A Partial Response to Jeffrey John by Jay Haug

[...] Jeffrey John is completely right about John Shelby Spong of whom John rightly states that Spong's pro-gay marriage stand emanates from Christian revisionism at best and outright atheism at worst. However, John will have a tough time finding what he wants, a coalition of otherwise orthodox catholic Anglicans who support gay unions/marriages. The reality is that most who are visibly advocating for this end are in league with Spong's radicalism and not Jeffrey John's appeal to orthodoxy apart from the gay issue. However, my guess is that at its core the difference between John and Spong is more a difference of tactics than true theological divergence. Like the IRA and the Islamists, the theological revisionists have an inside game and an outside game, a terrorist wing and a political wing. John is heading up the political wing with an assist from Rowan Williams. Spong is content to build theological explosive devices in his basement hoping that the "cultured despisers of Christianity" will still give him an audience as long as he has breath. Read more