Examining the Story of the Cross, Part VII: What Judas Iscariot Meant in the Eighth Ninth & Tenth Decades of Christian Development

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 21 April 2011 3 Comments
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Question

I am a Methodist fan of yours in Fort Worth, Texas. I first became acquainted with your work in my Sunday School class about three years ago. I was astounded and relieved to find that someone else, a retired bishop no less, shared my doubts about the literal, supernatural claims of the Bible, and even further that this person could claim to be a Christian.

I read your book Why Christianity Must Change or Die and thoroughly enjoyed it. My wife is currently reading another of your books A New Christianity for a New World. On page 15 of this book, you describe an encounter with “an iconoclastic journalist who identified himself as an Atheist.” You and he were both panel members on a television program in London and he was well prepared to combat the old fashioned Christian God, but not the new line of Christianity you advocate. This sure sounds like Christopher Hitchens. Is it in fact? Could you provide some more information about the television program?

I have read your comments that of course the angry vengeful God that Hitchens writes about is not great. I rather like these debates between Hitchens and Christian apologists but unfortunately the ones I’ve seen cling to the old Theistic God that Hitchens so eagerly argues against. I would love to learn more about your encounter with him (or whoever this person may be) since you argue so strongly for a God so different from that old vengeful one.

Answer

Dear Adam,

Glad to have a fan in Fort Worth!

Yes, that journalist was Christopher Hitchens. The program was maybe ten years ago and I think it was a produced and was shown on Independent Television of London (ITV), but I am not sure. It went on for two hours. There were two other participants on the program, one of whom was Karen Armstrong.

Christopher Hitchens is not a well man today, but I think he has been good for the Christian Church and we need to respond to him not with unthinking personal attacks, but with honesty and appreciation. He is telling us how the way we understand and project Christianity today is inadequate. It is filled with the distortions of a pre-modern mindset and complicated by a literal understanding of the Bible that for many it is no longer anything but negative.

Christopher is not an easy person to whom to relate. He comes across as perpetually angry, almost cynical. He projects an arrogance that assumes that he possesses the entire truth, very much like those who claim that the Pope is infallible or the Bible is inerrant do. For a dinner guest or even a debating partner, I much prefer Richard Dawkins!

~John Shelby Spong

 

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