Bishop John Shelby Spong: Soaking up bad theology
March 08, 2006 12:41 PM EST

Recently I received an E-mail message from an atheist correspondent, who presented me with the quote below. It was identified by E-mail as part of a letter from a Michigan pastor, to liberal iconoclast, Bishop John Shelby Spong.

"Overcoming the widespread Christian belief that 'Jesus died for my sins' seems an insurmountable challenge! Preachers, liturgical rites, hymns and religious education curricula continue to reinforce 'atonement theology/theories.' . . . Personally and pastorally, 'atonement' thinking creates a mire of destructive results and I, for one, would well appreciate your cogent analysis of how we might best approach this."

This was the response I sent back to my correspondent, as well as others on my mailing list:

"I talk about some Christians being 'humanists under a religious flag.' Spong is the laughable epitome of that ilk. The central message of Christianity IS atonement ˜ it is the concept more than anything else which separates the Christian faith from the gamut of 'works religions,' where man earns his own 'salvation,' whatever that is in Spong's warped theology. The 'atonement' is taught because it is biblical. Spong has made such a radical departure from sound doctrine, that whatever it is he believes, it can hardly be considered biblical Christianity. And yet Spong is the darling of the 'I want to do whatever I want, but still believe in God' crowd. Many mainline denominational churches in America today, to some degree, are partakers of this apostasy. That is why I claim that Bible-believing Christians are a minority in America. In an attempt to go wide instead of deep, the modern church has inhaled the poisonous gas of liberalism, making it all but irrelevant on the cultural landscape. These churches are easily recognizable. They talk about Jesus accepting everyone as they are ˜ but never get to the part where Christ says 'Go and SIN no more.' Less than half a Gospel. I saw this particular book by Spong in a thrift Store ˜ I read three paragraphs before shaking my head and casting it aside. I should have bought it so it didn't fall into the hands of someone looking for answers." The rest