An aging maverick, Charlotte native Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has no regrets

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 scandalized Christendom. Indeed, many of the views that once turned the Charlotte native and former Episcopal bishop of Newark into a lightning rod are now regarded as so matter-of-fact that they barely occasion much notice: Ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex marriages, for example, or having a female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman elected to lead a national church in the Anglican Communion.

On a range of issues, Spong can point to advancements that he helped push during a long and remarkable career – 20 years as a priest in North Carolina and Virginia and 24 years as a bishop in Newark. Through it all, Spong never retreated an inch. By the time he retired in 2000, his own diocese had 35 openly gay and lesbian clergy, and he also helped promote a new generation of church leaders who can carry his progressive torch: 11 clerics from his tenure are now bishops, more than from any other diocese, he says. At the same time, Spong also became a best-selling author who routinely, and infamously, questioned long-held doctrines and literal interpretations of the Bible. The Virgin Birth, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the historical accuracy of Jesus’ sayings in the Gospels – all these and much more were targets of Spong’s pointed pen during his heyday. “It was really a very exciting time,” he said of the fight for rights for gays and women. “That battle was very controversial. But that battle is so over today. That battle is won.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/17/4394687/an-aging-maverick-charlotte-native.html##storylink=cpy

4 One of many Anti-Christs...

BINGO!

19 ... Spong's real "congregation" has always been the media and academia.

AMEN!

23 I actually went to a lecture he gave in Florida. It was like being in the room with a large lizard, really bad vibes, and I certainly was not the only person who felt uncomfortable with him. ...

So did I in Birmingham around 1999. You captured the feeling spot on. Sadly, there were folks present who applauded him. A local Baptist pastor attended and crossed swords with him in the Q&A. Spong deftly deflected the pastor to the delight of the misguided.

33 Sounds like he is the “blind leading the blind”. All the genuine Christians probably left his ministry long ago.

Agreed. The "Exodus" really picked up speed after the 2003 election and consecration of homosexual NH Diocesan Bishop Gene Robinson.

Thank you.

Though I cannot ignore those areas where we DO differ - areas that I truly believe are essential to genuine Christian faith - I accept that Christians are found in many places. It is not beneficial to the cause of spreading the gospel of the grace of God through faith in Christ to constantly provoke flame wars among fellow Conservatives where all that is left are offended and angry spirits primed and ready for the NEXT opportunity to rear its head to strike back in revenge.

I KNOW this is not what Jim envisioned for this website. I KNOW it is not something that glorifies God or attracts others to join. Where we disagree, we should be able to discuss, with each contributor having the freedom to express his or her beliefs trusting that animosity and condemnation from fellow Freepers will not be rained down on her/his head for doing so. I readily admit that most of us have fallen into this trap from time to time. Being human, it is not an easy thing to read criticism of our faith and not want to retaliate in like manner. What I have observed over the years I have been here is that rarely do opinions get changed by browbeating and animosity. Paul said we should be ready to give an answer to those who ask us of the reason for the hope that is within us with gentleness and respect.

This bishop, of whom the article speaks, seems to be someone who, when confronted with forces that objected to the straight and narrow of the orthodox Christian faith, gave in and changed his doctrine to be friendly with the world - preferring the praise of men more than the praise of God. He persisted on this path for so long that he can no longer even recognize what is true anymore - preferring a relative theology rather than any absolute doctrine as laid down by Holy Scripture. We NEED men and women to stand firm in the faith once delivered unto the saints - it never HAS changed and never needs to change. It is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe.

Thanks again for your comments.

“All of them were written 40 to 70 years after the Crucifixion, in a language that Jesus did not speak, and not by eyewitnesses,” he said. “I see them more as Jewish interpretive portraits painted by Jewish artists trying to capture the essence of this man’s life.”

70 years after the crucifixion? Then some of these Jewish artists might have mentioned the destruction of the temple in 78 AD. The lack of any mention of it dates the writings, and while the 40 might be accurate the 70 is way off.

I am glad he did what he did because heretics like him pushed me to seek being received into the Catholic faith, a place where I really needed to be.

...it would probably be a good idea for you to look into the Catholic seminaries of the 1970’s,and what they were teaching...and the meat cleavers they took to the traditional Deposit of Faith...John Shelby Spong did not exist in a vacuum, the ethos of the times demanded a wholesale purging of that which had come before...some faiths took that ‘cleansing’ to greater lengths than others, but all were infected...

...true enough (though the destruction was 70 AD, not 78)...
this event was well recorded by later Jewish historians such as Josephus, and its exclusion in the Gospels certainly speaks to their earlier formation, even while it is not ipso facto dispositive proof...I’ve heard some postulate that Christ’s foretelling of the Temple destruction precluded the necessity of writing about the actual event...but I’m not buying that...

...the actual truth is that nobody really knows either who wrote the Gospels and when they were written, though of course educated opinion provides compelling conjecture...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.