John Shelby Spong Quotes
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.'
Spong, John Shelby. The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
This would normally not be a very noteworthy quotation as it is typical of political party declarations in democracies throughout the world. What makes this, the exception is that this credo was for a Pakistani political party, where no other political party and very few individuals would dare make such a statement. Altaf Hussain was not only attacked and luckily survived an assassination attempt, but the Pakistani Government called this statement and many others treason against the state where equal rights for non Muslims is prohibited by their interpretation of the Koran. The government policy has even been to support terrorist organizations as a potential force against India and parts of India which Pakistan covets and justifies because the area as a majority of Muslims. But India has about the same number of Muslims as does Pakistan so there are hundreds of such areas. Hussain has been indicted over 100 times and runs the party from exile in London where he has been granted political asylum. What he and his party supports has been completely contrary to the policies of the government of Pakistan and its leaders of all the other political persuasions. Pakistan has been since its inception a perpetrator of religious intolerance, fanaticism, violence and one of the worst violators of human rights in the word.
John Shelby "Jack" Spong is a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author, he calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines.
