Liberal bishop questions literal reading of Bible
Connie Zheng
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: Campus News
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In "The Christian Church and the Sexuality Debate," Spong addressed homosexuality, abortion, sexism and racism from a reframed Christian viewpoint, as he offered an analysis that emphasized a non-literal interpretation of the Bible.
"There's a difference between an experience of Jesus and an explanation of the experience of Jesus," Spong said during the question-and-answer session after the lecture, which was hosted by Students for Choice. The lecture was sponsored by the Sarah Doyle Women's Center, the Office of Institutional Diversity, Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom and the Kaleidoscope Fund, a fund created by President Ruth Simmons in 2005 in order to promote intellectual diversity on campus.
Spong, who is "pro-a woman's right to choose," said that he is excited about the American public slowly overcoming its prejudices toward homosexuality. He said he hoped to see homophobia, racism and sexism "exorcised" from American life.
Spong analyzed the racism and sexism that he said are persistent in attitudes toward the presidential campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill. and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. He asked the crowd why, after an 11-state sweep, Obama still had not clinched the nomination. He also used the success of black politicians such as Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as examples of the decline of racism in the American public and as catalysts to change American consciousness toward race.
Spong also called Clinton the first woman in America the voting public could imagine as president, before citing sexist comments various members of the media have made about the Clinton campaign. One of these was journalist Carl Bernstein's quip about the width of Clinton's ankles, to which Spong replied by asking the audience how the public would have reacted if Bernstein had joked about former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's body parts instead. The audience, which was scattered around the auditorium, laughed in response.