There is something entirely disingenuous about the bishop's claims. Whatever "toll" or "strain" he is talking about is entirely self-induced, if not self-inflicted. No one said he had to come out. No one said he had to run for bishop though he tried in three dioceses before he hit pay dirt in New Hampshire.

He did it because the groundwork was laid by Louie Crew over nearly four decades of plowing the fertile ground of thinly educated Episcopal bishops who fell for the made-up doctrines of inclusion and diversity and because the culture was sliding in that direction.

It was his to take and he took it. Now he's complaining about the pressure. Well, as the cliché goes, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." Apparently the heat was too much and he is going.

Among the lame excuses he gave were death threats including the fear he might get shot at his own consecration. Allow me to debunk that myth. I was there. One could only get in by invitation. To get into the arena, one had to go through screening more severe than one experiences at an airport. (My wife was denied entry and sat it out in our car). Secondly, 90% of the crowd was either openly gay or pro-gay. There was not a single opportunity for a shot to be fired by anyone. No one with a weapon had a prayer of getting inside. My laptop bag was turned inside out.

Apart from myself and a small handful of non-supporters, only the Rev. Dr. Earle Fox was present to speak up against the consecration and one other person. Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold publicly shut him down in the middle of his speech - a speech that focused on the medical effects and dangers of anal sex. Griswold was distinctly unhappy with that lecture and told Fox so.

In his farewell, Robinson also revealed that he has no intention of retiring from public life, saying he would continue his work on college campuses and public forums. He will continue his personal campaign, "it's all about me" into the foreseeable future.

So Robinson doesn't want the responsibility of running a diocese, that is, running around ministering in small parishes that are fast disappearing. Instead he wants to hit the speaker's circuit for four figure honoraria raving about sodomy and his pain of feeling rejected without any responsibility at all. Traipsing after him will be his "husband" whom apparently he worships and adores.

He needn't worry. In or out, Robinson has done all the damage needed to send The Episcopal Church into perpetual decline. He has effectively, by proxy, destroyed the Anglican Communion, as we know it.

Former PB Frank Griswold spent all his capital going from one Primates' meeting to another making the case for homosexual acceptance. When Robinson got the nod in New Hampshire in 2003, Griswold couldn't wait to lay hands on him despite telling his fellow archbishops, just three weeks earlier, that he would never do that. Lies, compounded by Robinson's lifestyle, marked the beginning of the end of the Communion, as we know it and paved the way for GAFCON and the Jerusalem Declaration.

While he is being viewed by gay organizations like Integrity and Changing Attitude as an iconic figure, he is viewed by the rising tide of Anglicans in the Global South as a man who has led tens of thousands, if not millions, astray with his abominable teachings and sexual behavior. He has also given Muslims who hate Christians and homosexuality the impetus to step up persecuting Christians in Africa because of his behavior.

Since 2003, Robinson has whined and pawed the ground like a bull in heat, more recently exciting a new president with his need for acceptance, offering up a faux prayer to an unknown god at his inauguration. At the same time, evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics within the Episcopal Church have become increasingly marginalized, vilified, riled, hated and ultimately inhibited and deposed for daring to uphold "the faith once for all delivered to the saints".

Robinson, like most of his ilk, continually scream "homophobia" at anyone who has dared to suggest his behavior might cause premature death. They have catapulted their behavior to an incendiary level demanding that the American taxpayer pay for drugs to extend their lives while they continue with their life style choices.

Among his legacies will be the formation of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Robinson may take pride in the fact that over 100,000 former Episcopalians and some 900 churches have absconded from TEC forcing the national church and four dioceses to spend millions of dollars defending their right to properties.

While Robinson can't take all the blame, he bears the greatest responsibility for the slow, steady decline of TEC and for brokering an ungodly behavior that has no precedent in 2,000 years of church history.

News of his early retirement has not remotely appeased the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen. He said there is more to the "agonizing dispute" than Robinson's non-celibate status.

"His retirement doesn't change anything," Dr. Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream said. "The issue is the refusal of the Episcopal Church to adhere to the agreed doctrinal standards of the communion, and their leadership's determination to promote, and in North America to enforce, ethical and doctrinal standards that are contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture as received by the universal church. They have chosen to walk apart."

Another evangelical group said the exit changes nothing and accused Episcopalians of "promoting ethical and doctrinal standards ... contrary to scripture". The wounds Robinson has inflicted on TEC and the Anglican Communion will not be healed in his life time; perhaps never. That there is a new orthodox Anglican province on North American soil has sealed the deal that TEC has separated itself and is walking apart. A Covenant, now being vilified by liberal Anglicans across the globe, gives evidence of that.

The legacy of Gene Robinson will continue with the recently elected Mary Glasspool, the lesbian assistant bishop of Los Angeles.

In the end, Robinson will be answerable only to God. In this life, he has been a one-man wrecking crew devouring the faithful and laying waste churches with his sexuality teachings. In the words of Jesus found in Matthew 23:15, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are."

By any standard, that's an attainment for any one man in one life time. It is an achievement that could have dark eternal consequences for himself and for his followers and converts. And that's not something to boast about.

END