US Church Leaders Justify Ordination of Gay Bishop

The Times of London ^ | June 20, 2005 | Ruth Gledhill

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Did he have a fawning "trophy" bimbo in tow?

I saw him speak in a classic, older almost Anglo-Catholic looking parish. There were maybe 15 or 20 people huddled in a trance within the congregation. Safe to conclude that the women there were on birth control or had had two or three abortions. T.S. Eliot's line about "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper" came to mind.

Spong seems to be part of the Phil Donahue/Oprah school of shock jock/lounge lizard pop psychology which holds that if you keep saying the same goofy things over and over again they become true. The fallacy of the "false dichotomy" and "false generalization" are rather integral to Spong's routine. Classic liberal sophistry.

As I spoke with Bishop Spong personally after his sanctimonious and rambling lecture, it struck me how evil-looking and creepy his face and eyes were. If they ever make a remake of Rosemary's Baby or The Omen...

[megatherium]

I don't recall any bimbos in tow. Spong spoke at a large (1000 member) parish, a liberal parish whose rector is a protege of his. The sanctuary was very full (the lecture was well-promoted and people from a variety of churches came; I found myself sitting next to a liberal Catholic laywoman). His lecture was smug and sanctimonious; it was clear he believed (like most liberals do) that his opponents are benighted or mean-spirited.

As far as scholarship goes, my impression is that Spong isn't all that hot. His schtick is that the miracles (including the resurrection itself) are to be taken as figurative stories, as "midrash", color-commentary by rabbinic storytellers. He wrote a book on the resurrection some ten years ago. I certainly didn't read it, but some careful browsing convinced me that he didn't believe in it. I thought, cute, a book by a bishop denying the resurrection, published at Easter-time. And of course the liberal media will enthusiastically endorse it.