Carolina QuotesThere are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. 23:17). ... How divine is the message that says for your finite failings you will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:30)?
John Shelby Spong Carolinian
Source
p. 21
- work
- Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991)
- year
- 1991
- locator
- p. 21
Cite this record
“There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Naza…” John Shelby Spong. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-B86EC9201C. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/b86ec9201c
More from John Shelby Spong
Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth.
All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth.
Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult.