We live in a very pluralistic society today. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Christians like me.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
My audience is made up of two groups of people. The first group includes people whose roots are deep in the Christian… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. I might define God quite differently from… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I am trying to understand what it means to be a Christian without being religious. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I look at American Christianity and I'm almost in despair. I don't want to be identified with it. The Christian vote in… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
When I look back at the Christian faith, I see that we have had to retranslate, almost reinvent ourselves a number of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The 20th century was a turning point; it freed and emancipated women, broke the back of segregation, and began the struggle to… — 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
The Protestant reformation was an attempt to recast the Christian faith in terms of the new learning of the 16th century, the… — 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
The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The thing that intrigues me about Matthew is that I don't believe anybody would read it if they aren't Jewish and understand… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
[Jew] didn't believe anything good could come out of a Jewish study. So, what has happened is anti-Semitism has cost the Jews… — 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
I think the story of the Christian faith is how you can become more deeply and fully human, not how you can… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Biblical higher criticism is preserved in the particular enclave of academic Christian scholarship and is thought to be too unfruitful to share… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The primary message of the Christian Church is that we were born in sin and we need to be rescued; we cannot… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The trouble with Christianity was that by about 150, there were hardly any Jews left in the Christian church, and so from… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think if you're convinced that you're evil, and that God has had to rescue you, then the best you can 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 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
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 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
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 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 of time,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
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 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 the wrong… — 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 say to… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image