5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. Jesus becomes the captive of the hysterically religious, the chronically fearful, the insecure and even the neurotic among us, or he becomes little more than a fading memory, the symbol of an age that is no more and a nostalgic reminder of our believing past. I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you dont have any freedom left, or youre going to build a world that doesnt create terrorists and that means a whole different way of getting along.. You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground.I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. Let's pretend that we possess the objective truth of God in our inerrant Scriptures or in our infallible pronouncements or in our unbroken apostolic traditions. I don't have any interest in doing that. God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be. googletag.pubads().enableAsyncRendering(); 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. g = p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. Thats where I think God is made visible.. He believed in a more nuanced approach to scripture, informed by scholarship and compassion, which can be consistent with both Christian tradition and contemporary understandings of the universe. "Whatever it was that people experience in Jesus has today come to be identified with medieval doctrines based on premodern assumptions that are no longer believable. Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good. He was also a professor of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1980 until his retirement . "Christ must be served in every person," he said. The Bible says that women are property, that homosexuals ought to be put to death, that anybody who worships a false God ought to be executed, that a child that talks back to his parents ought to be stoned at the gates of the city. } He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. } He sees himself against nature. It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience. John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. I'm not in the comfort-giving business. var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. I hope I am not ungracious if in return I remark that I do not think that a single NT author would recognize Spong's Jesus as the figure being proclaimed or written about. That is what Jesus meant and that's what the original Christ experience was, before we became Scripture defenders, and before the creeds became the essence of our faith." Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. q("i", arguments) I want to say something positively, something about the conclusion that I presently hold and bear witness to why I continue to be a member of this community.. John Shelby Spong has been called a heretic and worse. We've collected the best John Shelby Spong Quotes. The way you become divine is to become wholly human. I grew up in North Carolina being told that the Bible approves slavery and segregation, that it was the will of God. Previously, she recapped the Chautauqua Lecture Series in 2019 and the Interfaith Lecture Series in 2018. John Shelby Spong Quotes. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. The ultimate meaning of the Bible escapes human limits and calls us to a recognition that every life is holy, every life is loved, and every life is called to be all that that life is capable of being. At 82, retired and enjoying life, Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn't have to be the liberal enfant terrible whose pronouncements for gay rights and against traditional dogmas once . I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake. Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people! He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. That is what Jesus meant and thats what the original Christ experience was, before we became Scripture defenders, and before the creeds became the essence of our faith.. var stylesheet = document.createElement("link"); The trouble with Christianity was that by about 150, there were hardly any Jews left in the Christian church, and so from that time until the last part of the twentieth century, the only people reading the gospels and interpreting the gospels and writing . I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. }); a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) About us. The Christianity of the future cannot live inside the doctrines of the past, Spong said. I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being." John Shelby Spong Life Love God Day "Mother Nature is not sweet." John Shelby Spong God, Thinking, People 57 Copy quote I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. var useSSL = "https:" == document.location.protocol; [CDATA[ When I stand in the presence of this God who inhabits the heart of life, I know just why I define myself as a joyful . Weekly mailing, September 5, 2007. By contrast, Phillip Aspinall, the Primate of Australia, invited Spong in 2007 to deliver two sermons at St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. }()); He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. And that's where it turns demonic. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. gads.type = "text/javascript"; To me, neither option is worth pursuing. When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. We do not have to literalize their words to perceive their meaning or their intention to join in the singing of their creedal song. "[23], Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described Spong's teaching as constituting the historic definition of heresy, having "denied virtually every major Christian doctrine. [18], During a speaking tour in Australia in 2001, Spong was banned by Peter Hollingworth, the Archbishop of Brisbane, from speaking at churches in the diocese. Showing 1-30 of 46 "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life - into a capacity to love people we are not taught to love - and into an ability to be who we are. 50. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. George Stroumboulopoulos. Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. The biblical texts that we Christians have used for centuries to justify our hostility toward the Jews need to be banished forever from the sacred writings of the Christian church. He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit organization, dependent upon your gifts to fulfill its mission. Every day we present the best quotes! John Shelby Spong. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. I do not live in a world where people can walk on water, or still a storm, or take five loaves of bread and feed 5000 men plus women and children. 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. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_hd_images-2b89833762f600506d44865a33582d11.css"; if (a[a9]) return; Weve got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; q("f", arguments) 23:17). Rev. Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. "[2], Spong served as rector of St. Joseph's Church in Durham, North Carolina, from 1955 to 1957; rector of Calvary Parish, Tarboro, North Carolina, from 1957 to 1965; rector of St. John's Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, from 1965 to 1969; and rector of St. Paul's Church in Richmond, Virginia, from 1969 to 1976. "ObfuscatedMarketplaceId": "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1" It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. - John Shelby Spong. Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); No religion does that. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. [7] Spong was the cousin of the United States Senator from Virginia William B. Spong Jr. } else { All we can ever say is how we believe we have experienced God, doing our best to dispel our human delusions. , I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. " 14 "John Shelby Spong" Quotes And Sayings. var e = document.createElement("script"); e.src = "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mrkPcyPwL.js"; document.head.appendChild(e); Shelby Harris. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. He retired in 2000. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience. The Bible is full of dreadful things. In 2000, Spong was a critic of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church's declaration Dominus Iesus, because it reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church and that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior for humanity. His great-great-grandfather had emigrated to America from Kent, though the family name may . //]]>, Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. } Although he has been a Christian his entire life, he does not believe it makes him superior to anyone. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. 52. googletag.cmd.push(function() { God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth. The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing. var ue_t0=window.ue_t0||+new Date(); John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. gads.async = true; If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. John Shelby Spong Buddhist, Prayer, Believe Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. But I'm not fighting as the man he knew today, as a Gold. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as 'heresy' in the churches. 25:30)? These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they can take down some of their enemies. As a retired bishop, he was a member of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); 23:17). How divine is the message that says for your finite failings you will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. We must move beyond the now irrelevant dualistic patterns and discover the holy at the heart of the human. No religion does that. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. if (window.csa) { I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. It has been a wonderful trip, and I am sad it is coming to an end.. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. I prepare for death by living. John Shelby "Jack" Spongis a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. Don't read that to me on Sunday morning and say "This is the word of the Lord." In a 2013 interview with Religion News Service, Spong spoke about his own spirituality and beliefs, which he said had grown deeper as he aged. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordained knowingly was a man named Robert Williams. Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. John Shelby Spong > Quotes (?) It's like that crazy man down in Alabama who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. May your reign come. And all I can tell you is if we accepted every invitation we had, I'd be away every day of my life. And all I can tell you is if we accepted every invitation we had, I'd be away every day of my life." -- John Shelby Spong #Accepted #Invitations "When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown was critical of Spong's scholarship, referring to his studies as "amateur night". No one can do that, Spong said. All Things Quotes Page 253. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions". init: function() { John Shelby Spong Related Authors 12 Vaganova Ballet Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation. So if God is a source of life, then the only way I can appropriately worship God is by living fully.. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. // John Shelby Spong was born on June 16 1931 at Charlotte, North Carolina, the elder of two boys. throw new Error("could not load device-specific stylesheet : " + err.message); Are they hopelessly misinformed? 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