An iconoclast gathers his heretical flock

The Sydney Morning Herald - Australia

Linda Morris Religious Affairs Writer

August 16, 2007


HERE are some heretical thoughts to alarm Sydney's Anglican Archbishop, Peter Jensen:

* Jesus was not born of a virgin;

* His father Joseph was a literary construct, as was Judas;

* His family thought he was out of his mind;

* There were probably not 12 disciples;

* There were no miraculous healings, no crown of thorns, no tomb, no angel; and

* Jesus did not rise from the dead.

The publishers of John Shelby Spong's latest book, Jesus for the Non-Religious, had originally wanted it to be called Freeing Jesus from the Shackles of Religion, and that's essentially what the iconoclastic retired Episcopal bishop claims to do. He portrays the supernatural elements of Jesus's life, the very cornerstones of Christian doctrine, as fabrications woven into the biblical narrative decades after Jesus's death. First-century Jewish interpretations of the Jesus experience had served to distort the very essence of Christianity, he says. And it's the reason institutional Christianity has no future.

He does not believe that God sent Jesus to die for the sins of humankind - the doctrine of the atonement - because that made a victim out of Jesus and made God "the ultimate child abuser". Rather, the message of Christ was to live fully human lives of love and compassion.

Bishop Spong has his detractors, including Mark Thompson, the president of the evangelical lobby group, the Anglican Church League, who has accused the visiting Harvard lecturer of "defacing the only portrait of Jesus that makes any real sense".

"One cannot imagine anyone willing to be martyred for Spong's Jesus," Mr Thompson wrote in Southern Cross, the journal of Sydney Anglicans. "The transformation of the ancient world in the wake of the first preaching of Jesus and the foundations of two millennia of Western culture are inexplicable if this is all there is."

Bishop Spong is used to the derision, which he likens to being "gummed to death by a herd of clacking geese" but counts three Australian bishops as close friends, including the Australian Primate, Phillip Aspinall.

He was not interested in converting conservative Sydney Anglicans but wanted to speak to those who had given up on God or were disillusioned with the Sydney church.

Belief in God should not require a person to shut down their mind. It's the reason he would rather debate the atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens than Archbishop Jensen. While they "miss the point" of God, these writers were at least "living in the 21st century", he quipped.

Dr Jensen is foremost among conservatives agitating against blessings of same-sex unions and the consecration of openly homosexual bishops.

Bishop Spong said he knew of many closeted gay bishops and encouraged those threatening to quit the Anglican Communion to do so.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/an-iconoclast-gathers-his-heretical-flock/2007/08/15/1186857596819.html