Collie's Bestiary

Originally posted December 2005 Credits: for my book club, who once again chose something fascinating I wouldn't ordinarily have picked up. Synopsis

The inadequacy of institutionalized religious responses to the jarring reality of real life issues is part of Spong's self-questioning. He finds hope as well as pain, however, in his search, expressing the excitement of thoughtful study and discussion with like-minded others in an effort to find a Christianity of integrity, love, and equality. It's clear [...]

In a similarly challenging situation several years later, Spong has people come to his house, purporting to be friends who represent his entire congregation. They suggest strongly that he, as a white man, should vote according to the racist status quo, and inform him his future in the town and as a priest is at [...]

Originally posted October 2005 Credits: for Peter McWilliams, author of the fascinating Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country and a victim of the so-called "War Against Drugs," who first let me know of Spong's wonderful writing.

There is no doubt in the writing of the author of John as to whether Jesus loved that disciple. Is this a physical as well as spiritual love? There is nothing in John to either verify or deny this speculation. However, in the Gnostic scriptures, also known as the Dead Sea scrolls, there is some [...]

Where I postulate freely that Mary Magdalene was both the disciple Jesus loved, and possibly the true author of the gospel of John. This is a paper from a truly exciting class on History and Literature of the New Testament, taught in 1993 by the amazing prof's Buck and Luotto — thank you both so [...]

4. Marriage should be just for child-rearing My first thought at assertions like this is: "Why?" Kids don't care if there's a piece of paper holding their family together — and that piece of paper has proven notoriously incapable of doing so anyway. However, let's work through this theory rationally. If marriage is just for [...]

D) What is civilization supported by? The common thread running through all the societies we've looked at so far is quite clear on this. For them, the so-called "cornerstone of civilization" is emphatically not one man-one woman marriage. What is the fundamental assumption of civilization, the underlying principle holding it all together for these societies? [...]

Originality in the early US So, on to the United States of America, where we finally get to hear more from women, although they're still mostly all White and upper class. When John Adams was helping to draw up the Constitution of the US in 1777, his wife Abigail wrote, Do not put such unlimited [...]

Christianity's copy So where to next in this quick historical scan of cultural attitudes towards marriage? We turn now to Christianity. For once, women are not treated as disposable breeders; Jesus plainly states a man divorcing his wife is not acceptable. Nothing about marriage as a cornerstone of civilization, of course — just an admonition [...]