Tweet. By contrast, Phillip Aspinall, the Primate of Australia, invited Spong in 2007 to deliver two sermons at St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. John Shelby Spong Quotes. George Stroumboulopoulos. I call this God by different words. var cookie = cookies[i]; John Shelby Spong People, History, Real, Understood Generate image The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. Rev. Christianity has always been an evolving story. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; If that is a requirement of my commitment to Jesus, I find it difficult to stretch my mind outside the capacities of my world view. I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . A.async = !0; Incarnation will never give us that.. note: he retired years after this article was first written]. And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. It meant go beyond the boundaries that you directed in your biologically driven search for survival.. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. googletag.enableServices(); The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Terrorism is a real despair. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. While Paul left off there, Spong believes there is a lot more to modernizing Christianity than erasing those dividing lines. setDisplayBids: function() {}, What I'm trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism. 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. [CDATA[ If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. var useSSL = "https:" == document.location.protocol; It has been a wonderful trip, and I am sad it is coming to an end.. "[13], Spong debated Christian philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig on the resurrection of Jesus on March 20, 2005.[14]. 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. 50. Death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness. I don't think that's the case. [CDATA[ With the need for constant evolution in mind, Spong created his personal mantra. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. . He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009. !function(){function n(n,t){var r=i(n);return t&&(r=r("instance",t)),r}var r=[],c=0,i=function(t){return function(){var n=c++;return r.push([t,[].slice.call(arguments,0),n,{time:Date.now()}]),i(n)}};n._s=r,this.csa=n}(); 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. [21], Mark Tooley, a Methodist who is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a think tank noted for its critique of liberal religious groups, criticized Spong in 2010 as "brandishing the stale theologies and ideologies of a half-century ago". function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { 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. Even in the widest variety of our humanity, in our deepest set of beliefs, there is no outcast in this community, he said. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. J.B. Heller Quotes James Whitfield Thomson Quotes Jeanne A. Estes Quotes John Shelby Spong Quotes Julien Temple Quotes Lenny Kravitz Quotes Merrell Fankhauser Quotes Nicole Green Quotes Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn Quotes Priya Rawal Quotes S. Andrew Swann Quotes Scott F. Gilbert Quotes 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. I think that's not only tough, but ultimately disappointing to most people. And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. Paul tried to explain to the Galatians what it meant to put on Christ in the verse that reads, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. 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. Why dont we understand that? John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; Weekly mailing, September 5, 2007. A.src = t; The Rt. Spong, Resurrection . He stated that he was a Christian because he believes that Jesus Christ fully expressed the presence of a God of compassion and selfless love and that this is the meaning of the early Christian proclamation, "Jesus is Lord" (Spong, 1994 and Spong, 1991). Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people! 14 "John Shelby Spong" Quotes And Sayings. if(cookiePair[0] === name) { John Shelby Spong. The God understood as a father figure, who guided ultimate personal decisions, answered our prayers, and promised rewards and punishment based upon our behavior was not designed to call anyone into maturity. window.Mobvious = {}; 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 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. If you look at history, every nation that has operated as if it spoke for God has become violently destructive. 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." Introducing John Shelby Spong the Rt. I rather experience God as the source of life willing me to live fully, the source of love calling me to love wastefully and to borrow a phrase from the theologian, Paul Tillich, as the Ground of being, calling me to be all that I can be. The tour coincided with Hollingworth leaving the diocese to become the Governor-General of Australia. Weve got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." if (window.ue && window.ue.tag) { window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out', ue.main_scope);window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out:mobileWeb', ue.main_scope); } Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, There is a mistake in the text of this quote. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. }; } Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. Bishop John Shelby Spong, an Episcopal Church prelate whose liberal views rankled orthodox Episcopalians and others, died in his sleep Sunday morning, St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Morris. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. Elaborating on this last idea, he affirmed that Jesus was adopted by God as his son (Born of a Woman 1992), and he says that this would be the way God was fully incarnated in Jesus Christ. Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and navet? The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period of time, some of which you and I rejected long ago. I cannot possibly conceive of my planet Earth as the centre of a three-tiered universe. gads.src = (useSSL ? He was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. So if God is a source of life, then the only way I can appropriately worship God is by living fully.. Rev. There is no longer male nor female. Showing 1-30 of 46 "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. "There is no longer Jew nor Greek. shortquotes.blog 1,000,000++ Short Quotes Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. 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. Now, that job belongs to everyone in the Christian faith who wishes to carry out his vision to fruition. I do not think so. Are they people who no one prayed for? I call this God by different words. John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. 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. The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as heresy in the churches. "https://":"http://";i+=f?g:k;i+=j;i+=h;c(i)}if(!e.ue_inline){if(a.loadUEFull){a.loadUEFull()}else{b()}}a.uels=c;e.ue=a})(window,document); Robinson, who is the first openly gay priest to be elected bishop in Christendom, attributes the opportunity he had to serve as a leader in the church to Spong, who he said supported LGBT rights before it was popular. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. [5] Spong also honors Robinson as a mentor in the opening pages of his 2002 book A New Christianity for a New World. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. John Shelby Spong. ! var stylesheet = document.createElement("link"); Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. return false; Contents 1 Quotes 1.1 Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991) 1.2 Resurrection: Myth or Reality? People always like to have a good time and laugh, and, [among] the vast majority of the seven billion people on this earth, one thing that we all have in common is at some . Tweets by @chqdaily , Spong proffers a third way, one that involves being "fully human." We are not really separated from God, he asserts. The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, p.12, Harper Collins. [11] Towards these ends, he called for a new Reformation, in which many of Christianity's basic doctrines should be reformulated.[1]. A = p.createElement(s); Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in the bullet points above are from Kitchen, "The Future Church and Bishop John Shelby Spong," p. 17. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals. V. Gene Robinson was able to publicly thank the man he said are the shoulders on which (Robinson) stands.. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. He held visiting positions and gave lectures at major American theological institutions, most prominently at Harvard Divinity School. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. //]]> My religious schizophrenia is at an end. We were told in the Second Commandment we could make no images of this God, and I don't think that means just building idols, I think that means also trying to believe you've captured God in your words, in the Creeds, in the Scriptures. He claims he is a Christian yet he champions causes that historic Christianity has often . His admirers acclaim him as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary layperson he's considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both . As a retired bishop, he was a member of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. God Is Real. In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last gospel, John, Thomas is invited to feel the nail prints in Christ's hands and feet and the spear wound in his side. And that's where it turns demonic. That's sort of fourth-century Christianity that got turned into doctrines and dogmas that we've never been able to escape. That's the thing we've got to get out from under. What Im trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism. window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { googletag.pubads().enableAsyncRendering(); It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. 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. When the dust settles and the pages of history are written, it will not be the angry defenders of intolerance who have made the difference. node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); Giving It All Quotes Page 34 Part 2 of the giving it all quotations list about premature-birth and baby-shower sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Eve Ensler and Milo Ventimiglia captions Now, the fourth gospel says that the moment that Jesus is glorified is the moment he's put to death on the cross, not the resurrection. The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. } Bishop John Shelby Spong (1931-2021) One of the Episcopal Church's most controversial liberal bishops, whom IRD frequently critiqued, has died. 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. I'm not in the comfort-giving business. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. (function () { 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. } All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. He was 90. " 52. John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. 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