Spongs my Mother Never Taught me

The Auckland Central Group turned their March meeting into a task force to take John Spong's 12 Theses and recast them. This is the result:

• Theistic talk is outmoded. If we are to talk of God at all, a new way of talking is needed. Instead of God we could talk of: The Creative Force; the state of Being; the prime spark in every human; unconditional love; ultimate reality.
• Since God cannot be conceived in theistic terms, it seems sensible to see Jesus, not as the incarnation of a theistic deity, but rather as a purely human exemplar for behaviours and attitudes which we can find valuable for today. In addition, we have found this example to have provided a powerful basis for spiritual development and in thinking and "feeling" towards a new concept of God.
• Creation is now (since Darwin and modern science) seen to be an evolutionary creative process rather than as an historical event unfolding deterministically. Was the pre-"fall" world really perfect? Perhaps sin is a wilful disobedience of God's laws, or actions and thoughts done in ignorance of our unity, a state of our development (as thought in some eastern philosophies).
• The special qualities of Jesus are independent of the circumstances of his birth.
• In our evolving world, the miracle stories of the New Testament need to be re-interpreted, perhaps as statements about the effect that Jesus had on his followers: they are metaphors expressing the strong impression that he made on the people around him.
• either (a) The Cross shows that Jesus was prepared to do whatever his way-of-life entailed; and it reminds us that following his way commits us to profound risks. or (b) The Cross is meaningless. The view of the Cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbaric idea.
• Belief in the physical Resurrection is no longer a valid option. The essence of what Jesus stood for is still valid for humanity to live successfully as social beings. Easter is a renewing of our awareness as social beings of our rights and responsibilities towards one another and the wider biosphere. Easter becomes a symbol of turning away from our old ways to a new way of being.
• The mind-set of the times found value in the story of the Ascension but we suspect that there is possible value in seeing it only as symbolic rather than as an event which literally occurred.
• What is right and wrong is evolving with time and cultures. Until Jesus, religious law was to control sin and people. Perhaps Jesus was a human who realised his full potential (divinity) and operated from love rather than controlled self-interest. In doing so he became an example of what we all are potentially. Perhaps to realise our full potential (divinity) requires a shift that is significantly different to the traditional idea of salvation through belief, and instead what is required is an evolutionary working toward full realisation of our potential.