init: function() { Kelly assists on a wide variety . John Shelby Spong 26. The Bible has lost every major battle it has ever fought. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions". He was 90 years old. When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. [22] Following Spong's death, Tooley told The Washington Times that "he [Spong] claimed that he was making religion relevant for a new generation who could not believe in the supernatural, often citing his daughters. Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark's gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all. 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I do not think so. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; I know rather that the sun, around which my planet Earth revolves, is a middle sized star in a galaxy called the Milky Way that has over a hundred billion other suns or stars within it. Spong, Resurrection Myth or Reality, p. 287. My experience is my ability to perceive God, but the nature of God is beyond my ability to describe., The same thing is true of Christianitys fundamental doctrine, known as the Incarnation., That doctrine makes Jesus not unlike the comic strip character Clark Kent who turned out to be Superman in the skies, he said. Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. 25:30)? I rather experience God as the source of life willing me to live fully, the source of love calling me to love wastefully and to borrow a phrase from the theologian, Paul Tillich, as the Ground of being, calling me to be all that I can be. var useSSL = "https:" == document.location.protocol; He died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday morning," St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond . That is what Jesus meant and that's what the original Christ experience was, before we became Scripture defenders, and before the creeds became the essence of our faith." John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. try { "[13], Spong debated Christian philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig on the resurrection of Jesus on March 20, 2005.[14]. q("i", arguments) Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. Top John Shelby Spong Quotes. Every day we present the best quotes! It has been a wonderful trip, and I am sad it is coming to an end.. John Shelby Spong 1 Mother Nature is not sweet. "https://":"http://";i+=f?g:k;i+=j;i+=h;c(i)}if(!e.ue_inline){if(a.loadUEFull){a.loadUEFull()}else{b()}}a.uels=c;e.ue=a})(window,document); 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. John Shelby Spong is an American retired bishop of the Episcopal Church. The biblical texts that we Christians have used for centuries to justify our hostility toward the Jews need to be banished forever from the sacred writings of the Christian church. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. "The older I get, the more deeply I believe but the. } In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last gospel, John, Thomas is invited to feel the nail prints in Christ's hands and feet and the spear wound in his side. (function() { // page settings It's like that crazy man down in Alabama who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story. John Shelby Spong 27. Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. The more deeply I can be all that I can be, the more I can make God visible.. In 2000, Spong was a critic of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church's declaration Dominus Iesus, because it reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church and that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior for humanity. var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; q("f", arguments) All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. Weekly mailing, September 5, 2007. And I dont mind saying that I dont invalidate any of those paths. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. "Events.SushiEndpoint": "https://unagi.amazon.com/1/events/com.amazon.csm.csa.prod", In addition, she is a rising senior at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona, where she most recently served as a breaking news reporter for The Arizona Republic, as well as a documentary producer for Arizona PBS. The Rt. How divine is the message that says for your finite failings you will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. }); I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of Heaven to play golf. Death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. ! } " John Shelby Spong 2. A.src = t; I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . I was baptized as an infant. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. John Shelby Spong 25. function isShowingBuyableFeatures() { . It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark. God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. "Bishop John Shelby Spong On: The Resurrection" The Christian Faith was born in the experience that we have come to call Easter. 1. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. Rev. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. All Things Quotes Page 253. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. return cookiePair[1]; It is not by pitching the old insights out but by journeying deeply through them into new visions that we are able to change religion's direction. //]]> Although he has been a Christian his entire life, he does not believe it makes him superior to anyone. Spong, Resurrection . And the way they did it was to say, the Jews killed our hero too. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in the bullet points above are from Kitchen, "The Future Church and Bishop John Shelby Spong," p. 17. And thats immoral. I thought it presented Jesus as a visitor from another planet; in addition, Johns gospel is and has been interpreted as a document that fuels anti-Semitism in the church. John Shelby Spong Quotes. When charting a new reformation, we must engage in a task of getting even deeper into the vision of universalism, he said. [9], A prominent theme in Spong's writing was that the popular and literal interpretations of Christian scripture are not sustainable and do not speak honestly to the situation of modern Christian communities. I grew up in North Carolina being told that the Bible approves slavery and segregation, that it was the will of God. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life - into a capacity to love people we are not taught to love - and into an ability to be who we are. For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. How tasteless and ill-bred it is! Last edited on 13 September 2021, at 21:11, "Why We Must Reclaim The Bible From Fundamentalists", https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=3004716. If God is a source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving, loving wastefully, he said. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. return false; He was 90. He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. Matthew was sounding the call to a universal humanity, Spong said. John Shelby Spong When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. Thats where I think God is made visible.. I do not think of God theistically, that is, as a being, supernatural in power, who dwells beyond the limits of my world. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. God is also a source of love, Spong said. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination. About us. function(a9, a, p, s, t, A, g) { var cookie = cookies[i]; Prayer is not adult letters written to Santa Claus, and God is not some parent-like figure up in the sky who's going to take care of us. He has also lectured at universities, conference centers, and churches in North . The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. 25:30)? googletag.pubads().enableAsyncRendering(); "One day Jesus was praying, and when he had finished, one of the disciples asked, "Rabbi, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Abba God, hallowed be your Name! (1994) 2 External links Quotes [ edit] The author made sure that it was understood as a universal happening, Spong said. In 2005, he wrote: "[I have] immerse[d] myself in contemporary Biblical scholarship at such places as Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School and the storied universities in Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge. It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. According to The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, Bishop Spong suffered a stroke before a speaking engagement in Marquette, Michigan, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. The God understood as a father figure, who guided ultimate personal decisions, answered our prayers, and promised rewards and punishment based upon our behavior was not designed to call anyone into maturity. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. //]]> There was new openness to the supernatural. John Shelby Spong God, Thinking, People 57 Copy quote I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. gads.async = true; With the need for constant evolution in mind, Spong created his personal mantra. "https:" : "http:") + Are they people who no one prayed for? [CDATA[ He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. note: he retired years after this article was first written]. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin. [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, There is a mistake in the text of this quote. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(stylesheet); If that is a requirement of my commitment to Jesus, I find it difficult to stretch my mind outside the capacities of my world view. setDisplayBids: function() {}, He retired in 2000. "CacheDetection.RequestID": "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. var ue_t0=window.ue_t0||+new Date(); stylesheet.type = "text/css"; You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you dont have any freedom left, or youre going to build a world that doesnt create terrorists and that means a whole different way of getting along.. " John Shelby Spong 84. I don't think that's the case. And this came after I had written a book called "Living In Sin" on the whole gay. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991), Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words), Why Christianity Must Change or Die (1998), A New Christianity for a New World (2001), The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic (2013). 50. John Shelby Spong People, History, Real, Understood Generate image The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. Spong said this means human division must disappear. I operate with an emotional fearlessness, and I really feel music; I really feel songs. My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway. Paul tried to explain to the Galatians what it meant to put on Christ in the verse that reads, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.. The trouble with Christianity was that by about 150, there were hardly any Jews left in the Christian church, and so from that time until the last part of the twentieth century, the only people reading the gospels and interpreting the gospels and writing . John Shelby Spong Related Authors A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. } else { There is no longer male nor female. Christ must be served in every person, he said. Later the church followed his lead. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); a[a9] = { There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. No religion does that. Jesus becomes the captive of the hysterically religious, the chronically fearful, the insecure and even the neurotic among us, or he becomes little more than a fading memory, the symbol of an age that is no more and a nostalgic reminder of our believing past. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. Rev. 12 Vaganova Ballet Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. 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I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(true); The creeds were 3rd- and 4th-century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. That's magic, that's not God. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. //