While working on the update for the Halliburton post, I came across an ad at Slate which caught my eye and then drew my ire. The ad, which I'll upload later today once I get FTP access, is for some sort of electronic forum featuring Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong. There will be no link, because I don't want to give any additional traffic to this loon. As Han Solo might've said, "Trust me."

The name of Spong is enough to draw cheers in some circles and snarls of revulsion in others. The Sunday school class I attended prior to graduation from college certainly had people who knew the name of Spong, and they weren't particularly pleased with him. Suffice it to say that Bishop Spong (this may be an inaccurate title; I'm a Methodist and we don't get wrapped up in all this quasi-Romish folderol in terms of titles) is more than likely an avid supporter of V. Eugene Robinson's advancement in the Episcopal hierarchy. (The Country Pundit is not, for a variety of reasons.)

The ad's money quote asks, "ARE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS STILL RELEVANT?" I'm from a small Southern town, hence the name 'Country Pundit'. I'm not used to sitting around pondering the relevancy of the Decalogue, but rather pondering just how I'm going to bring my actions into compliance with its contents. So, after I wiped a Tea Leoni-ish look of bewilderment (I saw it once on an ad for her NBC program back in the 1990s; can't find a shot of it) I decided to read the ad and click the link. My next reaction was to scoff: "You'd just as soon ask whether gravity was still relevant."

The ad promises "NEW CHRISTIANITY FOR A NEW WORLD" as "Bishop Spong Explores Biblical Truth in our Modern World". Pardon me for asking the obvious, but what new world? Did we colonize Mars or something when I was asleep in my carrel at school earlier? Furthermore, other than the fact that we're 1900-odd years away from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, what exactly is so very different about our world that the denizens of the first century A.D. wouldn't understand after a bit of catch-up? Barbarians at the gate, a savage hatred of Christians among the upper class, and the army sent hither and yon defending the national interest. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It would seem that the single most important constant here is mankind. Yep, mankind. The same craven, fallen creature that departed the Garden of Eden a long time ago after noshing on the fruit of the Tree of Life. (See the book of Genesis, chapter 3.) The only way that that changes (for Gentiles, that is) is through the redemptive and life-transforming grace available for free through Jesus Christ. I consider it of minor significance that I don't see the name of "John Spong" listed anywhere in my copy of the King James Version or my battered New International Version.

Anyways, Spong's particular straw man is 'fundamentalism'. You know, wherein Christians hijack airliners and fly them into large buildings. Wait, that's Islamist fundamentalism. Sorry; the way most of the Left talks, America has more to fear from a bunch of devoted Christians than it does a cell of Islamist kamikaze pilots. 'Fundamentalism' is probably described as "disagreement with Bishop Spong" so that means that much of Africa and its Anglicans are "fundamentalists", along with the Southern Baptist Convention, the Roman Catholic Church which recognizes the authority of Rome and the Pope, me, and millions of other people who don't go around tinkering with a divinely-inspired book to create "progressive Christianity".

Here's the kicker, under "PRAISE FOR BISHOP SPONG": “…Spong provides enlightened reading for people who no longer believe in the God of Sunday school and are looking for something else to give their lives meaning.” This comes from the San Francisco Chronicle. Huh? If you no longer believe in the God of Sunday school, you do need to see a preacher man, but I think you'd need to go towards God, not into someone who I'd describe as a servant of the very devil of Hell.

To wrap up an irate post, I'll say this: It's a sign of Western civilizational superiority that Spong hasn't been killed by an angry mob on the orders of a bearded half-blind cleric who sits in judgment in a court of life and death that has no sanction of the governed. However, the Coulterish streak in me wants desperately to dare Bishop Spong to pull this kind of a stunt on al-Jazeera, where he promises a "NEW ISLAM FOR THE NEW WORLD", and await the response. John, I wouldn't plan on showing my face for the next 25 years or so. He can take comfort in the fact that Episcopalians don't issue fatwas, although I'm tempted to ask Rowan Williams to make an exception.

At any rate, the Christian church has endured many things over the course of two thousand years, and I suppose it will weather Spong and his heresy. This will, of course, irritate Spong, V. Eugene Robinson, and the Purple Pundit Who Shall Not Be Named, but go figure. My religious forebears faced down Nero and others, and some nitwit bishop doesn't match that kind of threat.

UPDATE: I promised the ad, and here it is:

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:54 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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