[Dialogue] Spong on The Swedish Church and on tithing

[KroegerD@aol.com]

October 5, 2005 
_Read the  press release about the new play based on Bishop John Shelby 
Spong's  autobiography! _ (http://secure.agoramedia.com/spong/week160story1.asp#pr) 
 
The Christian Church in  Sweden 
Recently Christine and I spent fifteen days on a lecture tour across the  
beautiful, gracious land of Sweden stopping in the cities of Vasteras, Rattvik,  
Stockholm, Uppsala and Goteborg.  
Sweden has a long and distinguished history. In the 18th Century when its  
boundaries included all of what is now Norway and Finland, Sweden's armies  
conquered both Russia and Denmark and in alliance with France, became the major  
power in Europe. Today it is a more modest Scandinavian nation with less than  
nine million people. Yet Sweden has produced citizens who have walked the 
world  stage: in the field of international politics one thinks of Dag 
Hammarskjold and  Hans Blix and in the sports arena Ingemar Johannsen and Bjorn Borg. In 
recent  years its international reputation has been set by its neutral role 
during World  War II.  
The primary Christian church in Sweden came out of the Lutheran Reformation  
that began in Germany and swept through Northern Europe. Though no longer  
established, this Church is still deeply a part of the life of this nation. The  
yellow cross, emblazoned on the blue background of the Swedish flag, indicates 
 quite powerfully that Christianity was a shaping force during Sweden's 
history  and is still today part of its national character.  
In our two trips to Sweden in the last fifteen months, I met the healthiest  
Christianity I have yet found in Europe. No, this does not mean that Swedish  
churches are full of worshippers on Sunday morning. Attendance actually is  
trending downward. The religious life of Sweden rather is marked by a Christian  
consciousness that appears to permeate its national life, to inform its  
government's policy toward the poor and marginalized and to give a special  
dimension to Swedish public life that reflects distinctly Christian values, but  
without Christian rhetoric.  
This country, for example, is not obsessed with sexuality. Not only is it  
quite open to homosexual people, but the Swedish soul also does not appear to  
have been warped by any strain of English Puritanism. While sexual practices in 
 Sweden are little different from those in either the United States or Great  
Britain, the Swedes do appear to be more open about appreciating their bodies 
 and they are less guilt-ridden or repressed than we Americans or British 
tend to  be.  
The bishops of the Swedish church whom I have had the privilege of meeting  
are bright, open, articulate people. Women, ordained in this church as early as 
 1958, are now commonplace even in the episcopate, including the bishop of  
Stockholm, Sweden's major city.  
On these recent visits I touched the life of this church on a number of  
levels. I attended a confirmation conference for mid-teens who were quite  
comfortable in their faith and willing to explore it honestly. I talked with  clergy 
working with these 14-15 year olds and realized how deeply they met these  
teenagers, spoke their language and viewed life through their eyes, yet never  
appeared to me to become adult-sized teens. These clergy represented an  
understanding of 'spirit' or 'God' that could never be exhausted by teenage fads  or 
limitations.  
I met young adults, who were inspired by this church to study theology in  
preparation for the life of an ordained pastor. These potential clergy were not  
hiding from reality, but were attractive, whole people engaging reality 
because  reality must be engaged. I met both clergy and lay people in this church 
who do  not pretend that they have all the answers, so they are able to listen 
to the  real questions of their people. I saw a church related to the larger 
world. I  met a young Arab Lutheran priest serving in the Middle East who saw 
his role to  be that of keeping the dialogue open between Jews and Arabs and 
involving the  Swedish Lutheran Church in that ministry. I saw a young Swedish 
pastor preparing  to leave on a four-year assignment in Mozambique to help the 
church there to  meet the needs of its teenagers. I saw a church conference 
center staffed by  young people from various nations of the world, including 
Mexico, Thailand,  Tanzania, Latvia and South Africa. Distinct by race, ethnicity 
and culture,  these teenagers come together far from home for one year and 
form friendships  that will last a lifetime. I saw a church in which a world 
vision overcame any  tendency toward regional sectarianism.  
I led a three-day adult conference that drew people not just from Sweden, but 
 also from Finland, Denmark and Norway. The conference was designed to help  
Scandinavian Christians, ordained and lay, walk self-consciously into a  
radically different world from the one in which their churches were born. I saw  a 
cathedral in Vasteras packed with more than 2200 people in a celebration of  
song and dance. My enthusiasm for Swedish Christianity centered, however, not 
on  these things, but on unique representative people who somehow have found 
the  message of Christ not a gateway into religion, but an invitation into life. 
 
First was the Archbishop, K.G. Hammer. He has directed the Swedish National  
Church since 1998 and recently announced his plans to retire next year. He is 
a  tall, stately man of great intelligence and no small lack of courage. He  
addressed the assembly in that packed cathedral in Vasteras for only about 8  
minutes, in between performances by an international musical group from Egypt,  
West Africa, Greece and Mexico; Swedish folk singers and a young priest 
acting  the part of a stand-up comic, who drew much laughter as he cleverly mocked  
contradictions and inconsistencies of church life. In this context this  
Archbishop shared his vision with his people and called them to look beyond  their 
limits, their fears and even their prejudices. He exposed the inadequacies  
found in all Christian artifacts, including the Bible, the Creeds and  
traditional Christian doctrines. He saw the Christian life as a journey into  which he 
invited all to join him. He promised no rewards other than the  exhilaration 
of the trip itself that would carry them beyond all boundaries and  divisions 
into the wonder and mystery of God. That was ecclesiastical leadership  as 
breathtaking as it is rare. A church that chose this man to be its archbishop  
clearly wanted to be formed by his vision.  
A second significant and defining figure was a theological professor in his  
mid forties named Sven Hillert. He had written his doctoral dissertation on 
the  universalism that he found in the writings of Paul. This man spoke with 
such  enthusiasm that even those who knew no Swedish were moved at his joy. This  
professor's job was to train pastors to serve in congregations, yet with 
amazing  freedom he avoided the usual temptation to try to bend the minds of 
ordinands to  a pre-existent point of view. His agenda was to help these future 
pastors think  for themselves, to pursue truth wherever it leads and to frame 
properly the  questions of life out of which the dialogue with faith must always 
be formed.  Sven Hillert, is going to be one of those people upon whom the 
future of Western  Christianity will rest. I saw in him a new generation of 
church leadership and  it was impressive. He is able and willing to take up the c
hallenge of the coming  reformation and to recast the Christian faith into the 
idioms and worldview of a  new century.  
Next was Christer Beijer, who saw the conference center in Rattvik that he  
directed as a place to free the creative potential of those who want to live  
courageously as people of faith in their own time. He saw declining church  
attendance not as a problem to be addressed or fixed, but as an opportunity to  
dream new dreams and to create new forms that will serve to keep people in 
touch  with life's transcendent dimensions. He did not waste his time mourning at 
the  graves of dying structures. He rather engaged those people who understood 
that  structures, which have fulfilled their purpose, must be laid aside so 
that  authentic resurrection might occur. It was an incredible insight for a  
hierarchical figure.  
The last person who touched me with a vision of the future was Lotta  
Johansson. She approached me rather tentatively on the last day I was in  Rattvik. It 
was 6.00 a.m. I had risen early, as I normally do, in order to  study, read, 
pray, think and write. I was in a dining room into which presumably  no one 
would come until breakfast was served at 8.00 a.m. She arrived in her  work 
clothes: dungarees with pockets out of which protruded various tools that  she 
used in her job as maintenance director for the grounds at this center. She  was 
in her mid forties, a pleasant smile illumining her Scandinavian coloring.  
She had in her hand a copy of the Swedish translation of my book, A New  
Christianity for a New World, bearing the title En Ny Kristendom for En  Ny Varld. 
She wondered if I would autograph it for her. As I did so I asked  her how she 
happened to know about the book. "It is because you are on my side,"  she said. 
"Your side?" I enquired. "Yes," she answered. "I am a lesbian, a  
homosexual." I countered by saying, "It is not that I am on your side but rather  that 
you and I are both on God's side." She would have none of that and said,  "Yes, 
I know, but you have fought for people like me." She then raised her arm  and 
beat the air with her fist. I was deeply touched and spontaneously embraced  
her after signing her book. Later I discovered that this conference center  
brings Lotta into its teenage gatherings when diversity is being discussed so  
that she might tell her story and help raise the consciousness of others to the  
wonders found in the varieties of people who make up humanity.  
Lotta was for me the final parable that helped me to appreciate the Church in 
 Sweden. It is so simple. Here is a church that understands the words of 
Jesus.  "I have come that they might have life and that they might have it 
abundantly."  If that was the purpose of the Christ, as I believe it was and is, then 
surely  that must also be the purpose of that institution that calls itself 
'The Body of  Christ.' For that kind of church I am happy to expend all the 
energy I have. It  has been a joy to glimpse momentarily the lives of people who 
worship in the  Church of Sweden. It is probably fitting that a church 
stemming from Martin  Luther should be in the vanguard of the reformation for which 
the world cries  out these days.  
— John Shelby Spong  
The Los Angeles Theatre Center 
514 South Spring Street  
Los Angeles, CA 90013 
(213) 239-8777 
_www.willandcompany.com_ (http://www.willandcompany.com/)   
Waterfront Media is pleased to share with the readers of Bishop Spong's  
column the following press release issued last week by The Los Angeles Theatre  
Center announcing the premier of a play based on Bishop Spong's autobiography  
HERE I STAND: MY STRUGGLE FOR A CHRISTIANITY OF INTEGRITY, LOVE AND  EQUALITY.  
PRESS RELEASE - IMMEDIATE USE  

World-famous Bishop John Shelby Spong To attend premiere of Will &  Company's 
"A Pebble In My Shoe" 

Sunday October 9th, 2005, 5:15pm  

Los Angeles Theatre Center, Tom Bradley Theatre 
514 South Spring  Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013 
(213) 239-8777 o (310) 433-3393 o (818)  437-8223 
_sam at willandcompany.com_ (mailto:sam at willandcompany.com)   . 
_colin at willandcompany.com_ (mailto:colin at willandcompany.com)  
_www.willandcompany.com_ (http://www.willandcompany.com/)   
World-renowned, Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong will be in attendance for  
the opening of Will & Company's "A Pebble In My Shoe -  The Life and Times of 
John Shelby Spong." This new play, penned by noted  playwright Colin Cox, 
examines the achievements of this remarkable prelate; the  bishop who ordained 
the first openly-gay priest in the Episcopal Church in the  United States, and 
who ordained the first woman priest in England, and the  author whose nineteen 
books include titles such as; "Living in Sin? A Bishop  Rethinks Human 
Sexuality", "Why Christianity Must Change Or Die", "Rescuing The  Bible From 
Fundamentalism", and "Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with  Jewish Eyes."  
Set against the human rights conflicts in the American church and the United  
States during the latter half of the twentieth century, "A Pebble In My Shoe" 
 follows the journey of this extraordinary human being from his homophobic,  
racially bigoted, North Carolinian roots, in the 1930's, to his multicultural, 
 homosexual-embracing, global "New Christianity for a New World" in the 'next 
 generation' millennium. It is an inspirational tale for the faithful and  
disbeliever alike.  
Following the performance on October 9th, there will be a reception at which  
Bishop Spong will be available to sign copies of his latest publication, "The 
 Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Discover the Love 
of  God."  
Performance - 5:15pm 
Book Signing - 7:30pm [LATC, 4th Floor]  
Other Performance Dates:  
"A Pebble In My Shoe" will also play at the Los Angeles Theatre Center on the 
 following dates; October 15th, 16th, 22nd & 23rd (Saturday, Sunday) in the  
Tom Bradley Theatre, LATC @ 5:15pm.  
For information and tickets regarding "A Pebble In My Shoe" contact:  
Valerie Morishige (213) 239-8777 
Sam Robinson (213) 239-8777 . (310)  433-3393 
Colin Cox (818) 437-8223 
Fran de Leon (818) 437-1272 
_www.willandcompany.com_ (http://www.willandcompany.com/)  
_sam at willandcompany.com_ (mailto:sam at willandcompany.com)  . 
_colin at willandcompany.com_ (mailto:colin at willandcompany.com)   
Also individual tickets may be purchased for "A Pebble In My Shoe" through:  
TheaterMania @:  
(866) 811-4111 [Toll free] 
_www.edgefest.theatermania.com_ (http://www.edgefest.theatermania.com/)   
"A Pebble In My Shoe" is a part of EdgeFest 2005, The 7th Annual Edge of the  
World Theater Festival.  
For information about EdgeFest contact: 
(310) 281-7920 
_www.edgefest.org_ (http://www.edgefest.org/)   
_Note from  the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at 
bookstores everywhere  and by clicking here!_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060762055/agoramedia-20)   
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Ed Reardon from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, writes:  
"As a recovering Roman Catholic, Jesuit educated, who still reveres much of  
the theology and the theologians in that church, I have been on a long journey 
 of discovery. I did, in fact, discover you as an important part of that 
journey,  in an issue of the Science of Mind Magazine. I still believe in the 
concept of  tithing; that you should contribute a percentage of your income to the 
source(s)  of your spiritual enlightenment and well-being. Since you fulfill 
a significant  part of that role in my life, I would like to send a portion of 
my tithes to you  for the work that you do. How and where would I do that? 
Advise."  
Dear Ed,  
Thank you for your unusual letter and offer. I honestly do not know how to  
answer you. I do not believe it is proper for money to be sent to an individual 
 with no accountability required. Tithes should go to tax exempt situations 
or to  things that the donor values. Therefore, let me make these suggestions:  
1. The organizations most in touch with the things I seek to do are: The  
Center for Progressive Christianity in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Jesus  
Seminar in Santa Rosa, California. Both are proper tax-exempt organizations and  
both do very good work. The address of the Center for Progressive 
Christianity  is 99 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass 02138 (att. The Rev. James Adams) and 
the  Jesus Seminar is Westar Institute, 2120 Bluebell Drive, Santa Rosa, 
California,  94503.  
2. Christine and I, who also believe in tithing, have set up a charitable  
trust fund with Fidelity, called 'The Christine and John Spong Charitable Trust' 
 to which we contribute annually and from which funds are donated each year 
to  things we recommend. The recipient of these gifts can only be a tax-exempt  
entity as defined under the Federal tax code. We use that fund to support 
many  of the conference centers and churches that we are privileged to visit each 
 year. These are the places that are thinking outside the box of traditional  
religious systems. A check made out to the 'Christine and John Spong 
Charitable  Trust at Fidelity Investments' would be appropriate, for the money would 
then be  institutionally managed, it would never be in control of an 
individual, and it  would support those places that are doing the things that this 
column supports.  
3. The final alternative would be for you to contribute directly to those  
things that appeal to you. I regard giving as one of life's privileges. Thank  
you for forcing me to think about this,  
John Shelby Spong 
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