We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. John Shelby Spong You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. They amuse themselves by playing an irrelevant ecclesiastical game called "Let's Pretend." 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. As I look at the history of religion, I observe that new religious insights always and only emerge from the old traditions as they begin to die. [CDATA[ setDisplayBids: function() {}, Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordained knowingly was a man named Robert Williams. 52. V. Gene Robinson was able to publicly thank the man he said are the shoulders on which (Robinson) stands.. 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." Steve has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Then there was Paul. 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'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . 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. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. His views on the future of Christianity were "that we have to start where we are. John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. // var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display It has been a wonderful trip, and I am sad it is coming to an end.. He began by admitting he still has no way of knowing who or what God is. 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. John Shelby Spong Quotes 1. try { var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult. 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. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. Jesus was undeniably a figure of history. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. " John Shelby Spong 2. "Whatever it was that people experience in Jesus has today come to be identified with medieval doctrines based on premodern assumptions that are no longer believable. John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines.[1]. 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. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. The Rt. The creeds were 3rd- and 4th-century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. [8], Spong's writings rely on Biblical and non-Biblical sources and were influenced by modern critical analysis of these sources (see especially Spong, 1991). John Shelby Spong has been called a heretic and worse. Spong said this means human division must disappear. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. The author of this book is not a single individual, but is at least three different writers/editors, who did their layered work over a period of 25 to 30 years. Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and navet? There can be no one regarded as unclean, no prejudice allowed to operate inside this vision of Christianity., Since then, he has answered the call to try to transform the world so that every person living in it will have a better opportunity to live fully, love wastefully and be all each of them was created to be.. I hope I am not ungracious if in return I remark that I do not think that a single NT author would recognize Spong's Jesus as the figure being proclaimed or written about. Our motto is: Don't quote it if you can't source it. I want to say something positively, something about the conclusion that I presently hold and bear witness to why I continue to be a member of this community.. I think the worst way to go is to have somebody think they speak for God. And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. I don't think so. John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? I operate with an emotional fearlessness, and I really feel music; I really feel songs. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. session: { id: "242-2972433-4130551" }, John Shelby Spong (16 June 1931 - 12 September 2021) Introduction. A = p.createElement(s); All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. John Shelby Spong. When I stand in the presence of this God who inhabits the heart of life, I know just why I define myself as a joyful . 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. The question must also be raised as to whether we have the actual words of Jesus in any Gospel. [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. 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. If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path Id walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. "Bishop John Shelby Spong On: The Resurrection" The Christian Faith was born in the experience that we have come to call Easter. John Shelby Spong 82. As far as we know, a creaturewho can: define life, contemplates its beginning, anticipates its termination and raise the question of its meaning, is a rare thing, he said. "CacheDetection.RequestID": "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", I do not think so. In a 2013 interview with Religion News Service, Spong spoke about his own spirituality and beliefs, which he said had grown deeper as he aged. " I go where I'm invited. John Shelby Spong Buddhist, Prayer, Believe Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. Learn more. googletag.cmd.push(function() { Rev. Chapter seven begins with quotations from the Pauline Epistles, including Gal 5:12, "I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves", Col 3:22, "Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthy masters, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart", and from 1 Cor 14:35, "It is shameful for a woman to speak in 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. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Our English language really says if youre not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. There is a mistake in the text of this quote. [3], Spong was one of the first American bishops to ordain a woman into the clergy, in 1977, and he was the first to ordain an openly gay man, Robert Williams, in 1989. When charting a new reformation, we must engage in a task of getting even deeper into the vision of universalism, he said. Those ideas are absurd. Forcing the evolution is the dialog between yesterday's words and today's knowledge. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; It grew and developed year by year over a period of forty-two to seventy years. I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. "https:" : "http:") + apstag.init({ 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. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on. The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. [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. We've collected the best John Shelby Spong Quotes. if (window.ue && window.ue.tag) { window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out', ue.main_scope);window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out:mobileWeb', ue.main_scope); } John Shelby Spong > Quotes (?) True religion is not about possessing the truth. I do not think so. . John Shelby Spong (2009). Are they people who no one prayed for? 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. 23:17). if (sourcesToHideBuyFeatures[i] == source) I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. Every day we present the best quotes! [19][20] After Spong's book Jesus for the Non-Religious was published in 2007, Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, banned Spong from preaching at any churches in his diocese. 51. The more deeply I can be all that I can be, the more I can make God visible.. Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit organization, dependent upon your gifts to fulfill its mission. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. It meant go beyond the boundaries that you directed in your biologically driven search for survival.. "//securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js"; It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. 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.. There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. You cant have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. In the way that God brought oneness out of diversity, wholeness out of brokenness and eternity out of time, Spong realized the version of faith he wanted to spread. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. //]]>, Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. And the way they did it was to say, the Jews killed our hero too. How tasteless and ill-bred it is! I experience God as the source of life calling me to live fully and thus to respect life in every form as embodying the holy. The Bible tells me that every life is holy; the Bible tells me that every life is loved; the Bible tells me that every life is called to be all that it can be. Let's pretend that we possess the objective truth of God in our inerrant Scriptures or in our infallible pronouncements or in our unbroken apostolic traditions. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. Q & A for 2-14-2013 electronic newsletter, A New Christianity For a New World, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The General Convention of the Episcopal Church: House of Bishops, "John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church", "The retired Bishop John Shelby Spong interview", "Former Newark Episcopal bishop Spong suffers stroke", "Dominus Iesus: The Voice of Rigor Mortis", "God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be", "No life, here no joy, terror or tears", "Fear of ideas: The decline and fall of Anglicanism", "Sydney Archbishop Jensen bans John Shelby Spong", "My Evening with Bishop John Shelby Spong", "John Shelby Spong, liberal Episcopal bishop, dies at age 90", "Bishop John Shelby Spong, firebrand who championed LGBTQ inclusion, has died", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=1139405551, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06. John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture . It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. , In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. He died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday morning," St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond . John Shelby Spong was born on June 16 1931 at Charlotte, North Carolina, the elder of two boys. return cookiePair[1]; I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. }); Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". googletag.pubads().setTargeting("author", [45659]); In a 2013 interview, Spong credited the Anglican bishop John Robinson as his mentor in this journey and said reading Robinson's writings in the 1960s led to a friendship and mentoring relationship with him over many years. Bishop John Shelby Spong, an Episcopal Church prelate whose liberal views rankled orthodox Episcopalians and others, died in his sleep Sunday morning, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Morris. I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. "Why We Must Reclaim The Bible From Fundamentalists". - John Shelby Spong. There is no longer male nor female. That is not within human competence. 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. Part 2 of the all things quotations list about every-one and in-its-entirety sayings citing Jay Baruchel, David Frum and David Frum captions. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. note: he retired years after this article was first written]. There is no way that the Fourth Gospel was written by John Zebedee or by any of the disciples of Jesus. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. 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