigotry for far too long and it is time we took Scripture and the Church back from those that would use it to hurt us.
The Church is different from God, you do not need me to tell you that, the Church often gets it wrong, but God never does.
We learnt that with using Scripture to justify slavery, we learned it when Scripture was used to subjugate and denigrate women, and now we will learn that we also got it wrong about LGBT people.
I am doing everything I can to undo the harm that has been done by churches because I think it is going to take religious voices to undo all that has been done in God’s name.
He also discussed his recent conversations with President-Elect Obama, calling him “the genuine article.”
From here.