Posted on 04/12/2005 11:19:52 PM PDT by churchillbuff
O'Reilly has written a dustjacket blurb for Bishop Spong's new book: "The Sins of Scripture challenges Christians to look beyond the myths of their faith into the heart of the matter." I also got an email from a Spong-promoting outfit that says O'Reilly will have Spong on his show.
Here's the Publishers Weekly review on amazon:
Spong, a retired Episcopal bishop and prominent spokesperson for liberal Christianity, focuses this book on "terrible texts" which have been used to justify such "sins" as overbreeding, degradation of the environment, sexism, child abuse and anti-Semitism. These biblical texts, according to Spong, are not the incontrovertible Word of God, but flawed human responses to perceived threats. An incendiary example of this is Spong's assertion that Paul was a closeted gay man whose anti-gay statements were motivated by little more than his own self-loathing. Spong does not stop there; in the course of the book he suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married; that none of the supernatural events described in the Bible took place (including the resurrection); and that theism itself is a misunderstanding of God. Interestingly, readers who do not endorse Spong's radical reinterpretation of Christianity will still find much in this book they can affirm. His explanation of the roots of Christian anti-Semitism is fascinating and much less challenging to orthodoxy than many of his other claims. Unfortunately, Spong leads with his weakest section, which features a variety of poorly constructed arguments claiming, but giving inadequate evidence for, a strong causal relationship between biblical injunctions and both overpopulation and environmental problems. Nonetheless, this absorbing book has much to offer readers of all persuasions.
That should be THE RIGHT WRONG REVEREND JOHN SHELBY SPONG, D.D.
if you aren't aware, they do ORDAIN homosexuals in the Episcopal Church.
Don't they ordain priests? Does one have to take Holey Orders to become an Ordained homosexual?
Proverbs 28:4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them.
durasell said it would come as a surprise to the Church that he served and to his wife, if they were to learn Spong is a homosexual, as if that someone mitigated against the likelihood. Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, was married to a woman, and serving as a priest of that Church, and they raised him to bishop after he divorced his wife for a man.
"Spong is Wrong!"
He's no Biblical scholar. He's a heretic.
I might have had some respect for him if he'd left the Episcopal church, instead of staying on to sabotage it (and being well paid in the process).
Below is the Nicene Creed. It is a part of every Episcopal service. If the priest can't say it and believe it, he has no business being a priest.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Every time he recited this creed, Spong was lying. How much respect should I have for a liar?
He may be entitled to his opinions, but he is not entitled to the job of priest or bishop. And without the veneer of legitimacy those offices lent to him, he'd be just another wacko self-worshipping liberal.
Don't know if you've seen this?
How could Paul be gay when in one of his epistles he's apparently answering a criticism for his bringing along a Christian wife on his travels?
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
It's the correct term.
I've listened to Bill many times, and he simply doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to Catholic teaching. His religion is O'Relly Christianity. That's all.
Cool. They're right!
Yes, I would say that the publishing of this book ought to readily convince everyone who is even nominally Christian that Spong is on his way to Hell. Even a cursory reading should eliminate for once and for all time any influence he had on Christ's people.
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