John Shelby Spong was a progressive bishop in the Episcopal Church. Spong was an advocate for women’s rights, for LGBTQ people (he ordained the first out gay male priest in the Episcopal church – a lesbian had been ordained earlier, and by the time he retired Spong had ordained about 3 dozen gay priests), and he pushed for an expansive view of Christian doctrine. He rejected theism but not the mystery that we call “God”. He loved and taught the bible but pointed out how it cannot always be taken literally, it shouldn’t be read uncritically, and it is wrong to use it as a means to punish, control, exclude, or terrorize people. Life, Love, & Being were words he often used for the God experience.
He described Jesus as a God-filled person in whom many have encountered the divine. He embraced science and valued religions other than his own while being fully committed to exploring and challenging his own. Spong suggested a rite of blessing for divorced people and saw his role as bishop to be a teacher rather than a defender of traditions. At the time of his death, he was the most published bishop in the history of The Episcopal Church.
His books include: This Hebrew Lord; Living in Sin?; Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism; Born of a Woman; Resurrection: Myth or Reality?; Why Christianity Must Change or Die; The Sins of Scripture; Jesus for the Non-Religious; Re-claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World; and Unbelievable: Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today.
