Fundamental Questions

The rise in fundamental Christianity in this country heralds a dark age in the history of the mainline church. That's according to retired Episcopalian bishop John Shelby Spong, who spoke this week in the Samuelson Chapel at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

Spong, who hails from New Jersey, was invited to speak as part of an occasional series of spirituality lectures sponsored by the Segerhammer Center for Faith and Culture at the university. Spong, considered controversial by many conservative church leaders, has written more than 15 books, including "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism," "Born of a Woman" and "Resurrection: Myth or Reality."

"Some people are not into the Bible for the Bible's sake, but as a bulwark against change," said Guy Erwin, director of the Segerhammer Center for Faith and Culture at Cal Lutheran.

Wearing a white bishop's collar, a suit and a sweater, Spong stood at the podium and spoke Monday to about 150 people in the morning and to an audience of roughly 350 people in the evening. Spong's soft "r"s bespoke his upbringing as a fundamentalist Christian in the South during a time, he said, when the Bible was quoted as a means to justify discrimination against women and segregation of the races ? even slavery.

"History has showed that where the Bible is used in a public debate, it is almost always used on the wrong side," he said.

In the 17th century, for example, some quoted the Bible to prove that Galileo was wrong; that the Earth was actually the center of the universe. As he was growing up, Spong said, the Bible was quoted by some members of his own family to prove that women were somehow inferior. Spong's mother was withdrawn from education before entering high school because her parents believed her primary purpose was to have children, cook and keep house.

"My mother lived and died functionally illiterate," Spong said, adding that all four of his daughters are professional, educated women.

Evolution and gay marriage

As it has so many other times in history, Spong said he believes the Bible is still being used to support the agenda of those whose minds are the most closed.

"The Bible has emerged in a very political way that has fueled two major debates in our society," Spong told the audience during the morning presentation. "Intelligent design versus evolution and a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage."

Spong said he believes those who use a rigorously literal translation of the Bible to try to debunk the scientific theory of evolution are misguided.

"The world was not created in 4004 B.C. because we know the world has been around 4.5 (billion) to 5 billion years," Spong said. "Single–celled organisms appeared 3.5 (billion) to 4 billion years ago. Human life didn't get here until 50,000 to 100,000 years ago on the short side, 1 (million) to 2 million years on the long side."

The Bible is also used as a weapon against homosexuality, he said.

"Look at what we're doing to gay and lesbian people," Spong said, adding that it's not right to use a book of love and faith to condemn someone whose sexual orientation is different. Plus, he rejects the idea that sexual orientation is a choice.

"I just suddenly woke up at age 12 or 13 and girls did not seem obnoxious to me anymore," Spong said. "I didn't choose my sexual orientation."

"I think where the Bible gets used for political purposes is when those who really believe it is the word of God are responding to critical moral issues of the day," said Ventura Baptist Church Pastor Leonard DeWitt. "Marriage and family have been basic units of society from the beginning of time. The Scriptures are very, very clear about what the Creator had in mind when he made Adam and Eve."

Those values, he said, do not include homosexuality.

"I don't know how you get around passages that speak in a negative or condemning way about homosexuality," DeWitt said. "The Scriptures talk about, if a man lies with a man or a woman lies with a woman, it's an abomination of God."

Translations challenged

Spong, who was raised a block away from evangelist Billy Graham's house, has raised the ire of some fundamentalists by challenging a number of literal translations of biblical mainstays such as the virgin birth and whether Christ was actually physically resurrected.

"We wondered if Christianity depended on an empty grave," said Elizabeth Buckner of Thousand Oaks, who helped start a Sunday morning discussion group about some of Spong's philosophies.

Buckner is among the local Christians who questioned a lot of points in the Scripture, wondering how literally to interpret them.

"I always had questions and there was no answer. Spong answered people like me," she said.

Spong's books and observations are a frequent launching place for the discussion group, called the Challengers. The group meets Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church. It is free and open to all ages, all denominations.

Spong "certainly has a much more progressive approach to Christianity," said Buckner. "There must be a better alternative than to be literalistic and fundamentalistic. He is on the cutting edge of theological thought at this time."

Dexter Smith, 65, of Oak Park, was drawn to the group after she came to Ventura County to live with her son. Smith, formerly of New Orleans, lost her home and all of her possessions in Hurricane Katrina.

"When I came here I immediately went to a church," Smith said. "You feel adrift. You've lost everything."

Just as Katrina swept away all the trappings of her life, she realized that all of the trappings of the church could be swept away, but the most important thing, the message, was left behind.

"We have to help each other and love each other," she said. "That's what spirituality is. It's not what ritual you have."

Literal vs. figurative

Spong said he believes many aspects of the Bible need to be taken figuratively rather than literally, pointing out that the Bible was written by men after decades if not centuries of stories being passed down orally.

"Everything we know about Abraham is filtered through an oral tradition for 900 years before it was written down," Spong said.

And it's not just the Old Testament. The New Testament, Spong pointed out, wasn't written until the stories had been filtered through at least 40 years of oral tradition.

DeWitt believes the Bible is the clear word of God; but common sense tells you which passages are meant to be metaphors. For example, when the Bible refers to Jesus as the shepherd and his followers as the sheep, it is obviously a metaphor.

"It uses, in some cases, figurative language to illustrate an authoritative point," he said.

When considering how literally to translate the Bible, Spong said he believes it's important to consider the social climate during the time the kings, prophets and disciples put pen to paper.

"When people call this book the word of God, or divinely inspired, I need to know what they mean," Spong told the audience. "Back then, they believed the sun revolved around the Earth and God sat just above the sun. God's primary activity seemed to be keeping record books on you and me."

If every word of the Bible is taken literally, there could be social chaos, Spong said.

"In Deuteronomy it said, if a child is willfully disobedient, he should be stoned to death at the gates of the city," Spong told the audience. "If you commit adultery, you are to be executed. If you worship a false God, you are to be executed. ... Who defines the true God?"

Back to the basic Bible

DeWitt said he believes the rise of fundamentalism in America is a positive thing, not a signal that the mainstream church is dying. If people are turning away from mainstream churches, it is because churches became less clear about the Bible's message.

"Many of your mainline denominations have tried to rewrite the script so that people are not accountable," DeWitt said. "People are more interested in rights today than they are responsibilities. ... As a result they have either weakened or diluted or compromised the message and people are left to do whatever they want to do. With that you have chaos and confusion."

Courtney Palm, 19, of Thousand Oaks, who attended Spong's morning presentation, said she believes people her age would be more inclined to come to church if they received a more open–minded translation of the Bible.

"People can be so narrow–minded," she said. "We don't want to be preached to about the preacher's point of view, but to be presented with a broad spectrum of possibilities."

Spong said he believes that the very extremism of right–wing Christianity will cause it to self–extinguish, leaving the faithful to rebuild the church.

When the vocal extremes flame out, Spong said he believes Christianity will start to rebuild itself on a remnant of church, with one of the primary messages of the Bible, such as love.

"We cannot segregate. We cannot discriminate," Spong said near the end of his lecture. "The ultimate heart of the Christian story is you are loved just as you are. The essence of God is love."