John S. Spong Quotes
Seven Quotes by: John S. Spong of Episcopal Church, 8th Bishop of Newark. In this book a man shaped by the religions of the East introduces the West to a Jesus we have either lost or have never known. That is itself a stunning concept, but Deepak Chopra is a stunning man. He explores what he calls the ‘Christ Consciousness,’ which can be identified neither with the Jesus of history nor with the Jesus of the creeds, the doctrines and the dogmas of the ecclesiastical institution. This ‘Third Jesus’ can be seen only when we move into a new human awareness that will carry us beyond tribe, prejudice and even beyond our religious systems. As a Christian, I welcome his insights into my Jesus and his provocative call to me to enter the ‘Christ Consciousness’ and thus to become more deeply and completely human.
Source here on the Internet. Dated: 10th November 2010.
I don't think hell exists. I happen to believe in life after death but I don't think it's got a thing to do with reward and punishment. Religion is always in the control business and that's something which people don't really understand.
Source here on the Internet. Dated: 30th January 2008.
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In the meantime I share your enormous embarrassment that the Christian church is today the major voice in the Western World in the persecution of those members of our society whose only 'sin' is that they were born with a sexual orientation different from the majority. Someday we will be terribly ashamed of the Christian leaders in our generation.
Source here on the Internet. Dated: 2005.
... change will probably be radical, if not total. Those whose lives are dedicated to serving the Church of the past will resist these suggestions with a vehemence that always emerges from threatened hierarchies and dying institutions…. But the seeds of resurrection are present in the exile, and in time those seeds will sprout and bloom. When they do, we will once again be able to see continuity between the Church of the past and the purged and opened church of the future.
Book: by John S. Spong entitled: Why Christianity Must Change or Die Published: 1998.
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The words so central to Christian self-understanding, like: Jesus died for my sins, or Jesus paid the price of sin on the cross of Calvary, or I have been saved by the blood of Christ,…are nothing short of ludicrous when we recognize what they mean. They assume a literalness about various elements of the ancient Christian myth. His audience is what he terms "the vast number of people who have given up on those beliefs because they are simply too narrow...they do not make sense in the world in which we live." Human life was not just a little lower than the angels - it's just a little higher than the higher mammals, the apes and the baboons. We've had to emerge from evolutionary history. We weren't created perfect and then fell into sin.....There is no perfect Creation. There is no perfect humanity - we are evolving constantly.
Compass Interview with Bishop John Shelby Spong. Dated: 25th December 1997
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In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. 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. 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.
Diocese of Newark, The Voice (Jan. 1989). Dated: January 1989
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The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
Source here on the Internet. Dated: no date given.
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Please note: Quotes are displayed in reverse date order. Undated quotes are listed last.