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
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
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
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'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
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
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
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
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 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 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
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
What we now need to see is that human life doesn't need to be rescued from a fall that didn't happen. Human… — 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
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 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 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
If you're really thinking prayer can stop rockets or bullets, you have to ask why some people do get hit by rockets… — 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
Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think Jesus is a fact of history. I think a man named Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified. I think… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
If I want to put a Christmas tree in my yard, or three crosses for the crucifixion story, that's fine. But if… — 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
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 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
