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yoravj uhgiwezfc wosleqtx grzjxhu bcym rcpx aupifgzh

to Canyon;

Patriarchy has had thousands of years to produce "good fruit".... it has failed.If you don't think so...you just plain don't know your history.

Karen

Dear Bishop Spong,

I'll admit early on that I have never given your opinion much merit based solely on the fact that the Episcopal Church is in such disrepair and a theological disaster. However, I thought that maybe this was a result of later times, as I have only been alive the better part of a 1/4 century, and that past leaders were not to blame.

You solidified my opinion when you made a rather odd statement about the author of the letter to Ephesus. If this is not a letter from Paul, then I have been deceived by verse one, which states:

"From: The Apostle Paul
To: Those Sanctified at Ephesus"

That said, I expressed my opinion in a comment to the Reverand Thistlewaite that I don't feel bears repeating, which conveys my opinion on the misunderstanding that Christ places women at anything other than a complimentary role to men.

I found your final comment most interesting, that you don't believe patriarchy will be restored. In recent studies, many churches have seen that children who were taught, "God is your co-pilot", "Jesus loves you no-matter what", and "Accept Jesus", are sick and tired of squishy theology and flock to sound doctrine and Godly teaching. Our children are the start, when the idea that the Bible can save your marriage catches on, I believe we will see a resurgence of patriarchal families in America.

SPONG: "There is no chance that attitudes of Western society will ever turn back toward the religious patriarchy still practiced by the Church."

Yes there is -- the fact that we're being out-bred by other societies.

There's little question that when education and hence the status of women go up, the birth rate goes down. So educated places like Western Europe, Anglo-America and Japan have to bring in populatin from less educated places like the Middle East and Latin America where the birth rate is higher.

Biological evolution favors those most likely to reproduce. Feminism, though not a biological trait, is also passed down through familes. And reduces reproduction.

Excellent essay. I agree that there is no turning back, nor do I see any flexibility in the offing from "Mother Church." If that means that Christianity is to fade into irrelevance, I say hasten the day!

Bob,
There were other Monotheist Gods, this one is just last in a long line.

Bob... I know alot of fools who also are not finding refuge in any god, and some wonderful, intelligent, careing people who, while not hideing within God, do find joy with God within.

And who are you or anyone to call them fools, facists, or cowards?

Hi Mr. Spong . . . could you please explain the patriarchical religion that is 10,000 years old? (You're inferring a lot to make that statement.)

But that's okay.

You're morphing the traditional "conceptualization" of God from a FATHER, to "a something" which you never define; which means, you get to re-define God, and therefore, so do I . . . God is a refuge, an illusion through which fascists, cowards and fools might discover their mutual dependency and call it life.

Thank you . . . for focusing me on that one.