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.'"

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

"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."

"Religion is a mixed blessing."

"It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different."

"The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world."