by Bishop Gene Robinson

In the Eye of the Storm allowed Bishop Gene Robinson to talk about his real passion—the Gospel of Jesus Christ, said Cate McMahon, the editor of the New Hampshire Episcopal News. She reviewed his new book in the New Hampshire newspaper in April 2008.

In the Eye of the Storm is rich and comprehensive: it’s a work of evangelism, accessible and informed, grounded in a vibrant theology and spirituality.

The book is organized into five topics: The Elephant in the Room: Homosexuality and the Church; Faith and Life: Everyday Christianity; Embracing the Exile: Notes on the Margins; God's Loving Hands in the World: Building the Body of Christ; and The Compass Rose: Charting the Course of the Anglican Communion. The manuscript contains material from lectures Robinson has delivered during the past few years as well as up-to-the minute observations about the Anglican Communion from his sabbatical travels through the end of 2007.

People who thought they knew the bishop pretty well may be surprised by his fairly orthodox theology. As he notes, “Just because I favor taking a second look at what holy scripture actually says – and doesn't say – about homosexuality as we understand it today, it doesn't follow that I believe everything in scripture is up for grabs.”

The book is a small marvel in how fully it is shot through with Robinson’s faith and Christian witness. Recalling Jesus’ inaugural speech quoting Isaiah about releasing prisoners from captivity, relieving oppression, and healing blindness, Robinson reveals who Jesus truly is and what our own work must be. "If we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only, we have to go where Jesus went...we cannot know God or follow Jesus without participating in the 'pain of love and the work of justice.'"

In the Eye of the Storm is practical and conversational. In Part 1, Bishop Robinson offers three criteria for judging the morality of sexual actions, followed by an engaging discussion of marriage as addressed in the Book of Common Prayer. In this section, he suggests that much of the chaos seen in our society and church are "the early stages of the end of male dominance, male superiority, and male privilege. And because of the link between homophobia and misogyny, this battle over homosexuality is as much about the end of patriarchy as anything else." 

Robinson’s biblical analysis is challenging, notably when he talks about the parable of the talents, suggesting “The Christian life has more to do with investing than with saving, more to do with risking than with protecting, more to do with living with boldness than with proceeding with caution.”

The book’s final section is a compelling discussion of the Anglican Communion, an institution Robinson prizes, despite some of the shoddy treatment he has received officially and unofficially. He wants the Communion to hold, but can't ignore the results of a “Listening Process” that originated in a Lambeth resolution of some 30 years ago. To date, little real listening to the experience of gays and lesbians has gone on, he said. As a realist, he asks whether anyone thinks the ordination of women would have been approved at the next General Convention, if the exceptional ordination of the Philadelphia 11 had not accelerated the process.

Robinson calls the church to justice and to reconciliation. Citing the work of Miguel De La Torre, author of Liberating Jonah: Toward an Ethics of Reconciliation, the bishop points out that reconciliation is not the same as peace and says both the oppressors and the oppressed "need each other for the salvation of both.”

De La Torre reminds his readers of how angry Jonah was with God who forgave the Ninevites when they repented after Jonah's preaching to them. Unfortunately, Jonah's peevishness drove him away, thus preventing reconciliation. The bishop presents De La Torre’s blueprint for a reconciliation that begins in the margins with the oppressed, but eventually requires that the oppressed accept that God wants the salvation of the oppressors as well.

Bishop Robinson says, “The only hope for real reconciliation is taking seriously what Jesus said about loving your enemies. That's where Jonah got it wrong. Jonah so hated the Ninevites and so begrudged their repentance, that he didn't stick around to do the hard work of reconciliation, which seeks nothing less than changing the world.”

The church should not be surprised to see conflict because its earliest days had plenty. As Robinson notes with humor and irony, “Paul didn't write all those letters to the Christians in Corinth and Rome and Galatia to pat them on the back and tell them to keep up the good work. He wrote those letters to try to keep all those newly minted Christians from tearing each other apart with one fight or another.”

From his own experience dealing with conflict in congregations, Robinson notes, “Bullies never get enough: they always come back for more and more, and in the end, unless their bluff is called, they will destroy every bit of health and integrity in the community.” It surprises him that the Archbishop of Canterbury seems “paralyzed by the most extreme conservatives in our Communion,” and he argues that all bishops should be invited to Lambeth, allowing each to decide whether or not to attend.

Robinson closes his book with Finding Home, a moving account of a trip with a priest to the funeral of his uncle in a remote part of the Solomon Islands. After the two reach the thatched hut on stilts where the uncle's body lies, the priest announces, “The bishop will now pray.”  The bishop closes his prayers for the deceased, the family, the village, all in words that only his priest-companion understands ... until the blessing. As Robinson says the words, "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," everyone in the hut lifts their hand and crosses themselves. “And in that moment,” says the bishop, “I am home.”

Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote the Foreword to In the Eye of the Storm remarking on Robinson's serenity and steadfast refusal to demonize those who have condemned him, saying “he is no wild-eyed belligerent campaigner.” Tutu states firmly the question of human sexuality is a justice issue, just like race and gender.

Bishop Robinson wrote an introduction that reprises the day of his election as bishop, noting with regret the subsequent characterization of him as a single-issue person by the press, the public and the Anglican Communion. His introduction dedicates the book “to the glory of God who continues to bring Easters out of the Good Fridays of my life...(and) to the people of my diocese.”