Bishop Gene Robinson – the first openly gay Anglican bishop has responded to reports that he had implied that Jesus might have been homosexual. Reports became rife after Robinson’s comments from a 13th February forum on sexual issues at Christ Church, Massachusetts, USA were posted up.

The Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA) bishop was quick to clear up comments that he made. He said, "(Jesus) lived a very untraditional lifestyle. Which is not to say that I in any way asserted that he was gay, or anything about his sexual orientation."

The ECUSA is the US section of the Anglican Church, and has approximately 2.4 million members. Since Bishop Gene Robinson was consecrated in 2003, the entire Anglican Communion has been shaken and a huge divide now can be seen across much of the denomination. A complete schism has only been avoided due to the extreme reconciliatory efforts of the Church’s leaders.

Robinson was married and had two daughters before openly stating that he was homosexual, and he is now living with a male partner.

Robinson reported that his comments were taken out of context and interpreted in an incorrect way. He has since commented that he has been "flooded with angry messages". However, he was adamant that he was simply making the point that the nuclear family was a fresh idea and that Jesus had lived a non-traditional life.

The openly homosexual bishop said, "What I recall is that the question was trying to get me to say that Jesus affirmed the nuclear family as the only way a family can be. I was just pointing out that you best check scripture again before you use the life of Jesus to try to pronounce a blessing on that."

The Christ Church website has a recording of the forum, and in it Bishop Robinson commented, "Interestingly enough, in this day of traditional family values and so on this man that we follow ... was single as far as we know; who travelled with a bunch of men, although there were lots of women around; who had a disciple who was known as ‘the one whom Jesus loved’; who said my family is not my mother and father, my family are those who do the will of God – none of us like those harsh words. That’s who Jesus is, that’s who he was, at least in his earthly life."

He continued, "I happen to think the traditional family is a wonderful thing. I’m a product of it. I dearly love my family, and I love my own family, with my own two kids. It just looks a little non-traditional. But this Jesus, when you ask who is Jesus, he was not terribly mainstream, was he?"

The leader of an Orthodox Anglican website news service, David Virtue was reportedly the first to accuse Robinson of suggesting that Jesus was gay.

In response to Virtue’s accusation, Bishop Gene Robinson said, "He is a person who wants the Anglican Communion to recognise the conservatives in the Episcopal Church as the real Anglican Communion in the US. That’s his goal and he is willing to write and say almost anything to achieve that goal."