Re-Creating Easter V: How did Easter Dawn? What was the Context?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 22 2015

We are told, but only in Luke’s gospel, that when Cleopas and his traveling companion returned from Emmaus to Jerusalem to share their experience of the risen Christ …

The Charleston Murders: The Final Battle in the Civil War?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 16 2015

It was a brutal murder of nine people in an AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The victims, including their pastor, who was also a member of the South …

On Spending the Day with Amos, i.e. Professor James H. Cone

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 22 2014

So much of Christianity is a delusion, built as it is around power images and institutional claims to possess either an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible. The Christian …

The Passing of Greatness

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 1 2014

On December 9, 2013, 65,000 people braved strong rains to gather in the Olympic Soccer Field in South Africa to pay tribute to a man named Nelson Mandela. They were joined by …

My Fourth Great Mentor: Edwin Anderson Penick, VI Bishop of North Carolina

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 30 2012

All of us are mentored in life by other people.  Sometime this mentoring is done by example, sometimes by words.  An essential aspect of maturity is to recognize those …

Remembering My Mentors Part III: Janet Robinson, Bible Teacher

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 31 2012

Her name was Janet Robinson and I met her shortly after my 12th birthday.  She was a member of my church and active as a Sunday school teacher.  She …

China Revisited, Part I

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 9 2010

I first went to China in 1984.  In that year we could only visit Hong Kong and the New Territories.  The Cultural Revolution, led by the “gang of four” and …