From Anglican Samizdat:
I will no longer be respectful of the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems to believe that rude behavior, intolerance and even killing prejudice is somehow acceptable, so long as it comes from third-world religious leaders, who more than anything else reveal in themselves the price that colonial oppression has required of the minds and hearts of so many of our world’s population. I see no way that ignorance and truth can be placed side by side, nor do I believe that evil is somehow less evil if the Bible is quoted to justify it. I will dismiss as unworthy of any more of my attention the wild, false and uninformed opinions of such would-be religious leaders as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Albert Mohler, and Robert Duncan.
Is his heart so hard that he really cannot see the order of magintude difference between Jimmy Swaggart and Archbishop Bob Duncan?
Not to mention the fact that Jerry Falwell is deceased. Spong’s a bit behind in the news loop.
Eh? Jerry’s been gone two years now, hard to be a leader under the circumstances.
JSS’s doing a book tour for his 22nd (and hopefully) last book. You don’t get press unless you say something controversial and in Spong’s case stupid. IMHO
An atheist with a purple shirt, sheeesh!
I wouldn’t bother quoting him or bothering to talk about him. You talk about something, complain about it, read about it, the media will see that as something that will help them make money. If something isn’t work your time then it won’t be worth their time.
Maybe you’re right. I don’t think mainstream media pays all that much attention to the blogosphere, though.
The time has long since past for a procedure to defrock apostate clergy, including so-called bishops, when they openly and aggressively deny both the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. For reasons beyond my understanding persons such as John Spong, Michael Ingham and Michael Bird, are allowed to retain their sacred position when denying the very truth they promised to uphold at both their initial ordination and their consecration. There actions are continuing to lead people away from the faith and causing them to believe whatever suits their individual tastes.
Spong should have been defrocked long long ago.
If Spong had any integrity, he’d have resigned his orders (long, long ago.)
(And, if he was one-tenth the philosopher he thinks he is, he’d not write such dreadful nonsense. Dreadful in the sense of poor argued, filled with begged questions, and other logical fallacies. These defects are quite different from simply being wrong, which he also is.)
A show called the Gong, went to long
It inspired a Bishop named Spong
He invented a tool
to maximize school
and his bong sprang Spong to the Gong.
For my Bs & Ss adequately sheltered from alternative lifestyle
Stuck’s Dictionary defines “Bong” as an instrument utililized to maximize the effect of cannibus on the brain by compressing several “hits” (single puffs) into one huge take (or is it toke)
ahh the college years
Seems to me that Spong hasn’t learned that
Jerry Falwell is deceased,
Jimmy Swaggart publicly repented and asked forgiveness for his sins,
more people listened to Robertson,
James Dobson “focused on the Family” (not on promoting sin), and I’m sure Mohler must have done something good or spong wouldn’t have picked on him.
Seems that John Shelby Spong has lost most of the memory.
As for Archbishop Bob Duncan…….He is standing on Solid Ground!
Kate:
In your (I believe it must be your) comment on the blog on Samizdat under this title, you made the comment about an utterly discredited Jimmy Swaggart. Careful Kate, perhaps he was discredited by most however, he did publicly repent and seek the Lotd’s forgivness, did he not? We all are sinners and all fall far short, do we not?
JSS is no doubt a sinner, however, it appears he is not turning back or repenting…….Maybe someday he will??????? right.
Perhaps Cathy #3 is right…….this kind of garbage being pushed by JSS is not worthy of reprint, n’or is it worthy of being on this blog.
Gerry, you’ve actually quite seriously misrepresented what I said. I’m not going to address that further here, though. If you want to talk about a comment I made on another blog, do it on the other blog, please. Otherwise the threads just get too confusing.
Further to 11 – of course we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. My point was that Spong lumped Bob Duncan and Jimmy Swaggart together, as if there is no difference in the quality of their Christian leadership and preaching.
Kate:
It is interesting to note that the “Samizdat” Blog thread about Spong’s comments has been closed by the ‘owner’ of the blog, thereby eliminating me from commenting on it towards this misrepresention thing. The only recourse I have is to speak on this blog in the hopes that I will not be edited off.
What bothered me about your comment was not that Swaggart was discredited but in your words was Utterly discredited. Had you used the statement publically discredited I would have had no argument because Swaggart certainly was publically discredited.
Yes, Swaggart was publically discredited……big time. BUT, he did repent and as far as I know (and it appears so) he has tried to go the narrow way. Have all of us not done wrong and even some of us have been publically discredited? (especially those in some churches where the church makes if public within the church).
There is a song that has a line in it “Jesus’ love can make the vilest sinner clean” and I thank God that this is so, for if it wasn’t, we would all be in the same boat, wouldn’t we.
Gerry,
It is interesting to note that the “Samizdat” Blog thread about Spong’s comments has been closed by the ‘owner’ of the blog, thereby eliminating me from commenting on it towards this misrepresention thing.
That’s me. I closed comments on it not to prevent you making a comment but in order to stop endless rambling by someone else; it seemed to be time to put the thread out of it’s misery. I’ve opened it up again – for the moment.
Since you insist on flogging the dead horse, Gerry, I will point out that I implied nothing regarding the state of Swaggart’s salvation. I ventured the opinion that Spong must have a hard heart if he thinks that there is no difference between the life and ministry of Jimmy Swaggart and Bob Duncan – an opinion which I stand by. It is common netiquette not to quote comments from one blog to another. If you wish to continue the discussion, please do it on Samizdat. This will be my last comment here on the subject.
David – Thank you….. I rather thought you were shutting “Joe” down and not myself, couldn’t see why you would have. Will go there from here.
Kate: To me it was all one word: utterly…. adverb…meaning “total, darkness” I think, from Merriam-Webster
dictionary. enough said here. Thanks.
Ooops. Another mistake. Below is the dictionary meaning of UTTER.
#16 is not totally correct. Sorry
Main Entry: 1ut·ter
Pronunciation: \ˈə-tər\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, remote, from Old English ūtera outer, comparative adjective from ūt out, adverb — more at out
Date: 15th century
: carried to the utmost point or highest degree : absolute, total
— ut·ter·ly adverb
As we can see from the above definition…. the word did not fit the crime.
Just spotted this on another blog:
Sorry if this is old news.
I like that.