All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.
John Shelby Spong

I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. He sees himself against nature. He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile.
John Shelby Spong

I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies.
John Shelby Spong

I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God.
John Shelby Spong

If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system.
John Shelby Spong

Mother Nature is not sweet.
John Shelby Spong

Terrorism is a real despair. These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they can take down some of their enemies.
John Shelby Spong

Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good.
John Shelby Spong

You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.
John Shelby Spong

You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of "getting along."
John Shelby Spong