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Christian denounces conservative beliefs

Boston Globe Book Review

Tuesday 14 June 2005, 12:57 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

By Rich Barlow, Globe Correspondent

The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, By John Shelby Spong, HarperSanFrancisco, 315pp, $24.95

John Shelby Spong, the former Episcopal bishop of Newark, is a well-known author of popular books on biblical scholarship. But he's made his name plugging radical rethinking of his religion, a campaign on full view in "The Sins of Scripture."

"There is no theistic God who exists to take care of you or me. There is no God who stands ready to set aside the laws by which this universe operates to come to our aid in time of need."

Spong's greatest ire is reserved for Bible texts and Bible text-quoters who justify sexism, homophobia, and other injustices.

But he contends that there are voices in the Bible that offer a corrective and authentic vision of God, one imbued with nobility and love missing from the traditionalists' take. He cites passages that envision God as something other than a robed divinity directing history from heaven, and others that speak of equality rather than prejudice.

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/06/14/in_sins_a_christian_denounces
_conservative_beliefs/

On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0009CUW34/qid=1118779050/sr=1-1/r
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