Some [Firing Line] encounters stand out in my memory. . . . [For example,] there was John Spong, the Episcopal bishop of Newark, New Jersey. Spong was touting his book touting sexual license, and I suggested that this was not a message that the physically and morally devasted inner-city of Newark really needed to hear. Spong triumphantly, and smugly, countered that the Episcopalians of Newark did not live in the run-down city but in affluent suburbs, and they welcomed his message of liberation from the onerous sexual morality of the Episcopal Church. For a moment Bill [Buckley] and I were, most uncharacteristically, at a loss for words.”
–Richard John Neuhaus, “William F. Buckley Jr. and the possibilities of life” (“The Public Square”), First Things 183 [May 2008], pp. 65-66
(Hat Tip: SP)
Incredible..on a couple of levels. I wonder if that worked out for the Episcopalians of Newark? In the end so to speak.
At least Spong acknowledged that TEC is pretty much about educated, bored, rich, white people who could use a little sexual debauchery to spice up their otherwise perfect lives.
The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.
But we don’t need potato salad as well as finger sandwiches because we know you’re not really coming.
I have real trouble believing that William F. Buckley was ever at a loss for words. Although, possibly at a loss for words that could be used on-air!
Sounds stochastic to me.
I saw the show. Buckley pointed out that the sexual promiscuity which Spong advocated was already taking place in the ghetto in Newark. His summary of Spong’s theology was one for the ages.
Buckley got “Sponged!”
I keep seing the figure that there are also around 40% fewer of those Episcopalians than there were when Spong first started as bishop? No idea how urban/suburban breaks down in that figure, but it seems the whole thing has broken down.
What book of Spong would this be? Could we have a quote from Spong?
But I thought that all Christians are called to go out into the run-down, financially stressed urban areas and deliver to them the good news of liberation from onerous sexual morality.
#9 – presumably LIVING IN SIN? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, 1998. Amazon has an excerpt, if that’s what you want.
One more disgusting example (amid many) of Spong’s desecration of Christian faith. Many years ago, one priest who had known him for over 3 three decades told me, “Jack is the type of person who makes the people around him mentally ill.” True, true, as demonstrated by his tenure in Newark.
His episcopacy there was a disaster. He had been pushing to have himself elected a bishop somehwere — and failed. In Newark, he presented himself as the ‘moderate’ compromise between radical left and radical right candidates. Then his true colors came out, and the diocese fell apart, dropping by 40% during his tenure. The turnover on his staff was incredibly high. His usual pattern was to bring in someone ‘marvelous’, then within two years, turn on that person and publicly humiliate them, forcing them to leave (no, I was not one of those, thank God!) It was a sick, sick place.
The fact that the HOB has never reprimanded, much less deposed him, says it all: TEC has strayed from the Christian Faith. Which is why so many of us either have left, or are in the process of leaving.
#11. Thanks. That must be it.
The elitism dripping from Spong’s quote is remarkably parallel to that of his admirer, KJS, in her quip about how Episcopalians don’t breed like Catholics and Baptists.
I’m glad Kendall posted this, and I’m glad Bill #14 made the connection with KJS. It’s just what jumped out at me when I read my issue of [i]First Things[/i]. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there is a direct line from contraception to sexual license, abortion, woman priests, and homo/pan-sexualism. By the way, it was RCs and [i]Mormons[/i] that KJS turned her snobbery towards. Evangelical Protestants (Baptists included) have by and large embraced the lie of contraception.
Also, in fairness to Spong, while it is true he had very little to offer the Newark ghetto other than the tired old limousine liberal shiboleths that may have been relevant in the late 60s, I have my serious doubts that a well-known evangelicals or Anglo-Catholics bishop, could have done much better or forced the hold-outs in the declining parishes in Newark and the surrounding areas to change their ways.
Violent Papist, that may have been the case. But Spong nevertheless did his level best to persuade his flock that promiscuous whoring of all sorts did not matter, which implies that public policy should take no note of it.