An Anglican Bishop name Spong

My cousin Earle who is from de USA is a committed Anglican and while he was out here on ah short vacation, we got into some Bible talks that literally frightened me. So to cool me off he sent me down ah few books written by an Anglican (Episcopal) Bishop, John Shelby Spong of Newark, who just happens to be ah controversial figure thru-out de Fun-dah-men-tell Christian community.

Spong is so deep in de Bad Books, that when ah call my spiritual resource person, ah senior Anglican Priest to find out if he ever heard ah this bad-john Bishop name Spong, he went silent immediately: “Oh Bassy” he cried, “don’t mention the name Bishop Spong to me at all, he’s too way off, I some-times wonder if Spong is really Christian”. {{more}}But ah insisted that ah like the guy’s writings and gave my reasons. Then de Rev. Father recanted ah bit and explained that what he didn’t like was Spong’s Moral Theology. Another senior Anglican Priest told me he barely heard of Spong years ago with ah controversial piece he wrote dealing with Jesus – and with fear in his eyes, he warned me to be careful and don’t let Spong lead me astray. Nice time to warn me after ah done gone thru five ah Spong’s books, and still very much ah believer in Christ.

Bishop Spong is no easy controversial figure, apart from his burning concern foh de plight ah de Poor, de Blacks, Women and Homosexuals, he delves deeply into topics like the Virgin Birth, Resurrection probing foh myth or reality. Ah most certain that if some ah we local Pastors and Clergymen were to read Spong’s writing, dey will cry out foh blasphemy and forbid dey membership from reading his books, and why not. Among Spong’s books are titles like: Why Christianity must change or die; Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism; A new Christianity for ah new world; The Sins of Scripture, Liberating the Gospels and ah lot more bomb topics. Basically Spong is not afraid to go searching foh de truth and interestingly, he looks in one direction to find it and that is in the Bible itself. He is convinced that too much ah the writings in the Scriptures is read and understood totally in its literal sense and therein lies de problems of interpretation.

Ah want to touch ah bit on de man Spong, mainly his thoughts on de Jews to expand on Ann-Marie John’s piece published in de Press last week. She is ah provocative writer and ah like her style. Last week she dealt with Auntie-See-me-tease-him, you know, persecution ah dem poor, ain-no-saint, sinless Pentecostal and Evangelical Jews bound foh heaven. According to Spong, Jesus came at ah time when de Romans had de Fun-dah-men-tell-is Jews on de run, scattered like Guerillas, Terrorist and Zealots in the hill-side. Now de Jews’ last hope foh ah victory, was pinned on de arrival ah de Conquering Lion, Jesus Christ; but when Jesus showed up and turned out to be de Sacrificial Lamb, dey refused to accept him as de Son of God, and dey handed him over to de Romans. No sooner Christ was crucified, de Romans continued with its destruction of de Jewish nation, smashing dey city, Jerusalem and dey Temple; and foh de umpteenth time de (Fundamentalist) Jews were persecuted and scattered; so as early as that period, around 40 A.D. auntie-See-me-tease-him was riff in Jerusalem.

Now according to Spong, de Christian Jews (converts to Christ) ran into conflict with de Fun-dah-men-tell-is Jews who objected to de inclusion of the teachings of Christ at Sabbath worship. De Christians declared dey hands, broke loose and abandoned de teachings ah de Torah, de Jewish books of Moses used then foh Sabbath readings. Getting rid ah Torah readings gave room foh the writings from converts like Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John ah disciple, the Gospels became readings on de Sabbath. Luke’s Gospel in particular was ah perfect replacement or substitute foh de Torah.

Those moves by de Christian Jews not only brought them in de good graces ah de Romans, but helped to fuel de fire that de Romans were pushing on the Fun-dah-men-tell-is Jews. So again it appears that way back then, even Christians by their actions or inactions lend support to Auntie-see-me-tease-him. Ah real contradiction but that’s only ah lickle piece ah Bishop Spong.

BE CAREFUL WHEN NAMING DEM PLAYING FIELDS

Over the years Patmos Richards, thru his column, has been doing ah good job bringing to the fore people, teachers in particular, who would have made valuable contributions to the feel ah Education. Somehow he changed direction ah few weeks ago and suggested naming playing fields after sporting personalities from de particular areas, all with good intentions. He suggested that the Layou Playing Field be named after Marcus Young ah former national footballer. There is where he went ah lickle too far, and Dug-he Nose Joseph didn’t let him get away with that suggestion. Nose himself offered ah candidate Pete Morris, also ah former National Footballer, not ah bad choice either.

Now, both Marcus and Pete were fine sportsmen, but subject to correction, ah don’t think de town ah Layou has seen ah sports personality de likes ah Foster “Fosdick” Huggins. Ah national cricketer who could ah bat, bowl and field like ah cat in de leg slip. I somehow remembering him meking de Windwards squad. Ah National goal-keeper as well and an excellent athlete mainly in de high jump, again ah member ah de national squad foh Windwards meetings. Of course neither Nose nor Patmos would ah heard of Huggins, not to mention de Douglas and Grant Brothers. But it all goes to show what Care-not John always does say, “if we don’t write our His-story, we will not only repeat we-self, but mek nuff mistakes.”

Maybe Becket could start to write ah Kaiso on his Sportsmen of Layou. Lie-Za is all upset that ah left out Sir Louis Straker; she insist that his name suppose to come up as ah sporting hero too. Ah told her ah know Herbie played soccer foh school, but ah never heard bout Sir Louis de sportsman, and ah asked what game he played, she smiled and said: “KMT as in Kite, Marble and Top”! Lie-Za too much foh me.

And with that, ah gone again.

One Love Bassy.