The Bible tells me that every life is holy; the Bible tells me that every life is loved; the Bible tells me… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
There's an awful lot of biblical ignorance, and the church perpetuates that ignorance. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We're either going to be driven to a whole new sense of radical interdependence where we are, in the Bible's words, our… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Sins of Scripture is an interesting title; most people don't put sins and scripture together in the same title. It jars… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Some parts of the Bible are dreadful. In fact, my working title for The Sins of Scripture was "The Terrible Text of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I grew up in North Carolina being told that the Bible approves slavery and segregation, that it was the will of God. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The ultimate meaning of the Bible escapes human limits and calls us to a recognition that every life is holy, every life… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Jesus experience expanded people into a position where they didn't have to have defensive tribal lives, "God loves my people, my… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
...secular journalists... tend to accept uncritically the oft - repeated Evangelical Protestant and Conservative Roman Catholic definitions that the Bible is anti… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Plenty of people out there think of me as the Antichrist or the devil incarnate because I do not affirm the literal… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
In my book, The Sins of Scripture, I traced the development of tribal religion, which included ideas like God's killing the Egyptians… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible is full of dreadful things. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I began to read [Bible] as a critic, an in-house critic. So I got to a place where when I got to… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The God of the Hebrews is a God that human language, we're not even supposed to speak the holy name. We were… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible has lost every major battle it has ever fought. The Bible was quoted to defend slavery and the bible lost.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Hebrew scriptures say it's okay to enslave anybody except your fellow Jews. It says you should enslave only your neighbors. I… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I treasure the Bible. I live in it and work on it all the time. But it is not the word of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The biblical texts that we Christians have used for centuries to justify our hostility toward the Jews need to be banished forever… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
They amuse themselves by playing an irrelevant ecclesiastical game called "Let's Pretend." Let's pretend that we possess the objective truth of God… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I still hope. I wouldn't be in this position if I didn't. I love the church. I love the Bible. But I… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I spend my life studying that book, and every book I've written has in some sense been a book about the Bible,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. It… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, says, "From the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name shall be… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
The Sins of Scripture is an interesting title; most people don't put sins and scripture together in the same title. It jars people. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
“When a human life is open to all that humanity can be, humanity and divinity flow together as one. It was and is a… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. The primary reason the old idea of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
My basis of morality is this: does this action enhance life, or does it denigrate life? Does it build up or does it tear… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
We live in a very pluralistic society today. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Christians like me. There are… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period of time,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
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… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. It doesn't. That's magic, that's not God. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
The Hebrew scriptures say it's okay to enslave anybody except your fellow Jews. It says you should enslave only your neighbors. I say to… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
I know Jerry [Falwell] fairly well, and he's probably not bright enough to recognize all of the implications of what he said. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
Benedict XVI kept saying that homosexuals are deviant. They're not deviant. They're deviant only if you say that anyone who is different from me… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
I find it fascinating that Paul [the apostol], writing to the Galatians, responds to the question, "What does it mean to live in Christ?"… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share
![“Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. It opens up all sorts of things that I've never…” quote by John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/6f2/john-shelby-spong-1488_amy_another-book-on-matthew-is-amy-jill-levi_2427880.jpg)
![“I began to read [Bible] as a critic, an in-house critic. So I got to a place where when I got to the university, I just couldn't reconcile that book and some of its points of view with stuff I was learning in my academic career. And so then you have a choice: either you give up your academic…” quote by John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c08/john-shelby-spong-1488_academic_i-began-to-read-bible-as-a-critic-an-in_1438471.jpg)
