For anyone who is interested, several of his writings can be found here:
http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/vox.html#spong
"For years, I haven't participated in organized religion because I was struggling with the conflict between what the church taught and what I learned in the real world," she says. "This has given me a new hope for Christianity. He's framed it in a different light and in a way that I can accept."
Hooray!! A way out. Now she can do what SHE thinks is right, and not have to be bothered with those darn old rules.
Sorry friend. If this man actually believes this then he's no Christian. This simple concept is the core of Christianity.
There is nothing else I need to hear from or about this individual.
As I see it, both churches, as a whole, are populated with people whose entire purpose in seeking positions in the ministry was to duck out of the Vietnam war. As a whole, this population sees no truths to be self-evident, and as a whole, the teachings of both of these churches SHOULD NOT be confused with TRUE Christianity, as the teachers and the shepherds are more lost than the parishoners.
It's truly sad that such a reputable church as the UMC has fallen this far.
:( ttt
Wow. I got the above quotes from http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/vox31199.html I read most of it. It's hard to believe a so-called minister wrote it. It represents some of the most naive and ignorant views of Christianity I have ever read. A sovereign God knows our situation far better than we and does judge us based on our heart. This guy needs to go all the way back to square one and read Mere Christianity . I hope he submits to Christ some day. And let us pray for his flock.
Well then, I guess we can also scrap that nasty U.S. Constitution, right? After all, more than a few misdeeds have been committed by our government over the last couple of hundred years, so clearly its founding documents are to blame.
For your reference, here are the 12 Theses:
1. Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
9. There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
12. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.
These theses are easily turned aside.
They always do.
Dan
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I believe this is referred to as recreating God in Man's image. If one believes this is acceptable then all religion becomes a meaningless exercise.
Rabbi David Wolpe, don't look behind you. You have competition.
Revelation 22: 18, 19 "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book."
I'll stick with the Book!
I am convinced, however, that exactly the opposite is true. To me it is obvious that unless we expose the barbaric quality of this ancient interpretation of the meaning of Jesus' death and of the God who was said to have required it and remove this spiritual monstrosity from the Christian enterprise then Christianity has no future. I do not believe that modern men and women will ever find appealing a God whose will is served by the human sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.A classic misunderstanding. Mr. Spong has completely ignore the whole meaning and(or) significance of the Old Testament sacrificial system and how Jesus was the logical conclusion and fulfillment. To equate the Temple sacrifices as a "spiritual monstrosity" clearly shows Mr Spong's as being a argumentative contrarian. He offers no textual basis for his opinions, just his own revelations about the true meaning of 2000 years of Christian doctrine. Mr. Spong has old tired arguments which have proven to be false when tested under the light of biblical interpretation.
The virgin birth is essential to belief that Jesus was ontologically different than the rest of us. The holy trinity is made up of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Not Supreme Being, Heavenly Force, infallible God/Man. A classic misunderstanding of the three aspects of the Godhead. In addition without the virgin birth prophecy would not be fulfilled, thus losing the link from Old testament to New.
Christians should stay away this man's opinions which neither edify Christ nor offer any new insights into his character and nature. Scholars and lay people alike can disagree on doctrine minutiae, but the pillars of Christianity must be defended from apostate clergy diverted from the path like Mr. Spong.
Oh, and I am a Methodist, this man does not speak for me or my church.