Quotes by John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong

…death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness.

Dimensions

Journey

Timelessness

…secular journalists… tend to accept uncritically the oft – repeated Evangelical Protestant and Conservative Roman Catholic definitions that the Bible is anti – gay. If these people were honest, they would have to admit that the Bible is also pro – slavery and anti – women.

Catholic

Gay

People

“I do not believe that Jesus, at the end of his earthly sojourn, returned to God by ascending in any literal sense into a heaven located somewhere in the sky. My knowledge of the size of this universe reduces that concept to nonsense.”

Believe

Jesus

Sky

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” Your neighbor is clearly a male, and the woman, the ox and the ass are property of the male. That’s not morality I will salute today.

Males

Today

Wife

[Apostol Paul’s] views were translated as, “Your rule is to be kind to black people; you don’t beat them.” It’s very much the way we treated women in the 14th and 15th centuries. A woman was not human, and you should be kind to your wife like you are to all dumb animals. That was the mentality.

Animal

Views

Wife

[Charles] Darwin, for example, is the one who made us face the fact that the primary way we tell the Christ story doesn’t work anymore.

Example

Stories

Way

[Jew] didn’t believe anything good could come out of a Jewish study. So, what has happened is anti-Semitism has cost the Jews their lives and their property. It’s also cost the Christians the ability to read the old gospels, which are deeply, deeply Jewish, and to bring that out is a pretty exciting thing. I’m having a wonderful time with that. I’m just not near ready to do much with it.

Believe

Christian

Cost

A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one’s anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically.

Fundamentalist Religion

Insecure

Views

All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

Ethnicity

Race

Respect

All religion seems to need to prove that it’s the only truth. And that’s where it turns demonic. Because that’s when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

Religion

Religious

War

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21st Century

Able

Abnormal

Abortion

Accepted

Addresses

America

Angel

Animal

Apologetic

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Quotes by John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong

…death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness.

…secular journalists… tend to accept uncritically the oft – repeated Evangelical Protestant and Conservative Roman Catholic definitions that the Bible is anti – gay. If these people were honest, they would have to admit that the Bible is also pro – slavery and anti – women.

“I do not believe that Jesus, at the end of his earthly sojourn, returned to God by ascending in any literal sense into a heaven located somewhere in the sky. My knowledge of the size of this universe reduces that concept to nonsense.”

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” Your neighbor is clearly a male, and the woman, the ox and the ass are property of the male. That’s not morality I will salute today.

[Charles] Darwin, for example, is the one who made us face the fact that the primary way we tell the Christ story doesn’t work anymore.

All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

All religion seems to need to prove that it’s the only truth. And that’s where it turns demonic. Because that’s when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

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