This atheist's favorite Christian is...

retired Bishop John Shelby Spong. This is me talking about what's so cool about him.

Reforming Christianity: He did not die for my sins http://www.dioceseofnewwark.org/vox30599.html

Human Definitions of God Need Revision
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/john_shelby_spong/2007/01/i_welcom...

Compass Interview
http://www.abc.net.au/compass/intervs/spong2001.htm

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• atheism
• Christianity
• religion
• John
• Shelby
• Spong
• Episcopalian
• morals
• humanism
• human
• nature

[MisWillo]

Hell yeah

I'm also an atheist

And I really like and respect John Shelby Spong

[arkee71]

@shieldsff i dont think he would ever refer to himself as orthodox...do you?

[shieldsff]

Mr. Sponge has the legal recourse in our nation to start his own religious group of whatever stripe he chooses. It should be recognized though that for to call the contrived religious theories of Mr. Sponge Christianity is a smear & slander of the orthodoxy view of that faith.

[shieldsff]

On the contrary, Mr. Sponge not only undermines the tenants of the gospels, but further does not seem to mind maligning the epistles equally as much. HE appears to particularly loathe the writings of the Apostle Paul. Read some of Sponge's work & compare them to the teachings of Paul-what an astounding variance ! As I've written elsewhere, 

[AudiGal09]

awe, your daughter's adorable, and you make many good points.

[arkee71]

@shieldsff so far as i can tell..mr spong does not undermine the gospels...he undermines traditional understanding of the gospels...thats 2 very differnet things...he is not attempting to abolish or rewrite scripture so far as i can see....only proposing to view and interpret it in a new way....this is a radical approach...and if you have not done your homework (as he has)..then he will lose you quick.

[sariglenn]

@pmoyer50 you can do a personal mesage and type the whole thing out in one letter. All you have to do is visit my channel and click on send message below my name. And notice even after all of your early sarcasm and insults we can stil carry on an intellectual conversation. Instead of feeling sorry for saying jesus effing christ you should feel a little sorry also when you insult people.

[shieldsff]

While I admire, respect & commend the works of Mr. Sponge in the area of civil rights & social justice, it must be equally acknowledged that his teachings & interpretations of the Gospels& epistles are quite clearly flawed & misleading. Many traditional catholic, reformed, & protestant churches opposed segregation without adopting a theological position which undermines the Gospels (as Mr. Sponge does). See the works of NT Wright, Cone, CS Lewis, A Evans, Cone, C.Stanley, R.Zacarias & others

[IDoNotBlameYou]

The best thing I've seen is "Burke Lecture: John Shelby Spong," about 80 minutes (on YouTube), in which he does not stomp lightly on religion--he completely deconstructs it. He's been declared a "heretic," now a target of hostility, fear, and death threats by the religious, the "true believers." For what? Breaking the chains that bind the mind.

And he's funny.

[paulinator61]

As an atheist (former believer) I read one of Spong's books as part of my search to see if there were any christian sources I could respect or at least tolerate. He was the only one.