You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Some people think prayer is telling God what to do. I don't think that's the case. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The church is not going to survive if they are going to tell people that they have to twist their minds into… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The great danger... in believing yourself especially chosen is that it becomes easy to view those who are not your people as… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
It's almost inevitable that we become religious people. The question is, what kind of religion is it? — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
What happened in the Western world was that Plato ceased to be the way people thought. Aristotle was rediscovered, and the modern,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I do not live in a world where people can walk on water, or still a storm, or take five loaves of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The task of the church, for example, becomes less that of indoctrinating or relating people to an external divine power and more… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
There never was a time when we were created perfect and fell into sin and needed to be rescued. We are evolving… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Some people in the church, like Martin Luther King, Jr., came out against segregation. But if you look at the bulk of… — 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
I believe God is real, but I believe God calls me beyond myself to take responsibility for my life and to try… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I would like the church to be a place where the questions of people are honored rather than a place where we… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I want to see Christianity enhance our humanity instead of rescue us from some fall. I don't want us to be depending… — 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
We have to start at ground zero and ask what it means to have a real connection with God and what it… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I go to a church here in New Jersey that is just a very exciting place, and I just love to be… — 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
Anybody who's a mythology ... there's always a fear. That's why we don't like people whose skin color is different, whose eye… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Human beings are hardwired by however many millions or billions of years to orient toward their own survival. That's why we're tribal… — 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
In the private arena, you can do whatever you wish, and people do. These crazy evangelical preachers get on the radio and… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Terrorism is a real despair. These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I don't want a God that would go around killing people's little girls. Neither do I want a God who would kill… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. I don't have any interest in doing that. I'm interested in penetrating the… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two… — 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
...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
I'm not writing for fundamentalists. I'm writing for the people who have been repelled by that kind of thinking and yet who… — 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
I didn't choose to be white, I didn't choose to be male, I didn't choose to be heterosexual, I didn't choose to… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Many of the characters who appear in the pages of the Fourth Gospel are literary creations of its author and were never… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
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… — 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 audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I believe that is what the God experience does for us. It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life… — 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
