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Kirk underfire for hosting US preacher who questions Biblical teachings

Moderator Dr Angus Morrison (centre), principal clerk George Wright (left) and Reverend Derek Browning at the Kirk's General Assembly in Edinburgh.
Moderator Dr Angus Morrison (centre), principal clerk George Wright (left) and Reverend Derek Browning at the Kirk's General Assembly in Edinburgh.

A minister from the north-east has expressed dismay that a Church of Scotland congregation is hosting a controversial American preacher who denies the resurrection of Christ.

The Rev David Randall, who grew up in Macduff in Aberdeenshire, said he was “shocked” that retired Episcopal Bishop Jack Spong, who also denies the virgin birth and other basic Christian doctrines, had been invited to speak at an event which costs £12 a ticket.

He claimed the Rev Andrew Frater of Cairns Church in Milngavie, which is entertaining the US preacher on Thursday, should be disciplined by his own presbytery for breaching his ordination vows after he said he “no longer feels compelled to take the Bible literally”.

Bishop Spong, 83, of Newark, New Jersey famously wrote a book titled A New Christianity for a New World which set out 12 steps of reform in relation to understanding God.

He said the Biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin was “pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense”.

Bishop Spong wrote that the virgin birth, understood as literal biology, made “Christ’s divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible”.

The clergyman, who retired in 2001, has insisted he was not interested in “Bible bashing”, however.

Writing on his personal website, he said: “I come to this interpretive task not as an enemy of Christianity.

“I am a believer who knows and loves the Bible deeply.

“But I also recognise that parts of it have been used to undergird prejudices and to mask violence.”

Mr Frater, writing in a letter to a newspaper, said he was delighted to welcome Bishop Spong to deliver his lecture, titled Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, as part of a series of lectures called Thinking Allowed.

“Christians in the 21st century no longer feel compelled to take the Bible literally,” added the Kirk minister.

“The factual veracity of biblical doctrines, such as the virgin birth and bodily resurrection, are no longer dependent on the literalists’ assumptions.

“Metaphors matters more in relation to meaning, rather than the overly persistent question that all too often dominates our take on Biblical reflection – how much of this actually happened?

“By looking at the resurrection stories metaphorically one is not denying them, one is enhancing their significance in the present day.”

But Mr Randall, who left the Kirk in 2013 to join the Free Church and now leads a congregation in Falkirk, claimed the minister’s attack on the scriptures was as regrettable as his decision to welcome Bishop Spong.

“For a Church of Scotland minister to treat the Bible so disparagingly is, sadly, no longer surprising, but it is shocking nevertheless,” added Mr Randall, whose father David senior was the minister at Macduff for 39 years until he retired in 2010.

“He blindly ignores the catastrophic effect that views like these have had on the national church, with such rejection of divinely revealed truth as we see in his letter gradually destroying what is left of Knox’s Kirk.

“A Kirk minister who ignores God’s law can hardly be regarded as serving the best interests of his congregation.

“Mr Frater is in clear breach of his ordination vows regarding adherence to scripture and the Westminster Confession of Faith, and if the Presbytery of Dumbarton had any courage and conviction, it would move for disciplinary action against him immediately.”

A Church of Scotland spokesman said: “We always encourages open discussion on the interpretation of scripture.

“We are sure Bishop Jack Spong will cause people to challenge their views in a healthy way.”