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moobu2

(4,822 posts)
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 08:26 PM Sep 2012

A Bishop Describes How The Church Invented Hell To Control People

I don't agree with him because when you die you're just dead. I just thought some of you might find his opinion interesting. I think he's a retired Episcopal bishop.

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A Bishop Describes How The Church Invented Hell To Control People (Original Post) moobu2 Sep 2012 OP
All of religion is to control people Politicalboi Sep 2012 #1
Is this Bishop John Shelby Spong? no_hypocrisy Sep 2012 #2
Yes, retired Bishop of Newark. rug Sep 2012 #6
I like his view of the world much better than the church's view FiveGoodMen Sep 2012 #3
Religion was an invention of early man to keep society under control. Dawson Leery Sep 2012 #4
Spong, Tutu and others like them make me xchrom Sep 2012 #5
Religion is ALWAYS in the control business. Raster Sep 2012 #7
More on Bishop Spong (another member of the Jesus Seminar) SarahM32 Sep 2012 #8
 

Politicalboi

(15,189 posts)
1. All of religion is to control people
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 08:31 PM
Sep 2012

We just should go by to treating others as we would like to be treated.

FiveGoodMen

(20,018 posts)
3. I like his view of the world much better than the church's view
Fri Sep 28, 2012, 08:42 PM
Sep 2012

But they both seem to be someone's wishful thinking.

On the matter of the church creating Hell for control, I'm quite sure he's right.

SarahM32

(270 posts)
8. More on Bishop Spong (another member of the Jesus Seminar)
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 03:27 PM
Sep 2012

John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, NJ, wrote: "In time, the virgin birth account will join Adam and Eve and the story of the cosmic ascension as clearly recognized mythological elements in our faith tradition, whose purpose was not to describe a literal event but to capture the transcendent dimensions of God in the earthbound words and concepts of first-century human beings."

That's somewhat similar to what Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

However, when Spong says people don't need to be "reborn," he's talking about those who claim to be "born again," as so many theocratic fundamentalist conservative Christians do, and he's reacting to them. Actual spiritual rebirth is actually something else that has to do with transcending ego so that our higher self can emerge.

Relevant articles: Abaout Christianity, The Virgin Birth Story, Spiritual Rebirth, and The Nature of God
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