In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Duncan said some of
his earliest memories revolve around attending church in his hometown of
Bordentown, N.J. The church was stable and reliable, a sanctuary for a
boy whose home life often included beatings from his emotionally
disturbed mother. In a society that he calls highly sexualized and
confused, Duncan believes Robinson is clearly outside the moral bounds
of the Anglican Communion.

Duncan recently sat down to talk with Diana Keough, a regular Beliefnet
contributor who lives and works in Ohio.

How are you keeping your spiritual life in balance these days?

I keep up with my daily prayer life, and in particular, my time of
morning prayers. I make a monthly retreat of 24 hours where I spend time
with the community of St. Vincent's Arch Abbey, which gives me an
opportunity to be with my spiritual director and confessor.

What are you praying about?

For my own ministry, for my family, for all the people who have been
part of my walk over the years. I keep a monthly list and pray every
morning along with all the standing prayers. A lot of my day-by-day
prayers are about the present situation. I pray for those who are in
opposition. I pray for those who see me as someone who's hurting them. I
pray for the presiding Bishop of the church and the other Bishops who
are on the other side.

What particular Scripture is helping you through this time?

Right now, I'm reading Genesis, Hebrews and John. The other day when we
came to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, there was the word about the
patriarchs and those who set out by faith, and they knew they were
aliens and exiles--those are wonderful passages for what we're going
through There is a particular verse I was given when I was elected
bishop--in fact, the same verse was sent to me by two different leaders
who didn't know one another. It was I Thessalonians 5:24, which says,
"He who called you is faithful and He will do it." I have great trust
that anything that happens in this is going to be the Lord's doing, and
not mine. I'm just trying to listen to Him day by day.

Why are you taking this battle so far?

The battle is about the authority of Scripture. It's about the basics of
Christian faith. It's about sin and redemption. It's just so
fundamental. The issues have to do with sexuality and morality, but at
the very heart of it is whether Scripture can be trusted. In my
experience I learned the one person I could trust was Jesus Christ and
the only testament that was reliable was what was in Scripture. And I
cannot let the Church, of all bodies, challenge the notion that you
can't trust the plain meaning of Scripture.

Are you referring to what the conservatives in the Episcopal Church call
"revisionism?" And if so, can you define revisionism?

A more ancient word for the same thing is "heresy." What's going on in
this day and age (and, incidentally, it's not unlike other ages) is that
this particular age has a notion that we're created good and we just
need to be self-actualized. Well, all that is directly contrary to
Scripture--it's heresy that doesn't require a Savior. But revisionism
within the Episcopal Church has been going on for decades.

Revisionism in the Episcopal Church is to revise what's been received,
and we've been in the process of revising a lot of things in the last 50
years, particularly relating to sexual morality. Matters like abortion,
like remarriage after divorce and issues like sexual activity outside of
marriage, including homosexual activity.

END