He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. John Shelby Spong. We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. q("f", arguments) The creeds were 3rd- and 4th-century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. I mean the kind of love that never stops to calculate, never stops to wonder whether the object of its love is worthy to its recipient. "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the Rt. There is no longer Jew nor Greek. The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, p.12, Harper Collins. Behind the supernatural framework of the first century, behind the language of myth, magic, and superstition, I discovered a life I wanted to know; a life that possessed a power I wanted to possess; a freedom, a wholeness for which I had yearned for years. The Bible was quoted to defend slavery and the bible lost. 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. In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. googletag.enableServices(); 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. Contents 1 Quotes 1.1 Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991) 1.2 Resurrection: Myth or Reality? He was 90 years old. 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. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. Are they people who God just didn't like? window.csa("Config", { 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. function q(c, r) { John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? He began by admitting he still has no way of knowing who or what God is. 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. When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. I'm not in the comfort-giving business. "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. I call this God by different words. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. All we can ever say is how we believe we have experienced God, doing our best to dispel our human delusions. } catch (err) { 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. John Shelby Spong died this past summer at the age of 90. })(); John Shelby Spong I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and navet? John Shelby Spong passed away at his home in North Carolina according to an announcement from the Richmond, Virginia parish he once pastored. } Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. No one can do that, Spong said. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. About us. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. I don't think that's the case. The way you become divine is to become wholly human. The more deeply I can be all that I can be, the more I can make God visible.. 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. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience. It grew and developed year by year over a period of forty-two to seventy years. Shelby Harris. There is no one who has been braver and ready to take whatever came his way for saving the truth., At 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 28, in the Hall of Philosophy, Spong, retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, discussed Matthew, his mantra and his legacy during his last lecture of the week and his career, titled Universalism: The Future of Christianity and Why I Remain a Christian, for Week Ones interfaith theme, Producing a Living Faith Today?, Todays the day, Spong said. There is no longer male nor female. The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. (1994) 2 External links Quotes [ edit] Christ must be served in every person, he said. [5] Spong also honors Robinson as a mentor in the opening pages of his 2002 book A New Christianity for a New World. Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. Every day we present the best quotes! It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. Why dont we understand that? There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrowminded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. try { I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . }; Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, There is a mistake in the text of this quote. 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. John Shelby Spong Quotes. Weekly mailing, September 5, 2007. It has not only to do with erasing human divisions, but about revitalizing our most cherished beliefs.. 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 . }("apstag", window, document, "script", "//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); Theism is dead, I joyfully proclaim, but God is real. var e = document.createElement("script"); e.src = "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mrkPcyPwL.js"; document.head.appendChild(e); 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. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) if (window.csa) { (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. The sin of Christianity is that any of us ever claimed that we had somehow captured eternal truth in the forms we had created. An Episcopal court ruled that homosexuality was not counter to its principles in 1996, and the church recognized same-sex marriages in 2015.[4]. Some people think prayer is telling God what to do. John Shelby "Jack" Spongis a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. I believe that God is very real. node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); I prepare for death by living. "[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. John Shelby Spong Quotes 1. Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark's gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all. And this came after I had written a book called "Living In Sin" on the whole gay. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. John Shelby Spong. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("sid", "osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2"); Use them as an inspiration. From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(stylesheet); I am content to learn from them and to walk with them side by side toward the God who lives, I believe, beyond the images that bind and blind us. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. Eugene Taylor Sutton to give closing sermon of 22, Sacred Song, Three Taps close season by reflecting, rejoicing, Josh Stafford, on Massey, to present comedic Keaton classic, Playwrights Hnath, Hamill take stage to talk writing, theater with Kahn, A true people person: friends and family reflect on the life of vic gelb, Robinson to close with message of Chautauquas unique role in the world, Stafford, Robinson reflect on 2021 season, look ahead to final Sacred Song Service, 2022, Alumni Association of CLSC raises record-breaking amount at auction, Eberhardt reflects on social psychology of American racial biases, African American Heritage House strives for diversity at Chautauqua. " John Shelby Spong 84. 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. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. My mantra is intended only to be my statement at this time, of where I am today (and) the place of which I have arrived on what might be the last days of my journey, he said. } May your reign come. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. Spong said this means human division must disappear. 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. Bishop John Shelby Spong (1931-2021) One of the Episcopal Church's most controversial liberal bishops, whom IRD frequently critiqued, has died. Many of the characters who appear in the pages of the Fourth Gospel are literary creations of its author and were never intended to be understood as real people, who actually lived in history. 14 "John Shelby Spong" Quotes And Sayings. This page was last edited on 13 September 2021, at 21:11. John Shelby Spong 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. var ue_mid = "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1"; 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. It is love that loves not because it has been earned. var cookie = cookies[i]; Those ideas are absurd. googletag.cmd.push(function() { //]]> [Religion News Service] Retired Newark Bishop John Shelby Spong, a bestselling author and cleric known for his progressive theology and his support of LGBTQ+ clergy in The Episcopal Church, has died. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; No religion does that. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. 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. www.huffingtonpost.com. //=0){return}if("ue_https" in e){f=e.ue_https}else{f=e.location&&e.location.protocol=="https:"?1:0}i=f? var url; John Shelby Spong I Am 21st Century Child Am "I believe that God is very real. He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny. Death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness. If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path Id walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. stylesheet.href = url; function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { var source = getCookieWithoutJQuery("source"); There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. , I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. // 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Copyright 2018 Chautauqua Institution "Events.SushiEndpoint": "https://unagi.amazon.com/1/events/com.amazon.csm.csa.prod", It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. "ObfuscatedMarketplaceId": "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1" 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. if (sourcesToHideBuyFeatures[i] == source) 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. 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 author made sure that it was understood as a universal happening, Spong said. God is also a source of love, Spong said. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". While Paul left off there, Spong believes there is a lot more to modernizing Christianity than erasing those dividing lines. Are they people who no one prayed for? googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); Showing 1-30 of 46 "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. var ue_sn = "www.goodreads.com"; So who is God? 25:30)? This self-denigration stuff - Jesus died for my sins - is nothing but a guilt message. Don't read that to me on Sunday morning and say "This is the word of the Lord." I thought it presented Jesus as a visitor from another planet; in addition, Johns gospel is and has been interpreted as a document that fuels anti-Semitism in the church. And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. " John Shelby Spong 83. John Shelby Spong 25. The tour coincided with Hollingworth leaving the diocese to become the Governor-General of Australia. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions". var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. There can be no one regarded as unclean, no prejudice allowed to operate inside this vision of Christianity., Since then, he has answered the call to try to transform the world so that every person living in it will have a better opportunity to live fully, love wastefully and be all each of them was created to be.. //]]> When the Gospel of Luke was being written, the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of Jesus and all the world. 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. 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Or reality God of love, p.12, Harper Collins edited on September... ; Jack & quot ; Quotes and Sayings portray Jesus of Nazareth narrowminded...
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