BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

From my friend and mentor, Bishop John S. Spong, one of the most moving and profound paragraphs I’ve ever read:

One of the false assumptions of some religious people is that they are in possession of the fullness of God’s truth.  They surround that illusion with the theological jargon of “the inerrancy of the Bible,” “the infallability of the Pope,” and the “clear teaching of the church.”  This, in turn, justifies in their minds hostile, dishonest, and sometimes killing behavior patterns that are perpetuated on those who do not accept their limited definitions of God’s truth.  This is the same mentality that burns heretics at the stake, excommunicates people with new ideas from the life of the church, persecutes Jews and other religious minorities, starts religious wars, and in extreme cases justifies murder at abortion clinics.  Because this religious mindset covers their hostile behavior with religious words and pious phrases, people are loathe to call their behavior for what it is.  But the facts of history reveal that Christ is never served by hostility, the church is never helped by dishonesty, nor is the gospel ever served by sacrificing integrity.  For human beings, the reality is that the ultimate truth of God is always beyond our grasp and can be approached only in the tension of dialogue.  No human being will ever perceive God or God’s truth except “through a glass darkly.”  If religious people, holding as we do, nothing but partial truth, act as if our partial truth is ultimate truth, and proceed to make imperialistic and exclusive claims for our version of truth, then we become idolatrous.  Life dedicated to serving idolatry is always destructive.  God and God’s truth can only be served as we approach the awesome wonder and mystery of God with genuine humility.  If the religious voices of our day could do that, the world would surely be a safer and more loving place in which to live.  Beyond that, the cause of Christ which we hold so dearly would be more honorably served.  (John Shelby Spong, The Bishop’s Voice, May 1995)

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