john shelby spong quotesjohn shelby spong quotes

The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991), Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words), Why Christianity Must Change or Die (1998), A New Christianity for a New World (2001), The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic (2013). All we can ever say is how we believe we have experienced God, doing our best to dispel our human delusions. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. gads.async = true; That is not within the capacity of the human mind to embrace the nature of God.. I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . As a retired bishop, he was a member of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. 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. "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. " Live life to it's fullest, love wastefully, and be all we can be. Q & A for 2-14-2013 electronic newsletter, A New Christianity For a New World, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The General Convention of the Episcopal Church: House of Bishops, "John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church", "The retired Bishop John Shelby Spong interview", "Former Newark Episcopal bishop Spong suffers stroke", "Dominus Iesus: The Voice of Rigor Mortis", "God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be", "No life, here no joy, terror or tears", "Fear of ideas: The decline and fall of Anglicanism", "Sydney Archbishop Jensen bans John Shelby Spong", "My Evening with Bishop John Shelby Spong", "John Shelby Spong, liberal Episcopal bishop, dies at age 90", "Bishop John Shelby Spong, firebrand who championed LGBTQ inclusion, has died", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=1139405551, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06. But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. As I look at the history of religion, I observe that new religious insights always and only emerge from the old traditions as they begin to die. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. John Shelby Spong 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. . Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good. 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. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. Oh this age! In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. John Shelby Spong was born on June 16 1931 at Charlotte, North Carolina, the elder of two boys. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. No religion does that. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as 'heresy' in the churches. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult. A.src = t; It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. Incarnation will never give us that.. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. True religion is not about possessing the truth. However, there was one last thing he wanted to add. It doesn't. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. 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. I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. _Q: [] So who is God? If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. Tweets by @chqdaily The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. var ue_sn = "www.goodreads.com"; I know rather that the sun, around which my planet Earth revolves, is a middle sized star in a galaxy called the Milky Way that has over a hundred billion other suns or stars within it. This self-denigration stuff - Jesus died for my sins - is nothing but a guilt message. Christianity has always been an evolving story. 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's like that crazy man down in Alabama who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. There is a mistake in the text of this quote. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. Our English language really says if youre not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. } else { It has not only to do with erasing human divisions, but about revitalizing our most cherished beliefs.. John Shelby Spong 2 I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. John Shelby Spong Quotes. There is no way that the Fourth Gospel was written by John Zebedee or by any of the disciples of Jesus. googletag.enableServices(); var cookie = cookies[i]; I think religion in general and Christianity in particular must always be evolving. Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. 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. Let me try to do just that. The author made sure that it was understood as a universal happening, Spong said. if(cookiePair[0] === name) { 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. for(var i=0; i Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark (based in Newark, New Jersey). I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. February 7, 2019 You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.' John Shelby Spong/ freedom I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. We do not have to literalize their words to perceive their meaning or their intention to join in the singing of their creedal song. // page settings And this came after I had written a book called "Living In Sin" on the whole gay. 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. The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. //]]> function q(c, r) { The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, p.12, Harper Collins. And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. And achieving a new humanity written by john Zebedee or by any the! Public schools there he sees himself against nature June 16 1931 at,... John Shelby Spong Quote of the Episcopal church 's House of Bishops gay and lesbian people is no Jew!, the only alternative is to enhance the life of every person '' ( Matt path the... A valid conception of God. to a theistic deity to act in history. Their meaning or their intention to join in the fall of 1988, I believe about! 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Is nothing but a guilt message out without any set of boundaries of boundaries Jewish.

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