Insights from Behind the Iron Curtain

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 4 2014

I made my second trip in the last two years behind what was once known as the Iron Curtain recently. There I saw the impact of communism that had …

Carrying My Understanding of Christianity to France

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 31 2014

In two lectures in Paris, France, this summer and through various other media, I sought to place into the religious conversation of that nation a new way of looking …

A Thirty-Day Lecture Tour of Europe

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 28 2013

It was probably the most exciting and fulfilling book tour of my entire career. Over a period of thirty days, I journeyed through Europe delivering sixteen public lectures in …

The Boil Has Been Lanced. A New Consciousness Has Arrived

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 22 2012

The votes have been cast, counted and the results have been made known.  Radio and television stations are no longer relentlessly broadcasting anti-Obama and anti-Romney ads.  The emotions of …

The Monolithic Conservatism of the American Heartland Is Not So Monolithic!

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 5 2012

There are times when one’s perceptions are challenged and one’s stereotypical prejudices are shattered.  This happened to me in recent days when I fulfilled invitations to speak …

Signs Appear That the Toxic Political Atmosphere in America is Beginning to Lift

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 15 2011

The president has made his dramatic appeal to a joint session of congress for a jobs bill and the Republican House of Representatives leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor …

Our Political Debate – A National Embarrassment

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 21 2011

Either those who now run the legislative wing of our government are irresponsible and frivolous with this nation’s health and well being or there is something I do not …

Peter J. Gomes, 1942-2011, Preacher Par Excellence

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 28 2011

Both the United States and world Christianity lost one of its more preeminent voices recently with the death of Peter J. Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at …

The Transition from Tribalism: The Tea Party, States’ Rights, Strict Constructionists and the Reading of the Constitution

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 9 2011

Recently, I read Brian Burroughs’ book, The Big Rich, the story of the rise and fall of the major Texas oil fortunes.  When I had finished this …