The more deeply I can be all that I can be, the more I can make God visible.. John Shelby Spong 25. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. 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. googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(true); There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrowminded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. It doesn't. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark (based in Newark, New Jersey). url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_hd_images-2b89833762f600506d44865a33582d11.css"; John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. There is no mention of him in any source before the 8th decade. 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. He was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. True religion is not about possessing the truth. 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 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. 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. But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. I was confirmed as an adolescent; I was active in my church's youth group and in my university student group. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. We must move beyond the now irrelevant dualistic patterns and discover the holy at the heart of the human. "ebfg_email", "ebfg_sms"]; John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. 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. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. And the Bible is being quoted to deny homosexuals their equal rights, and the Bible will lose. } else { We've murdered them; we've burned them at the stake; we've run them out of town for something over which they have no control. '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 The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. 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A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines.[1]. How tasteless and ill-bred it is! I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. No one can do that, Spong said. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. 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. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Steve has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. John Shelby Spong Related Authors 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." I was baptized as an infant. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. // page settings "CacheDetection.RequestID": "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", Spong said this means human division must disappear. Are they people who no one prayed for? 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 . gads.async = true; If God is a source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving, loving wastefully, he said. Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on. _Q: [] 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. God is also a source of love, Spong said. "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); Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. George Stroumboulopoulos. John Shelby Spong Buddhist, Prayer, Believe Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. Forcing the evolution is the dialog between yesterday's words and today's knowledge. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. [8], Spong's writings rely on Biblical and non-Biblical sources and were influenced by modern critical analysis of these sources (see especially Spong, 1991). Give us today tomorrow's bread. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience. 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. Williams described Spong's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying "confusion and misinterpretation". Jamie Landers is entering her third season as a reporter for The Chautauquan Daily, covering all things music-related within the online platform. I just go beyond them. It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. "The older I get, the more deeply I believe but the. " Live life to it's fullest, love wastefully, and be all we can be. Christianity has always been an evolving story. A.src = t; In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown was critical of Spong's scholarship, referring to his studies as "amateur night". Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. During Chautauquas nine-week summer season, the, Iconic Chita Rivera to provide Chautauquans with one of final Amp performances in 22, Incoming pastor Rt. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. 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. 50. a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. " True religion is not about possessing the truth. That's magic, that's not God. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. }()); 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. var url; Christ must be served in every person, he said. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. !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}(); Those ideas are absurd. About us. Both are doomed as viable alternatives for the long- range future of anyone. Are they people who God just didn't like? Browse top 25 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by John Shelby Spong. The Christianity of the future cannot live inside the doctrines of the past, Spong said. (1994) 2 External links Quotes [ edit] stylesheet.type = "text/css"; [10], Spong was a strong proponent of the church reflecting the changes in society at large. Thats where I think God is made visible.. 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. It caused his followers to regard his teaching as worthy of being preserved. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. The church is like a swimming pool. That's not Christianity. Prayer is what I am doing when I love wastefully, passionately and wondrously and invite others to do so. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. That identification means . 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. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_images-9e9093f0cfddba8c2b1e815375d976a3.css"; I do not think of God theistically, that is, as a being, supernatural in power, who dwells beyond the limits of my world. }); I think the worst way to go is to have somebody think they speak for God. 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. John Shelby Spong. 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. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. } He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. 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. (function () { Rev. With the passing of retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong in September 2021, the movement known as Progressive Christianity has lost one of its most revered writers. "Application": "GoodreadsMonolith", The former Episcopal Bishop of Newark (N.J.) has been writing for years for those he calls "believers in exile," people who feel like modern versions of Christianity demand blind faith and require adherents to check their brains at the door. The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. Part 2 of the part time quotations list about odd-job and salaried sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Rob Lowe and Keith Ellison captions. I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates. Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth. return cookiePair[1]; Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Our motto is: Don't quote it if you can't source it. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. if (window.Mobvious === undefined) { And that's where it turns demonic. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. //

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