“Cheer up, sleepy Gene Jean.

Oh, what can it mean

To a daydream believer

And a homecoming queen?”

Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay Episcopal bishop whose 2003 ordination threatened to tear apart the Global Anglican Communion, has published an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, in which he advises the pope regarding how to reform the Church and denies any connection between homosexuality and the Church abuse crisis.

In his letter Robinson recalls how the Episcopal Church became aware of the sexual abuse of minors in its ranks twenty years ago in the United States, and relates in detail how his Church dealt with the problem. “Rather than refusing to acknowledge our transgressions,” he says, “we sought to change our church’s culture.”

Nevertheless, he also says, “I would not presume to instruct you. That would be arrogant. Nor would I impose upon you advice you’ve not sought.”

Robinson commends the pope’s letter to the faithful in Ireland and his meeting with victims of abuse in Malta as “a good start.” But he also goes on to make the more controversial point that it is merely a “thoroughly debunked myth” that connects homosexuality with pedophilia and child abuse.

“I believe it is misguided and wrong for gay men to be scapegoated in this scandal,” he says. “In the media, representatives of and advocates for the Roman Catholic Church have laid blame for sexual abuse at the feet of gay priests.”

Robinson’s remarks were most likely directed at Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State of the Vatican, who had stated earlier this year that, “Many psychologists, many psychiatrists, have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia.”

“But many others have demonstrated, and have told me recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia,” he continued. “That is the truth, this is the problem.” Bertone’s contentions appear to be supported by the fact that studies of clerical sex abuse have found that the vast majority of such abuse is homosexual in nature.

According to the John Jay Report, a report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and issued in 2004, 81% of the victims of priestly sexual abuse were male. A 2002 study conducted by USA Today in 2002 similarly found that 91% of allegations against priests involved male victims.

One step that the Church has taken in addressing the abuse crisis has been to reiterate the requirement that men with deep-seated homosexual tendencies must not be admitted to the seminary or the priesthood.

The cardinal’s remarks have also sparked a re-analysis of the data in reference to homosexuality and pedophilia. A lengthy paperissued last month by Brian Clowes of Human Life International cites multiple studies showing that homosexuality is far higher among pedophiles than among the rest of the population. “Celibacy is not the root of the problem,” Clowes claims. “Homosexuality is.”

Robinson, however, says that “every reputable scientific study shows that homosexuals are no more or less likely to be child-abusers than heterosexuals. Psychologically healthy homosexual men are no more drawn to little boys than psychologically heterosexual men are drawn to little girls.”

He also takes direct aim at Church requirements barring homosexuals from the priesthood. “Homosexual priests have faithfully and responsibly served God throughout Catholic history,” he says. “To scapegoat them and deprive them of their pulpits is a tragedy for the people they serve and for the church. Yours is a problem of abuse, not sexual orientation.” (source)

Leading academics, philosophers and members of the Christian faith across the world continue to pay tribute to Antony Flew, the famed British atheist and thinker who discovered God at the end of his life.

The renowned rationalist philosopher died earlier this month at age 87 and continues to be remembered in obituaries and tributes world-wide.

Those paying tribute to him include Catholic Theology professors from the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, well known American rabbis such as Rabbi Brad Hirshfield from New York and leading philosphers from academia such as Dr Gary Habermas.

Describing Flew as one of the great intellectuals of his time, Rabbi Hirschfield lauded the Englishman’s “intellectual generosity.”

The son of a Methodist minister, Antony Flew spent most of his life denying the existence of God until just six years before his death when he dramatically changed his mind after studying research into genetics and DNA.

“The almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, show that intelligence must have been involved,” he announced in 2004 and went on to make a video of his conversion called : “Has Science Discovered God.”

Ironically, although modern day atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens claim in the rational world of science there is no proof of God exists, it is from the world of science that Antony Flew in his final years discovered “empirical evidence” that God exists, which overturned beliefs he had held for more than 60 years.

Like Einstein before him, Flew found that God was the only possible answer when it came to increasingly complex discoveries from sub atomic particles to the human genome to the very origins of the Cosmos.

“How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self replication capabilities and ‘coded chemistry’?” he asked, giving this as the main reason for his discovery of God in his final decade.

Flew’s conclusion that there was in fact a God in his 81st year came as a shock to his fellow atheists, particularly Dawkins and Hitchens two of the world’s most outspoken proponents of atheism.

But Flew refused to back down even when some of his former followers decided his volte-face on God was the result of old age dementia and confusion rather than scholarly research and intellectual rigour.

Flew’s late life change of mind about God’s existence was remarkable because of the huge volume of his writings which until then had embraced the atheist cause. Throughout most of his academic life he was adamant that one should presuppose atheism until there was empirical evidence to the contrary. Then in his final decade through as DNA and the human genome began to be understood along with the complexities of life, Flew found evidence which proved to him God exists and is the Creator of life. And from being a rationalist philosopher and non-believer for most of his life, one of the world’s leading thinkers suddenly became a staunch believer.

“The most impressive arguments for God’s existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries,” he said. . . . (continue reading)