Re-Creating Easter VII: The Internal Process

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 5 November 2015 4 Comments
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Question

I am on very good terms with my bishop and attend yearly the annual diocesan council. I find it entertaining and in some way uplifting. I have a problem in that I do not believe in any of the mythology, but I was brainwashed in it from a young age, so I can do it all by rote.

The diocese does great things in the name of some superior being up in the sky somewhere, which does not bother me if they want to believe in some spirit. They could do many good works, such as “Wounded Warriors,” building houses for humanity and drilling water wells in Honduras. If they did these things in the name of Donald Duck, I would be there helping and doing my part.

I just have to fake it when they all pray and say the creed. I take the wafer and drink the wine at communion and wonder if this is some sort of barbaric cannibalism. I cringe at my having to fake it. I believe in good works and have devoted a lot of time to helping fathers and parents. But I can’t believe in the crazy tales of virgin births and Jesus coming again and his rising from the dead. Am I wrong?

Answer

Dear Charlie,

No, you are not wrong. That would be far too judgmental a word to use. You are, however, very poorly informed, biblically illiterate and even profoundly ignorant about what Christianity really is, and you are not just a little bit dishonest. If you really think the way you describe yourself as thinking, it seems to me that you are wasting an awful lot of your time in church activities. Something of which you are either not aware or cannot admit even to yourself draws you rather inexorably into association with your bishop and with church life. I doubt seriously whether that can be chalked up to “brainwashing…from a young age so I can do it all by rote.” You can probably also recite, “Mary had a little lamb” but that does not involve in regular attendance at kindergarten There are so many things that one experiences as a child that one discontinues without ill effects in one’s adult life. I doubt, for example, if you still put out cake and hot chocolate on Christmas Eve to refresh Santa on his worldwide travels.

I suspect you would be surprised to learn that I do not know a reputable biblical theologian, who still today treats the virgin birth as either literal history or literal biology. There are many ways to look at the three stories in the gospels of Jesus raising someone from the dead. The raising of Jairus’ daughter, told in Mark, Matthew and Luke, looks very much like an Elisha story magnified and retold about Jesus. The raising of a widow’s only son in the village of Nain, told only by Luke, appears to be an Elijah story magnified and retold about Jesus. The raising of Lazarus from the dead, told only by John, appears to be a rewriting of Luke’s parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. This story of Lazarus, dramatic and powerful as it is, does not enter the Christian tradition for 65-70 years after the crucifixion. Do you suppose that if this miracle really happened and was as public an event as John says it was, that no one would have mentioned it for 65 -70 years? When it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, I just recently wrote a series of ten columns on what the New Testament actually says about the resurrection of Jesus. I will not repeat that here except to say that to treat the resurrection of Jesus as if it is about the physical resuscitation of a deceased body, reveals only that you have not ever really engaged these texts. That understanding does not enter the Christian tradition until the ninth decade. It is not an original part of the story any more than the virgin birth is. Given your level of biblical knowledge that fact should surprise you. Are you aware that neither Paul, who wrote between 51 and 64, nor Mark, the earliest gospel writer who is generally dated about the year 72, appears to have heard about the virgin birth tradition? All Paul says about the origins of Jesus is that he was born of a woman. That does not sound to me very unusual. He also claims that Jesus is “descended from David according to the flesh.” Mark says that the Holy Spirit entered the presumably human Jesus at his baptism, not at his conception. Paul never describes a resurrection appearance, giving us only a list of those to whom the raised Christ “was made manifest.” Mark never gives us an account of the raised Christ appearing to anyone. He only gives us the promise that the disciples will see him when they return to their homes in Galilee. So for you to call these literalized stories “crazy tales” is simply to reveal how little you know.

“Mythology,” Charlie, is not something you believe in or not. Mythology is not ever to be read literally. It is a human way of discovering truth through a fanciful tale. No one believes that the story of Little Red Riding Hood being eaten by a wolf is history. It is, however, a culturally true and deeply validated human insight that when a young girl enters puberty, which is what the story is all about, she is well advised to “stay on the straight and narrow path” lest she be eaten by a wolf.

It seems to me to be a very literal shame that in your fairly extensive life in the church, you never learned or were never taught to read or study the Bible in a competent way. Your view of the Bible is quite childlike, I would say about that of a six year old. If you were to become biblically literate, you might still have questions, but I doubt that you would be tempted to act out your faith in the name of Donald Duck.
I do not know who your minister or bishop is, but the church that you claim brainwashed you in your childhood gave you little more than a profoundly shallow understanding of what Christianity is. If I thought the way you think, I would have given up association with the Christian Church long ago. I will not do that today because I see something about the Christian story that not only moves, me, but also calls me into active, believing discipleship. I write and teach out of that experience. I covet such an experience for you.

My best,
John Shelby Spong

 

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