Posted on 07/26/2005 12:30:31 PM PDT by sionnsar
Contrasting his own sense of divine love with the ostensible "hate" of conservative Protestants and Catholics, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong insisted, "I don't want to denigrate any human being."
But Spong lashed into traditional Christians in a scorching speech to Michael Lerner's Conference on Spiritual Activism on July 21 in Berkeley, California. He hailed Lerner as a "major force for peace in our nation and the world."
Hundreds at what Spong called a "consciousness-raising conference" cheered and applauded as he mocked traditional Christian and Jewish beliefs about God and the Bible.
"I rise up to say 'no' to popular religion in America today," Spong declared, calling American religiosity "tribal" and the "blessing of private prejudices."
Warning against this supposed "tribal" religion, Spong insinuated a connection between conservative Christians and Islamist terrorists. He noted, as if it were some kind of proof, that both Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush "invoke" God.
Spong, who is the retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, has long been a biting polemicist on behalf of liberal religion, writing books suggesting that the Virgin Mary was a prostitute and St. Paul a "self-hating gay man," while denying that Christ was divine and rejecting a personal God. "It's time to name evil as evil when sounded in pious accents of biblical religion," Spong declared blazingly. "In the 21st century ... my nation seems to be walking religiously back into religious attitudes that I spent a lifetime trying to escape."
Spong's Episcopal denomination is one of America's fastest declining. His own Newark diocese, during his 24 years as its bishop, lost 40 percent of its membership.
Growing churches in America and around the world are theologically orthodox, which disturbs Spong greatly.
"We have a pope who says [moral] relativity must be combatted," Spong lamented. "Protestant leaders say homosexuality is a sin. A cardinal denounces evolution." The bishop asked forlornly, "Is this what Christianity has become?"
Spong denounced the "narrow prejudice" of popular religion. "Is the current direction of Christianity in this country the right direction?" he asked. "Are we heading into phase two of a new dark age?"
Chastising a "male-dominated church" that attempts to "define women," Spong lambasted "post-menopausal" Catholic bishops who call God "Father" and tell women "what they can do with their bodies."
"Conservative Roman Catholicism and evangelical fundamentalists are growing," Spong noted with worry. His explanation of the trend was: "Hysterical people are seeking security."
Condemning popular religion that "masquerades as Christianity," Spong sneered that he did not want to walk into "what's called a Christian book store," listen to a "Christian" radio station or be "identified with the Christian vote," when these labels apply to people "bashing homosexuals" and "keeping women from choosing."
Spong fretted that the Bible in America has become a "force in public policy as an arbiter of right and wrong." Those who quote it make "fascinating points" and "assume the Bible is always right," he observed.
But the Bible has been a "major force in dark chapters of American history," Spong ominously warned. It has been used to support slavery, oppress women, and justify war, he charged. And now the Bible is being used to "make abortion illegal" and to "oppose end of life decisions," Spong complained. The Bible is even being used to justify the "preservation of living cadavers," he said, in an apparent reference to the case of severely disabled Terri Schiavo.
"Our breeding practices threaten us with environmental degradation," he further charged, in an apparent slam against Roman Catholics and others who take a positive view of childbearing inside marriage and a negative view of artificial contraception.
Spong reserved special venom for the American South, where he was raised as a "fundamentalist."
"What kind of Bible do they read in the Bible Belt?" Spong asked rhetorically. "Did they not practice slavery? Did they not allow lynchings?"
Saying that the South has more military schools than any other part of the United States, Spong further asked, "Is it not the most militaristic part of our nation?"
Spong also charged that the South is the most "homophobic" region of the country and that it executes more prisoners than all of the rest of the developed world combined.
Referring to the rise of religious conservatives based in the South, Spong claimed, to the audience's delight, "The old [segregationist] George Wallace vote simply applied perfume and call themselves the religious right."
"Does God empower us to hate others?" Spong asked, ostensibly aiming at religious conservatives who are "oblivious of biblical scholarship of the last 200 years."
The oldest part of the Bible is only 3,000 years old, Spong stated, while the Earth is 4 billion years old and humans may have existed for 2 million years.
"Is it possible that a 3,000-year-old book captures the truth of God for all time?" Spong sarcastically asked. In fact, he said, the Bible "assumes as truth the limited knowledge that people had in that period of history."
Dismissing orthodox Christians as credulously simplistic, Spong claimed that beliefs about God descending onto Mount Sinai or Jesus ascending into Heaven were based on archaic assumptions of a "three-tiered universe" that placed God and Heaven right above the clouds.
Even if Jesus were ascending at the speed of light, he still would not have yet left our galaxy after 2,000 years, Spong chuckled, crediting this clever observation to the late astronomer Carl Sagan.
The Bible calls the Hebrews the "chosen people," Spong mockingly recalled. "If God has chosen people, then he also has unchosen people," Spong warned.
"Have you read the Bible from the Egyptian standpoint?" Spong asked to laughter, pointing out that God did not treat the Egyptians kindly in the Book of Exodus.
Referring to the Bible as a "book we have called the Word of God," Spong charged that it justified genocide and treated women as property. The Old Testament urges capital punishment for a whole range of sinful offenses, including adultery, he mischievously noted. "How many of you would be alive?" he smilingly asked.
"If you take the Bible literally, there'd hardly be anybody alive," Spong observed dismissively.
But biblical literalism is on the march, Spong worried. "In our nation there is a religious mentality that would lead us to the past of tribal warfare," he warned. "This is too small a God for our expanding world and consciousness."
"The God we serve is greater than any of our religious traditions," Spong told the approving audience, which gave him an enthusiastic standing ovation.
Condemning popular religion that "masquerades as Christianity," Spong sneered that he did not want to walk into "what's called a Christian book store," listen to a "Christian" radio station or be "identified with the Christian vote," when these labels apply to people "bashing homosexuals" and "keeping women from choosing."
I myself don't care for most of what passes for Christian bookstores around here, and for Christian Top 40.
Spong mockingly recalled. "If God has chosen people, then he also has unchosen people," Spong warned.
Well, yeah. Unsaved, lost, reprobate, whatever. Yes, they exist. Deal with it.
Quote:
Spong, who is the retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, has long been a biting polemicist on behalf of liberal religion, writing books suggesting that the Virgin Mary was a prostitute and St. Paul a "self-hating gay man," while denying that Christ was divine and rejecting a personal God. "It's time to name evil as evil when sounded in pious accents of biblical religion," Spong declared blazingly. "In the 21st century ... my nation seems to be walking religiously back into religious attitudes that I spent a lifetime trying to escape."
(snip)
But the Bible has been a "major force in dark chapters of American history," Spong ominously warned.
(snip)
There are so many "traditional Anglicans" who appear, to me, to just be staring at their belly buttons while their episcopate spouts garbage like this or raids churches like so many jackbooted thugs. Why is this garbage tolerated?
Don't get me wrong, this has nothing to do with Anglican belief, I just don't understand why those who actually believe and practice those beliefs sit there and tolerate the rot from the head down.
He only reads the parts of the Bible that fit his "religion"! The Bible also said to take the log out of your own eye before you try and pluck the speck out of someone elses! The big question is "is Jesus Christ Lord and Savior of your heart?" That's the only question that will matter for any of us and will be the final Jeopardy Question as we stand before God...
Talk about hate speech!!
(To the tune of A Silly Song from Disney's Snow White)
A-one! A-two! A-three!
John Spong, the Bible's wrong!
We sing it night and day!
Now we know the happiness
That comes with being Gay!
John Spong, the Bible's wrong!
So flush it down the can!
Come help us free the natives
From the grip of Western Man!
Yodeling.
Um . . . anyone care to add any verses?
I "learned" from a conservative "theistic evolutionist" FReeper this morning that G-d doesn't control the weather.
It's hard for me to laugh about Mr. Spong. He's pretty evil. Then again, sometimes the best thing to do about evil is to laugh at it. At least that was something both Luther and St. Thomas More agreed on.
I rather thought so --your style is different from his-- but it was meant as a compliment.
I know. That's how I took it. Thank you.
The Serpent Speaks...
Thanks.
But you don't like my singing?
I notice that my religious beliefs are also different from his. But I still thank you for the compliment!
BTW - did you notice that Spong said the Bible was 3,000 years old?
Now I think the Torah was actually given 3450 years ago or thereabouts, but it's a pretty amazing statement.
The radical historical-critical types, depending on which ones you talk to, generally claim that the oldest Bible books to exist in their current form were compiled no earlier than Hezekiah - 2680 years ago.
He's basically saying that there was a Bible in the reign of David the King.
By his standards, that's a primitive notion.
I'd rather not be in the area when Spong faces his judgment.
T'anks (as Maureen O'Hara would say).
BTW - did you notice that Spong said the Bible was 3,000 years old?
Now I think the Torah was actually given 3450 years ago or thereabouts, but it's a pretty amazing statement.
The radical historical-critical types, depending on which ones you talk to, generally claim that the oldest Bible books to exist in their current form were compiled no earlier than Hezekiah - 2680 years ago.
He's basically saying that there was a Bible in the reign of David the King.
By his standards, that's a primitive notion.
Come to think of it, you're right.
Ol' Spongy'll have to burn his vocal cords now for touchin' Fundamentalist soil! And since he's a white guy, he ought to be ashamed of himself!
itching-ears alert.
And in a stunning gesture reflecting his moral consistancy, Bishop Spong stated that he would renounce his comfortable pension from the Episcopal Church...
John Shelby Spong has not forgotten the worst bits of his North Carolina upbringing, as his comments about his African brethren indicate:
"They've moved out of animism into a very superstitious kind of Christianity. They've yet to face the intellectual revolution of Copernicus and Einstein that we've had to face in the developing world; that is just not on their radar screen."
"If they feel patronized that's too bad. I'm not going to cease to be a 20th century person for fear of offending somebody in the Third World."
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