Of dukes and spongs

Speculation persists that Mark Viduka, the Soccerroos captain, will retire from international service soon, ostensibly to focus on the task of settling in at his new club, Newcastle United. A shame if it happens. The Duke has another World Cup in him at least and I think his leadership and experience up front could be a critical factor in the Asian playoffs. And of course, we now know, if we didn't before, that Asia is a tough competition and qualification will not be a doddle.

And whilst on the subject of religion (football = religion ??? nani?- ed.) Bishop John Spong is in town. Spong is a modernist who wants to drag the ancient church into the modern age. I rather like the erudite and charming Bishop, but I find it difficult to reconcile his membership of a Christian Church (Episopalean) with his professed beliefs, which might reasonably be summed up by the 12 thesis he posted about a decade ago on the internet. Amongst other things, the modern-day Martin Luther has argued for a new church in which, amongst other things, theism is dead (I take it to mean that there is no God), Jesus was not the product of a virgin birth, did not perform any miracles and did not rise from the dead or ascend to heaven. Nor did he die for anyone's sins, this being an entirely barbaric concept. Prayer is of no value (since no-one is listening, presumably), moral values derived from old textual sources are a nonsense,,,,I think you get my drift.

Of course, Spong is not alone in holding such views. Liberal theologians of the last century often speculated on whether there was indeed a God and so forth, but it strikes me as Pythonesque for a man to dress and act like a Bishop and yet talk so mild-manneredly and so obviously like an atheist.

Alas, I fear that you can't take the metaphysics out of religion. Once you lose the mystery, you also lose the wonder. The mystical is the most interesting part for my money. Don't throw the baby our with the bathwater, Bishop. Leave people their hope, even if you think it is grounded on the delusions of our ancestors. Because, you never know, it might not be.