Christianity’s ‘bad boy’ is coming back to town

John Shelby Spong is a religious Pied Piper, but whether he’s leading his followers to an exciting new reality or heresy is a matter of debate.

Spong, 75, is on a mission to bring God to the godless and revamp Christianity for a new, skeptical generation. This retired Episcopal bishop calls himself a “God-intoxicated mystic” who wants to delve beneath what he calls the layers of religion and find a faith closer to fact.

In so doing, Spong argues against the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ and for a more inclusive form of faith — one in which all religions are seen as a way toward the Divine.

“Religions die, because religious systems are human creations,” Spong said. “But while religions (as we know them) might die, Christianity has a chance to live.”

Spong, once called liberal Christianity’s “unrepentant bad boy” by Religion News Service, takes a three-day swing through Colorado Springs May 4 to 6, speaking at Colorado College and First Congregational Church-United Church of Christ. He’s the inaugural speaker for the James W. White Lectureship, named after First Congregational’s popular longtime pastor. Officials at First Congregational hope to bring in a national speaker every year as part of the lectureship. Spong was a natural choice.

“Spong is not new to this congregation,” said Joe Pickle, who headed the First Congregational committee that brought Spong to town.

“We have kind of a longterm connection with people like this from our own religious education program. Really, in a sense, we want to share him with the community.”

And what a community in which to share.

Colorado Springs is known as a bastion of Christian conservatism, and is sometimes called the “evangelical Vatican.”

The message of the city’s largest churches falls far afield from what Spong teaches: Spong’s views include beliefs that Jesus didn’t die for humanity’s sins, that homosexuality is natural and that the Bible isn’t the inerrant word of God.

“I don’t think the Bible captures the truth of God,” Spong said. “I think the Bible points to the truth of God.”

Such beliefs have led more than a few conservative Christians to brand Spong a heretic. VirtueOnline, a conservative Episcopal online clearinghouse, said as much, and took the denomination’s presiding bishop to task for inviting the “uber-revisionist bishop” to a clergy retreat when she was bishop of Nevada.

Spong, however, said he has no desire to convert those he calls “fundamentalist.” His mother was a fundamentalist Christian, he said, and it kept her in a “good place.”

He’s much more interested in reaching those in the “church alumni association” — one-time Christians who can’t reconcile the natural world with traditional religion. His new book, published in March, is titled “Jesus For the Non-Religious.” He said he wants to find a space between atheism and theism — a place where believers can come to a new understanding of the Divine.

“Religion, as it is understood today, is no longer viable for our world,” Spong said. “I think religion has to go through a reformation to stay relevant.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or paul.asay@gazette.com

DETAILS

What: Local appearances by John Shelby Spong

May 4: “The Source of Religious Anger,” 7:30 p.m., Shove Memorial Chapel at Colorado College. Free.

May 5: “Separating the Myth from the Man,” 9:30 a.m. (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.), First Congregational Church-United Church of Christ, 20 E. St. Vrain St. “Interpretive Images,” 1:30 p.m. (registration begins at 1 p.m.), First Congregational Church. Cost for each of the May 5 seminars is $20, or $30 for both. Register at www.fcucc.org or at the door.

May 6: Will speak about “Jesus for the Non-Religious” at First Congregational Church’s morning worship service at 10:30 a.m. Free.