Déjà Vu All Over Again? How Anglicans went wrong and praying that Catholicism won’t suffer the same ‘spinectomy.’

From Rich Swier-

Fr. Dennis Garrou, a former Anglican (now Catholic) priest, shows how Anglicans went wrong and prays that Catholicism won’t suffer the same “spinectomy.”

Twenty years ago, before I had the privilege of entering the Catholic Church through the Pastoral Provision for Former Anglican Clergy, I was an Episcopal priest during the “ecclesiacide” engineered by Bishop John Shelby Spong. The instrument of execution was his “Twelve Theses,” an heretical collection of denials of the basic articles of Christian faith that he promulgated in 1998, as a kind of Wittenberg Door caricature. I reproduce it here for the benefit of Catholic readers who have probably never seen it and realized how much of what it contains is still abroad in our churches.

Thesis #1 “Theism as a way of defining God is dead. God can no longer be understood with credibility as a being, supernatural in power, living above the sky and prepared to invade human history periodically to enforce the divine will. So most theological God-talk today is meaningless. We must find a new way to conceptualize and to speak about God.”
More here-

http://drrichswier.com/2018/03/04/deja-vu-all-over-again-how-anglicans-went-wrong-and-praying-that-catholicism-wont-suffer-the-same-spinectomy/

Newark Seeks 11th Bishop

From The Living Church-

The Diocese of Newark is accepting nominations in the search for its 11th bishop, and has posted its profile. Interested parties have until Nov. 3 to nominates themselves, but anyone intending to nominate another person must do so by Oct. 20.

The profile acknowledges the central role played in recent decades by the Rt. Rev. John S. Spong, its eighth bishop:

Our most familiar and controversial figure is The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, elected and consecrated in 1976. Bishop Spong became a prolific author and advocate for progressive causes both nationally and within The Episcopal Church. He led our Diocese to champion women’s ordination and later, gay rights, far earlier than most other Episcopal Dioceses. One result of Bishop Spong’s 24-year tenure was an ongoing and transformative dialogue on issues that would later threaten schism within the larger church. Women and gay clergy found this Diocese to be a safe place to explore ministry, which influenced change in other dioceses. All this contributed to Newark’s reputation as a progressive Diocese.
More here-

http://livingchurch.org/2017/10/17/newark-seeks-11th-bishop/

Liberal churches are dying. But conservative churches are thriving.

From The Washington Post-

Mainline Protestant churches are in trouble: A 2015 report by the Pew Research Center found that these congregations, once a mainstay of American religion, are now shrinking by about 1 million members annually. Fewer members not only means fewer souls saved, a frightening thought for some clergy members, but also less income for churches, further ensuring their decline.

Faced with this troubling development, clergy members have made various efforts to revive church attendance. It was almost 20 years ago that John Shelby Spong, a U.S. bishop in the Episcopalian Church, published his book “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” It was presented as an antidote to the crisis of decline in mainline churches. Spong, a theological liberal, said congregations would grow if they abandoned their literal interpretation of the Bible and transformed along with changing times.

More here-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/04/liberal-churches-are-dying-but-conservative-churches-are-thriving/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.40d1ebca6a57

Postmodernity and the "Ideal" Jesus

From Catholic World Reporter-

“God made us in his image—and we returned the favor.” I was reminded of this old joke reading the latest tome from John Shelby Spong, for he employs what he thinks he knows of biblical studies and theology to sever Jesus both from history and his Jewish matrix to generate an ideal Jesus who affirms the progressive project entire, a Jesus who looks like Spong.

For those not familiar with Spong, he has long reigned as the maddest of clerical madmen, an energetic Episcopalian bishop of the sort with views and hubris only the American Episcopal Church could produce. Denying every article of creedal Christianity from Virgin Birth to Resurrection and promoting every progressive cause célèbre from abortion to transgenderism, Spong has written books such as Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile (“a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion”) and his autobiography, modestly entitled Here I Stand: My Struggle for Integrity, Love, and Equality. “Modestly,” I write, because many will recognize Here I Stand as the title of Roland Bainton’s classic biography of Martin Luther. Spong thus sees himself as a revolutionary just as he sees Luther, a man standing at a historical apex crushing the Church’s hidebound traditional beliefs and pushing her forward into a brave new age. Although it is probably not a fair description of Luther, it is certainly Spong’s agenda: insisting Christianity keep up with the science and mores of the times.

More here-

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/5289/postmodernity_and_the_ideal_jesus.aspx

Former Newark Episcopal bishop Spong suffers stroke

From New Jersey-

 Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong is recuperating after suffering a stroke before a planned speaking engagement in Michigan Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark said on its Facebook page.

"Many thanks to all of you who have been praying for Bishop Jack Spong and his family since we received the news that he suffered a stroke last Saturday morning. Bishop Beckwith is in contact with the Spong family, and reports that Bishop Spong is stable and talking, and that our prayers offer hope and help. Updates will be provided as they become available," the diocese said Monday.

More here-

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/09/former_newark_episcopal_bishop_suffers_stroke.html

AMERICAN BISHOP EXPLAINS HOW RELIGION IS ‘MADE UP’ & USED TO CONTROL PEOPLE

From Collective Evolution-

Below is a video of Jon Shelby Sponge, a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church, discussing these problems. He argues that religion is a business and it is used as a control mechanism (and he’s not the first insider to do so). We can see this happening most clearly in the rise of Islamophobia. Islam has been turned into a scapegoat, a target at which we can direct all our fears and anger, and an excuse to invade other countries and create a more intense global national security state. But the truth is, Islam has nothing to do with violence or terrorism. These manufactured fears are all part and parcel of ‘false flag’ terrorism, which you can read more about here if you are unfamiliar with the concept.

In the video, Sponge affirms that “religion is always in the control business, and that’s something people don’t really understand. It’s in the guilt producing control business.”

More here-

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/05/31/american-bishop-explains-how-religion-is-made-up-used-to-control-people/

Even a Stopped Clock is Right Twice a Day

From National Catholic Register-

You may want to sit down for this, but once upon a time flamboyantly apostate Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong actually thrilled me with a prescient bit of insight into Scripture! How is this possible?

Well, there is a basic principle at work in the universe called the Gomer Pyle Axiom of High and Low Expectations. It works this way: when you expect great things from somebody, then merely above average performances are often denounced as disappointing failures. So, when Pixar, whose worst movies still tower over the junk Hollywood emits, makes Cars, people groan at what a weak effort it is, even though Cars still dwarfs 99% of all other movies and 99.9% of all other animated films.

But when a guy like Gomer Pyle, from whom nobody expects anything at all, bursts forth in a voice of not-awful-but-certainly-not-very-good tone and talent, he is hailed as a New Caruso because we weren’t expecting anything at all from him.

It’s that “Wow! He didn’t utterly suck!” thrill that I am describing, because John Shelby Spong once, albeit briefly, scaled the snowy summit of common sense. Addressing the sort of people who blindly insist that Jesus never existed, and therefore appearing smart in comparison to them, we discover Spong declared:

"He was no myth," says Spong, who came through Toronto recently to promote his latest book, Jesus for the Non-Religious. "He really existed."

Read more:

 http://www.ncregister.com/blog/mark-shea/even-a-stopped-clock-is-right-twice-a-day/#ixzz46YOb0DRP

Spong applauds removal of Confederate flags from St. Paul's on 60th anniversary of ministry

From Richmond-

That the leadership of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church elected recently to remove Confederate images from its walls delights John Shelby Spong, who oversaw the church during a watershed moment in state and local history.

The move took courage, his daughter said Sunday, as did Spong’s decision in the 1970s to support a federal judge’s decision to order and then expand a school busing program aimed at eliminating racial disparities in education.

“Courage is the hallmark of St. Paul’s and of those like my father who have led and lead this remarkable church,“ Ellen Spong said at a service marking the 60th anniversary of her father’s ordination.

More here-

http://www.richmond.com/news/local/city-of-richmond/article_8ffbb046-081d-51e8-b7b1-187e42d81246.html

Can you question the Virgin Birth and still be a Christian?

From Crux Now-

It’s a tough sell: A young, unmarried teenager gets pregnant, but the father isn’t a man but God himself. And the girl is a virgin — and (some believe) remains one even after she delivers a strapping baby boy.

That’s the story of the Virgin Birth, one of the central tenets of faith for the world’s 2 billion Christians. The story is embraced by every branch of Christianity, from Eastern Orthodoxy to Mormonism, Catholic and Protestant.

More here-

http://www.cruxnow.com/faith/2014/12/25/can-you-question-the-virgin-birth-and-still-be-a-christian/

Bishop Spong’s Unintended Consequence

From The American Spectator-

A recent Religion News Service article on infamous Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong celebrates him as an aging maverick whose provocative sexual and theological stances supposedly are no longer controversial. At age 82, the former Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, is writing his 24th book. In the 1980s and 1990s his works infamously speculated that the Virgin Mary was impregnated by a Roman soldier, that St. Paul was a self-hating homosexual, and that Jesus’ unresurrected body was torn asunder by wild dogs.

A former Southern segregationist, Spong celebrated his spiritual maturity away from racism into more enlightened religion, which also rejected Christian orthodoxy. He later joined the then publicity savvy Jesus Seminar, whose liberal scholars once made headlines by voting with marbles over which Gospel stories were not true.

More here-

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/10/14/bishop-spongs-unintended-conse

An aging maverick, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has no regrets

From RNS-

At 82, retired and enjoying life, Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn’t have to be the liberal enfant terrible whose pronouncements for gay rights and against traditional dogmas once scandalized Christendom.

Indeed, many of the views that once turned the former Episcopal bishop of Newark into a lightning rod are now regarded as so matter-of-fact that they barely occasion much notice: ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex marriages, for example, or having a female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman elected to lead a national church in the Anglican Communion.

“I can remember when getting a woman as a rector was the hardest thing you ever did,” Spong said with a gratified smile as he relaxed on a sofa in the suburban New Jersey home he shares with his wife, Christine. (“I was told to put a collar on. I haven’t worn one in a long time.”)

More here-

http://www.religionnews.com/2013/10/10/aging-maverick-episcopal-bishop-john-shelby-spong-regrets/