[HoB/D] Bishop Spong's new book: The Sins of Scripture

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

While speaking to a group in Rio a few years ago, I met a young man who
asked, "Do you know a bishop named Spong?"

"Yes," I replied, not wanting to lead the witness. +Jack Spong was the
active Bishop of Newark at the time, and I served on the Standing
Committee.

"He saved my life!" he exclaimed.

"How so?" I asked.

The young man had grown up quite devout and Catholic, and at the University
of London found himself in the throes of doubt, trying to reconcile his
intellectual and scientific understandings with the world view that he found
in scripture and in the church.  He suffered profound despair.  Then he
found RESCUING THE BIBLE FROM FUNDAMENTALISM.  He translated the whole book
into Portuguese, and then translated two other Spong books.  He changed his
major and became a priest in the Province of Brazil.

Bishop Spong's new book THE SINS OF SCRIPTURE is due out this month and is
already in many bookstores.  See
http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060762055

Jack Spong defends the faith by provoking us to think about it.  How
refreshing!   He and his beloved Christine sit for long spells at Samaritan
wells with no noticeable discomfort. He never demands that we agree with
him, only that we think for ourselves.

Boredom is a huge threat to the survival of Christianity.

Obey the forgotten part of the first commandment:  Love God with your mind.
Feast on this new book.

+Jack Spong is the most widely read bishop in the world, and read by people
who don't have to.  What he calls the Church Alumni Association is in for a
great feast, as are the rest of us who are up to the challenge.

Joy!

L.