My basis of morality is this: does this action enhance life, or does it denigrate life? Does it build up or does it tear down? John Shelby Spong More Quotes by John Shelby Spong More Quotes From John Shelby Spong Our problem is not that we're fallen; our problem is we haven't become human yet. The question is, what can make us human, so that we can give life away and give love away and not be grasping after trying to protect our own lives all the time? That's the way I see the Jesus story, and I think it's a powerful and profound story. John Shelby Spong powerful jesus thinking There's one other interesting thing about Western democracy. It didn't arrive at the end point that Karl Marx thought it would that wealth would become more and more concentrated in the hands of the few, that eventually the few would be killed by the many who were deprived, and that a different kind of government would then develop. What happened in Western democracy is that we began to understand that a democratic system can't work if half of the people are starving and the other half are dieting. John Shelby Spong government hands interesting We are in a survival mentality, and that's hard-wired into our humanity, because we are the winners of an evolutionary struggle of millions and millions and millions of years. John Shelby Spong humanity struggle years I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. John Shelby Spong enemy In the private arena, you can do whatever you wish, and people do. These crazy evangelical preachers get on the radio and TV and say incredible things. John Shelby Spong crazy wish people The demolishment of the power of organized Christianity in the Western world to finally realize the emancipation of women and give them the vote in 1920. Women couldn't even own property in their own names until the last quarter of the 19th century in America. John Shelby Spong names giving america At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. It has nothing to do with time periods, whether three days, forty days, or fifty days. It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. John Shelby Spong three easter religion If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system. John Shelby Spong yesterday giving people When we unravel the theological tomes of the ages, the makeup of God becomes quite clear. God is a human being without human limitations who is read into the heavens. We disguised this process by suggesting that the reason God was so much like a human being was that the human beings were in fact created in God's image. However, we now recognize that if was the other way around. The God of theism came into being as a human creation. As such, this God, too, was mortal and is now dying. John Shelby Spong makeup dying heaven My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway. John Shelby Spong church challenges want Every institution places its ultimate weight on preserving its own life. That is why the Church emphasizes loving God over loving one's neighbor.... The push for justice on the other hand might be at the center of the Gospel but it also attacks the balance of power in the society. Since the rich always exploit the poor, to give the poor power, dignity and humanity makes them less pliable, less cooperative. John Shelby Spong justice giving hands Paul's words are not the Words of God. They are the words of Paul- a vast difference. John Shelby Spong word-of-god differences historical In supporting argument for segregation, Paul [the apostol] addresses the people in his epistle to the Colossians, and he tells them how to treat their slaves. "Slaves, obey your masters. Masters, be kind to yourslaves." Paul was in favor of a kinder and gentler slavery; it never occurred to him to raise the question about whether slavery itself was immoral. John Shelby Spong addresses slavery people "I do not believe that Jesus, at the end of his earthly sojourn, returned to God by ascending in any literal sense into a heaven located somewhere in the sky. My knowledge of the size of this universe reduces that concept to nonsense." John Shelby Spong sky believe jesus Hysterical fundamentalism is not the way into the future; it is the last gasp of the past. John Shelby Spong lasts way past Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way. John Shelby Spong atheism prayer religion Plenty of people out there think of me as the Antichrist or the devil incarnate because I do not affirm the literal patterns of the Bible. But the fact is I can no more abandon the literal patterns than I could fly to the moon. I just go beyond them. John Shelby Spong moon people thinking I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of heaven to play golf. John Shelby Spong play golf thinking Terrorism is a real despair. These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they can take down some of their enemies. John Shelby Spong real people enemy I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books. John Shelby Spong records sky book
