[Dialogue] Spong discusses the church

[Charles or Doris Hahn]

Hi Dick,

I want to thank you for your continuing sending us
these great passages from Bishop Spong.  It is a
continual breath of fresh air and a challange to
remain open to all of life. I coul write pages more,
but won't

Charles Hahn
--- kroegerd at aol.com wrote:
>   
> Rev. Dore via the Internet writes: 
> "I am a New Thought Minister who presents the Bible
> and the Christ in much the same manner as you do in
> your articles and books. Can the Christ and
> Christianity survive the adolescence period where
> all is in flux, change and turmoil and emerge as the
> loving empowering way of life that Jesus intended
> and that we so desperately need or will the
> Fundamentalists win the day? Will we make it to
> Spiritual Adulthood?" 
> Dear Rev. Dore,
> I think your image of adolescence is exactly
> correct. However, I suspect that the fact that
> Christians are not eager to grow up comes from two
> realities, one is external pressure, and the other
> is internal pressure. The Church as an external
> institution clearly craves power and achieves it by
> keeping its followers in perpetual immaturity.
> Childlike, uncritical dependency that expresses
> itself in guilt-laden obedience is the Church's
> unstated goal. The message of the Christ who,
> according to the Gospel of John, came that we might
> have abundant life, is portrayed theologically in
> our churches as coming to rescue 'wretched sinners'
> who are taught that there is no possibility of doing
> anything right without God. In order to reveal the
> greatness of God in this gift of salvation, the
> Church found it necessary to concentrate on the
> depravity of human life. Therefore, salvation came
> to those who accepted the forced status of being
> passive, dependent and childlike. 
> The internal pressure comes from our own
> evolutionary struggle. We are self-conscious
> creatures who live in the dimension of time. We
> remember yesterday and anticipate tomorrow. That
> means two things. First, fear and anxiety are
> essential, necessary and chronic in human life;
> second, we must embrace our own mortality. Both of
> these realities mean that it is the uniquely human
> thing to search for security. A parent God with
> supernatural power, who can watch over, protect and
> defend us, provides that kind of security. So we
> accept chronic childhood so as not to lose parental
> security. We prefer to be born again to growing up.
> It is a bad swap - perhaps even a delusional swap.
> The religious system that will survive must
> encourage self-development and maturity. That means
> God must be redefined in a non-theistic
> understanding as enabling, enhancing and encouraging
> a new humanity. Paul Tillich, a 20th century German
> Lutheran theologian, started us in this direction.
> The split in most Christian churches today reveals
> our adolescent spirituality. Some of us become
> fundamentalists who live in the past and others who
> cannot be bound by yesterday live in the future.
> Both are simply aspects of our journey out of
> adolescence into the maturity of wholeness. It will
> probably take a generation or two to move fully into
> the new consciousness, but I think it is inevitable.
> Blessings on your ministry. 
>  
> Dick Kroeger
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