The Christianity of the future cannot live inside the doctrines of the past, Spong said. Williams described Spong's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying "confusion and misinterpretation". throw new Error("could not load device-specific stylesheet : " + err.message); } Favorite John Shelby Spong Quotes. 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. [CDATA[ JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordained knowingly was a man named Robert Williams. From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. " John Shelby Spong 84. 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 (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. If God is a source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving, loving wastefully, he said. 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. return null; And that's where it turns demonic. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. During Chautauquas nine-week summer season, the, Iconic Chita Rivera to provide Chautauquans with one of final Amp performances in 22, Incoming pastor Rt. 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. 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. window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. 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. This page was last edited on 13 September 2021, at 21:11. His views on the future of Christianity were "that we have to start where we are. The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person. Kelly assists on a wide variety . Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. 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. for(var i=0; i