Posted on 07/26/2005 12:30:31 PM PDT by sionnsar
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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