Spong's Jesus

Retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong believes most of what is claimed about Jesus Christ is bullshit. It turns out he is a skeptic like I am. But he is different. After peeling away the supernatural claims that the story of Jesus is wrapped in, he still finds a profound spiritual force.

He argues that the bible is an inconsistent and contradictory product of its time that makes claims that no thoughtful modern person should believe. Christianity that dogmatically follows such a text is broken. Such is the Christianity that at its best coexisted with, and at its worst, fueled racism, sexism, and homophobia for nearly 2,000 before secular movements began to free us of these bigotries.

But Spong thinks Christ still is something powerful. He believes Christ was a real person whose life and teachings profoundly moved his contemporaries. But in Christ's time, people had only the supernatural language of their time to describe what they saw. But Spong believes there is something real that inspired the stories of Jesus that we know.

Who was the real Jesus? Spong says it is a man who taught people to live life fully and to embrace our full humanity. He taught people to transcend their tribalist survival instincts and love all regardless of race, religion, and gender. This was pure radicalism in its day.

The gift Spong gives is a concept of Jesus that is useful to non-Christians. In fact, I feel inspired by his version of Jesus without needing to know for sure whether it is fact or fiction. This version, completely lacking supernatural elements, is at least possible to a skeptic.