John Shelby Spong dies aged 90

[LabourJersey]

I think it's interesting that when people talk about him, they disparage his faith and his religious views because it's more important to be a gatekeeper than to accept outside of all that he held humanising views of many out groups that Christianity dehumanises.

I don't have an intention of getting too deep into Spong discourse, but many of his modern day critics are more irritated by the fact that he was a Bishop in the church who had his particular theology more than his theological views themselves.

[LabourJersey]

Spong is interesting in how polarizing he is to people, especially modern-day Episcopalians.

Many young Episcopalians are pretty conflicted about him, since many appreciate his advocacy for LGBT people and the ordination of women. But young people are both LGBT-affirming and believers in the Creed and specifically the Episcopalian liturgy, so in many ways they're more "conservative" than Spong.

I've tried reading one of his books, and my impression is that he really internalized the Calvinist/fundamentalist vision of God from his youth, to the point where the only two options in his mind of what God could be was the fundamentalist "Sky God" and the kind of etheral "God Force" that I think he believed in. When he went on about we need a "post-theistic" vision of God I really didn't understand what he means, since I can imagine a middle ground between an angry man in the sky versus a kind of vague life force. But that's just me.

All in all an intriguing guy. I'm still surprised he stayed on as Bishop of Newark as long as he did. I think Rowan Williams was the one who pointed out that he felt that no one could put up with the endless stress of diocesian politics if they didn't actually believe in the whole system.