wfn.org | Hero or heretic, Spong won't be forgotten

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2000-010

Hero or heretic, Spong won't be forgotten

by Ed Stannard

     (Episcopal Life) No, he's not riding into the sunset, and he 
will not go gentle into that good night.

     John Shelby Spong is retiring as bishop of the Diocese of 
Newark at the end of January, but he's not likely to cease being 
a lightning rod for controversy.

     Like everything else he says and does, that will elicit both 
gratitude and apoplexy from Episcopalians.

     Spong, bishop of Newark since 1976, and the most senior 
diocesan bishop in the church, will begin a lectureship at 
Harvard University on Feb. 1. Just as his lectures in Newark have 
later been published as books challenging the Virgin Birth, 
Jesus' physical resurrection and other doctrines, so too will his 
work at Harvard.

     As his tenure as diocesan bishop draws to a close, the spotlight 
focused on him is likely to dim. But it is difficult to imagine someone 
else taking his place as the most controversial bishop of the late 20th 
century.

     Spong sees his most significant legacy as helping to develop 
"a theologically and biblically literate laity," by translating 
the work of academics into the language of the non-scholar. That 
work either brings Christian belief into the 21st century or 
denies it altogether, depending on who is reviewing it. "I would 
guess, though, that some of my theological suggestions and 
questions will not seem so radical in 10 years," says Spong.

     His other legacy, that of leading the effort to bring gays 
and lesbians into the church's full sacramental life, is pretty 
much complete, he says, despite the controversy that still rages 
in the church and throughout the Anglican Communion.

     "I think that's a battle that's won," says Spong, even 
though "it doesn't feel like it all the time."

     Spong's 23 years as bishop has been marked by some of the 
most notorious events in the recent history of the Episcopal 
Church, including:

     *The ordination of the first openly gay priest in the 
church, Robert Williams, who later denounced monogamy and was 
fired by Spong from his post as director of The Oasis, a ministry 
to gays.

          *A shouting match in the House of Bishops at the 1991 
General Convention, in which he called Bishop John MacNaughton of 
the Diocese of West Texas homophobic. MacNaughton had objected to 
homosexuals being named to a task force on sexuality. The 
argument led to then-Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning calling 
the bishops into executive session to try to heal the breach.

          *A statement of "personal privilege" at the 1994 
convention that has become known as the Koinonia Statement, in 
which Spong asserted that he would recognize monogamous 
homosexual relationships and ordain gays and lesbians who are 
"wholesome examples." The statement is often cited as a litmus 
test by evangelicals against the 88 bishops who joined Spong in 
signing it.

          *The presentment in 1995-96 of Bishop Walter Righter, 
who, as assistant bishop in Newark, ordained the Rev. Barry 
Stopfel, another openly gay man, to the diaconate. Spong later 
ordained Stopfel a priest. (Last year, Stopfel resigned as rector 
of his parish, citing in part the stress brought on by the 

publicity of the hearings; the court ruled there was no "core doctrine" 
against the ordination and the case did not go to trial.)

          *A "Message to the Anglican Communion on the Subject of 
Homosexuality," issued in November 1997, which became the first 
shot across the bow of the 1998 Lambeth Conference on the subject 
of gays in the church. Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey 
called it "hectoring and intemperate."

          *An interview just before Lambeth with Carey's son, 
Andrew, an editor for the Church of England newspaper, in which 
Spong said African Christians had "moved out of animism into a 
very superstitious kind of Christianity. They've yet to face the 
intellectual revolution of Copernicus and Einstein that we've had 
to face in the developing world; that is just not on their radar 
screen."

          *His 1998 "Call for a New Reformation," with its 12 
Theses, based on his book, Why Christianity Must Change or Die. 
In the book, Spong says theism, "God as a personal being with 
expanded supernatural, human and parental qualities," does not 
work for 21st-century Christians and his theses expand the idea 
to say that the idea of Jesus as the incarnation of God is 
"bankrupt" and that the biblical creation story is "pre-Darwinian 
mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense."

Protigi of Robinson, not Pike

     Many consider Spong merely a publicity hound. Spong says he 
actually used to hate the limelight. Now, however, he welcomes it 
"because it helps me get my message out."

     Certainly no other bishop ignites the flames of indignation 
and outrage that Spong does. Certainly no other figure could 
inspire a book with the personally pointed title, Can a Bishop Be 
Wrong? Ten Scholars Challenge John Shelby Spong. In it, writers 
such as Bishop James M. Stanton of the Diocese of Dallas and 
Bishop C. FitzSimons Allison, retired bishop of the Diocese of 
South Carolina, attempt to "correct an imbalance" of publicity 
given to Spong's theological views, as Dean Peter C. Moore of 
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, the book's editor, writes 
in the introduction.

     Unfortunately for the authors, the imbalance in book sales 
still weighs heavily in Spong's favor.

     "The fundamentalist has no better friend than John Shelby 
Spong," writes Stanton, who was unavailable for an interview. "No 
one demonstrates better the futility of liberal religion."

     For some, Spong follows in the legacy of Bishop James Pike, 
the flamboyant bishop of the Diocese of California who was 
charged with heresy in 1966 and who died in the Israeli desert in 
1969. Spong, however, considers himself a follower of English 
theologian John A.T. Robinson, whose book Honest to God Spong 
considers a life-changing book. Robinson also wrote about a non-
theistic God, one that can be defined in Paul Tillich's words as 
the "ground of all being."

     "That book really changed my life," said Spong of Honest to 
God. "He just said it in a way that you couldn't avoid it 
anymore; you had to face those theological issues."

Hero to gays, lesbians

     Spong also considers former Presiding Bishop John M. Hines a 
mentor for his integrity and courage in standing up for civil 
rights.

     Spong has taken on the mantle of champion of the oppressed, 
first for African-Americans and later for gays and lesbians. He 
is a hero in the gay community, especially in Newark.

     The Rev. Canon Elizabeth Kaeton, director of The Oasis, a 
ministry for homosexuals and others in the diocese-the ministry 
founded by Robert Williams-nearly chokes up when talking about 
Spong, whom she calls "larger than life for many of us; he's a 
real hero in the classic sense of that word."

     Kaeton and others, such as Louie Crew, founder of Integrity, 
the national gay and lesbian caucus, said Spong's respect in the 
gay community stems from his willingness to get in front of an 
issue, despite no personal stake in it.

     "How do you talk about your founder?" said Kaeton. Spong is 
"the person who has stood in solidarity with you, especially when 
the winds of adversity were not only howling at your door but 
threatening to blow down the house? How do you express your 
gratitude for that?"

Bring God to the people

     When asked what Spong's greatest legacy would be, however, 
Crew did not mention his advocacy for gays and lesbians. For 
Crew, Spong's ability to popularize theological thought is a 
bigger contribution to the church-"keeping the mind open to new 
possibilities, turning off the tremolo when we talk about 
Scripture."

     Spong considers himself a "teaching bishop" and has often 
given two lecture series a year, which have been the basis for 

many of his books. Crew says those lectures have been packed 
with business people and others who are not necessarily Christians. 
Attracting people to studying the Bible who are not church folk-
"clearing the clutter and getting people engaged with it"-is what 
Crew calls his great achievement.

     Of course, Spong's theological opponents see no achievement 
in what they see as merely "pandering to the Zeitgeist," as 
Allison says, alluding to Reinhold Niebuhr.

     "He has a real knack for appealing to the spirit of this 
age," says Allison. But Allison says Spong has denied the basic 
Christian beliefs he vowed to uphold as a bishop.

     "He cannot hold the '12 Theses' and say the creeds without 
perjuring himself." The result of Spong's influence, he says, is 
that "there are no boundaries now that are enforceable about 
doctrine."

     On one point Spong and his intellectual foes agree--it is 
more important to be forthright about belief than to stay quiet 
and violate those beliefs in actions such as blessing same-sex 
unions. But Allison says that if Spong were truly honest, he 
would resign as a bishop. "It's not only a question of theology, 
it's a question of honor."

     Another observer, Douglas LeBlanc, an evangelical 
Episcopalian who is associate editor of Christianity Today, 
agrees that Spong has the courage of his convictions (the title 
of Spong's upcoming autobiography is "Here I Stand").

      "Bishop Spong's willingness to take the heat for what he 
believes in is one of the things I most admire about him and I 
think the House of Bishops would be a healthier house if more 
bishops on the left were as candid as Bishop Spong about what 
they believe, or don't believe, in the Christian faith."

     But LeBlanc also says that, when it comes to his denial of a 
supernatural God who performs miracles that cannot be explained 
by reason and science, Spong is "breathtakingly deluded on that 
point."

     LeBlanc, former editor of United Voice, newspaper of the 
conservative group Episcopalians United, grants that there are 
"any number of people who are Episcopalians today who would not 
be if it were not for Jack Spong's books." But he wonders how 
many of those converts move beyond Spong to a true Trinitarian 
theology: "whether people will see that the Nicene Creed is a 
statement of objective reality. If the creed is a symbol system 
that we can interpret any way we please, then, as Flannery 
O'Connor says, 'The hell with it.' ...

     "If Christianity is not supernatural and if what we are told in 
the gospels is not true, being part of the church is not worth 
the pain," continues LeBlanc. "But because it is true, it's worth 
every bit of the pain."

     For his part, Spong says he does believe the creeds--he just 
interprets them through a post-modern lens. Citing the problem 
that for every person saved by a "miracle," others are not, Spong 
says, "The real issue for me is that there are far more 
theological problems in attributing to God miraculous powers than 
in not attributing them."

     Through it all, though, Spong says he has not become an 
atheist. Asked his definition of God, he says, "I see God in 
Jesus and the reason I remain a Christian is that Jesus to me 
defines both God and human life uniquely. Jesus is for me the 
ultimate God-presence." Spong says that in him [Spong], God is 
fractured, but in Jesus he is unfractured. Spong continues, "I 
don't ever want to be apart from the church," which he calls a 
"purifying community."

     He won't leave the church, but on the last day of January, 
Spong will walk out of his diocesan office and head for Harvard. 
His life will be different. But don't expect him to keep quiet. 

-Ed Stannard is the news editor of Episcopal Life, the church's 
national monthly newspaper.