Why mainline denominations are dying

Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong is being interviewed on the Michael Medved show this afternoon. I'm sitting here listening to him discuss his most recent book and am left shaking my head.

These biblical texts, according to Spong, are not the incontrovertible Word of God, but flawed human responses to perceived threats. An incendiary example of this is Spong's assertion that Paul was a closeted gay man whose anti-gay statements were motivated by little more than his own self-loathing. Spong does not stop there; in the course of the book he suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married; that none of the supernatural events described in the Bible took place (including the resurrection); and that theism itself is a misunderstanding of God.

As an aside, this very hour Bishop Spong referred to some sort of "other Resurrection-event" as opposed to the traditional resurrection story that hasn't changed in the course of 2000 years. I wish Michael or a caller would press him to describe what exactly he is referring too.

As to my main point, churches with leadership like this can't help but shrink. Meanwhile, the pastorates where men are standing in the pulpit and preaching truth as delineated in the Word are growing like weeds.

2 Timothy 4:3:

3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.