On Monday I went to the Queen Elizabeth Hall to attend the British premiere of <a href="http://www.forthebibletellsmeso.org/index2.htm">'For the Bible Tells Me So'</a>, a film detailing the painful relationship in the US between Christianity and homosexuality, which was followed by a question and answer session with the man who was the main focus of the film - <a href="http://www.nhepiscopal.org/bishop/bishop.html">Bishop Gene Robinson</a>. Robinson was for some of the time interviewed by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005212/">Sir Ian McKellen</a>, co-founder of <a href="http://www.stonewall.org.uk">Stonewall</a>, and it was a remarkable experience, being in the presence of two men who have transformed society around them. Whilst it was fascinating listening to Robinson on his own, having McKellen as a counter-point made it particularly inspiring. Witnessing their joint claim that society could only progress through their <i>joint</i> work - the atheist McKellen lobying to change laws, directly affecting civil rights, with the religious Robinson working to change hearts and minds, felt like a sea-change in social campaigning had occurred. It's a position you never hear organised religion or the non-religious taking - that both sides working <i>together</i> are fundamentally essential for social change to work. Robinson had a lot more to say (the supporting quotes are from <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/12/anglicanism.religion">this Guardian article</a>), which that night and in other interviews throughout his stay has pretty much concentrated on using the Church as a tool for human rights. Given much of the Church's obsession with exclusion, intrusion where it isn't needed, and its lack of attention to crime and inequality of opportunity in this country, that argument couldn't have been more timely.
It was time to take back the Bible, he said, from those who use it as a weapon to use to bludgeon the most vulnerable in society.
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