Retired bishop to bring (liberal) views on religion to Beach

[Blue_Tires]

Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong has spent years getting over the prejudices he says his church upbringing instilled in him.

In a telephone interview from his home in Morris Plains, N.J., Spong said he grew up with the beliefs that he should hate other religions, that women were inferior, and that gays and lesbians were sick or depraved.

"I was taught that segregation was the will of God and the Bible was quoted to prove it," he said of growing up in an evangelical Episcopal church in Charlotte, N.C. "I spent a great deal of my life overcoming all of these prejudices, none of which I would hold today."

Spong, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J., for 24 years, will lecture about fundamentalism and religion at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach on Friday and Saturday.

Spong retired in February 2000. He lectures internationally, writes a weekly column and has written best-selling books including "Living in Sin? " and "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism. "

He served as a minister in various towns and cities, including Tarboro, N.C., Lynchburg and Richmond, where he was the rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church from 1969 to 1976.

Spong said he finally confronted the issue of homosexuality as bishop in Newark. He found the openly gay clergy and lay people in his churches to be outstanding leaders, and needed to understand sexual orientation, he said.

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/retired-bishop-bring-views-religion-beach