Ugh, Ugh

Behold, Bishop Spong went to a conference for political and religious progressives and held forth thusly:

Spong, who is the retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, has long been a biting polemicist on behalf of liberal religion, writing books suggesting that the Virgin Mary was a prostitute and St. Paul a "self-hating gay man," while denying that Christ was divine and rejecting a personal God. "It's time to name evil as evil when sounded in pious accents of biblical religion," Spong declared blazingly. "In the 21st century ... my nation seems to be walking religiously back into religious attitudes that I spent a lifetime trying to escape."

Spong's Episcopal denomination is one of America's fastest declining. His own Newark diocese, during his 24 years as its bishop, lost 40 percent of its membership.

Growing churches in America and around the world are theologically orthodox, which disturbs Spong greatly.

"We have a pope who says [moral] relativity must be combatted," Spong lamented. "Protestant leaders say homosexuality is a sin. A cardinal denounces evolution." The bishop asked forlornly, "Is this what Christianity has become?"

Spong denounced the "narrow prejudice" of popular religion. "Is the current direction of Christianity in this country the right direction?" he asked. "Are we heading into phase two of a new dark age?"

Chastising a "male-dominated church" that attempts to "define women," Spong lambasted "post-menopausal" Catholic bishops who call God "Father" and tell women "what they can do with their bodies."

"Conservative Roman Catholicism and evangelical fundamentalists are growing," Spong noted with worry. His explanation of the trend was: "Hysterical people are seeking security."

Condemning popular religion that "masquerades as Christianity," Spong sneered that he did not want to walk into "what's called a Christian book store," listen to a "Christian" radio station or be "identified with the Christian vote," when these labels apply to people "bashing homosexuals" and "keeping women from choosing."

Spong fretted that the Bible in America has become a "force in public policy as an arbiter of right and wrong." Those who quote it make "fascinating points" and "assume the Bible is always right," he observed.

But the Bible has been a "major force in dark chapters of American history," Spong ominously warned. It has been used to support slavery, oppress women, and justify war, he charged. And now the Bible is being used to "make abortion illegal" and to "oppose end of life decisions," Spong complained. The Bible is even being used to justify the "preservation of living cadavers," he said, in an apparent reference to the case of severely disabled Terri Schiavo.

"Our breeding practices threaten us with environmental degradation," he further charged, in an apparent slam against Roman Catholics and others who take a positive view of childbearing inside marriage and a negative view of artificial contraception.

You can read the whole splurge here. This guy does not even meet the minimum requirements for Episcopalians or Canadian "Anglicans." The whole "the Virgin Mary was a whore" thing sort of ruins it for him ... I wonder if there is any way the Archbishop of Canterbury could formally excommunicate him, since the Episcopals are still technically a part of the Anglican Communion. Although I suspect it is strictly a Catholic fascist thing? :) Sometimes I wish we would use it more often .. . Ahem. Cardinal Mahoney. Ahem.