The church is like a swimming pool. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end. — 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
There's an awful lot of biblical ignorance, and the church perpetuates that ignorance. — 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
My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would… — 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
We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. We've murdered them; we've burned… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The church had to find a way to protect Jesus' perfection so that he could do the work of salvation which, in… — 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 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 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 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 was baptized as an infant. I was confirmed as an adolescent; I was active in my church's youth group and in… — 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
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
You can't go to church without praying ten or fifteen times for God to have mercy on you. You can't sing "Amazing… — 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
Every institution places its ultimate weight on preserving its own life. That is why the Church emphasizes loving God over loving one's… — 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
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
That's why the virgin birth never gets rid of the human mother. The story only gets rid of the human father. So… — 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
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
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
I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. I thought it… — 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
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
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 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
