Election 2004 Part 1 – Understanding the Divided Electorate
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 10 2004The votes are in. The presidency of George W. Bush will extend for four more years. His victory was significant in both the popular vote and the Electoral …
The Gospels and Punctuation
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 3 2004Elizabeth Robinson, a friend of mine who teaches English as a second language to the children of immigrants in New Zealand, recently sent me an exercise on the …
It is Time to Vote!
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 27 2004The political campaign is almost over. Soon the constant barrage of character-assassinating rage so omnipresent on our television screens will end. If the pollsters are accurate half of …
Making Much of What Cannot Matter Much to God
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 20 2004I ask my readers’ indulgence this week as I roam over some of the terrain of my own ministry. My reminiscence revolves around a simple phrase: “when we …
Bishop Spong Answers Your Questions
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 13 2004Dear Friends,
I now have more than 5000 questions on file from my readers. If I limit myself to one each week, my present supply will not …
Do we have the moral right to choose to die?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 6 2004Is death a natural and normal part of human life or is it an enemy that we must always seek to defeat? That is an issue being debated …
The Place of the Bible in the Right to Die Debate
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 29 2004Alan Meisel is the Dickey, McCarey and Chicote Professor of Bioethics and Law at the University of Pittsburgh. I met him recently when we were both addressing a …
Were there twelve disciples? – Was Mary Magdalene one of them?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 22 2004Dear Friends,
Sometimes I receive a question that requires a whole column to answer. Such was the case with a question received late this summer. I …
Bishop V. Gene Robinson – One Year Later
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 15 2004It has been more than a year since Gene Robinson was elected Bishop of New Hampshire by the clergy and lay deputies of the Episcopal Church in that …
Understanding The Christian Roots of My Political Depression
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 8 2004The Republican Convention in New York City forced me to face the fact that my feelings about the Bush Administration have reached a visceral negativity, the intensity of …
Republicans at Prayer in Madison Square Garden
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 1 2004The Republican Party in New York City this week looks very much like the Democratic Party looked in Boston last month. Strip away the posters; mute the rhetoric …
A View from Europe
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 25 2004“What is it about George W. Bush that causes you to be so negative?”
That was the question I posed this summer at a dinner party …
Christianity in Sweden – A Sign of Hope
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 18 2004In recent years it has been my privilege to observe first hand the state of Christianity in the various nations of Europe. It is not an encouraging picture. …
The Crisis in the Church of Denmark
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 11 2004Denmark is a charming and beautiful country in Europe bounded by Germany, Sweden and the North Sea. Its image was imprinted in my memory positively during the dark …
Impressions from the Democratic National Convention
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 4 2004It was half family reunion and half religious revival. The ‘Vestments” worn for “worship” included hats decorated with everything from American flags to donkeys. Some were so bizarre …
Senator Kerry on the Place of Religion in America
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 28 2004For my column this week I have written a speech on the place of religion in American life that I would like to see Senator John Kerry make …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 6
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 21 2004If God is not a punishing and rescuing deity, then who or what is God? If the biblical explanation of the source of evil is no longer operative, …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 5
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 14 2004“Those whom I love, I will reprove and chasten so be zealous and repent (Rev.3: 19).”
Can you imagine that something as life denying as …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 4
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 7 2004Is it accident, coincidence or strange fate that Christianity has managed to preside over centuries of history in which physical punishment has been the primary means of discipline …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 3
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 30 2004In the most deeply patriarchal part of our male-dominant Western history, women were also considered to be fit subjects for corporal punishment at the hands of their husbands. …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 2
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 23 2004The physical abuse of children under the guise of “proper discipline” has been practiced in western history so frequently as to be thought of as normative. It has …
The Bible, Corporal Punishment and Human Guilt – Part 1
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 16 2004“He who spares the rod, hates his son; but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Prov. 13:24).”
“Do not withhold …
The Ultimate Source of Anti-Semitism – The Circumstances That Brought Judas Into the Jesus Story
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 9 2004I return today to a subject that I have covered before. It is essential however, to this series on the sources of anti-Semitism, so I ask my reader’s …
Questions from the Readers: The War in Iraq
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 2 2004Dear Friends,
Recent columns on the Iraq war have elicited great volumes of mail. I have picked representative samples of that mail and my response to them …
Unmasking the Source of Christian Anti-Semitism – Part III
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 26 2004When I was a child attending an Evangelical Episcopal (Anglican) Sunday school in North Carolina, I was taught that it was OK to hate Jews. If I questioned …