The Reverend Fred Phelps, 1929 – 2014

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 10 2014

“I believe that all homosexuals should be castrated with rusty barbed wire.” Those words came at me from a television screen a number of years ago. The spokesman was …

Part XVIII Matthew – Matthew’s Flashback to John the Baptist

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 3 2014

We suggested last week that Mark, the author of the first gospel to be written, introduced his story of Jesus with a narrative appropriate to the Jewish New Year …

Part XVII Matthew – The Story of Jesus from Shavuot to Rosh Hashanah

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 27 2014

After a three-week hiatus to consider some pressing theological questions and political issues we return this week to our story of Matthew’s gospel. It was indeed a good …

Part XVI Matthew – Did Jesus Teach Us to Pray the Lord’s Prayer?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 6 2014

If it is true, as I have suggested, that Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount then we immediately have to face other startling implications. That conclusion would …

Part XIV Matthew – The Sermon on the Mount: Sinai Revisited

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 20 2014

Matthew is portraying Jesus as the New Moses who went to the top of a new mountain to deliver a new interpretation of the Torah. He is not a …

A Life Fulfilled – EMB

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 13 2014

It was a very unusual memorial service. It was not held in a church, a synagogue or a temple, but in the Avery Fisher Hall of the Lincoln Center …

Part XIII Matthew: “A Prophet like unto Moses” – Introducing the Sermon on the Mount

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 6 2014

It should not be surprising that a Jewish scribe in the first century, which is what the author of the gospel we call Matthew was, would make constant references …

The Wedding of Charles and Robert

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 23 2014

It was January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, sometimes called “Old Christmas” in some parts of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The church was still decorated with its hanging greens …

Part XI Matthew: Proof Texting the Birth Narratives

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 16 2014

Matthew never allows us to forget that he is a learned scribe in charge of a synagogue made up of Jewish people who are the followers of Jesus. He …

A Political Q and A

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 9 2014

From time to time I receive a letter which requires an answer that is too long for the question and answer format of this column, so I have to …

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