Bishop John Shelby Spong was the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001, and he is regarded as one of the most powerful champions of an inclusive faith, both inside and outside the Christian church. His magnificent and powerful message is that Christians — along with Jews, Muslim, Buddhists, etc. — need to understand that “God” belongs to none of these man-made religions. He or she is infinitely more vast and all-encompassing than any human system of understanding could ever hope to fully explain.
In a recent profile by CBS NEWS, Bishop Spong explains in a question-answer session after a lecture hosted by Students For Choice, “There’s a difference between an experience of Jesus and an explanation of the experience of Jesus.” Spong, who is “pro-a woman’s right to choose,” said that he is excited about the American public slowly overcoming its prejudices toward homosexuality. He said he hoped to see homophobia, racism and sexism “exorcised” from American life. Bishop Spong is a guest lecturer at Harvard University and other churches and educational institutions around the world, and his books are helping transform the minds and benighted belief systems of people around the world. The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible’s Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love (2005: Amazon), Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell (2009: Amazon), and Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World (2011: Amazon) are just three of his most influential works.
If you admire him as much as I do from what I watched in the following interview with NBC NEWS then you will definitely want to visit him at JohnShelbySpong.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Bishop Spong, you are officially the newest FEELguide Hero.
