Retired Bishop to Write on Sexuality
A retired Episcopal bishop has found a new career--as a cybersex writer.
John Shelby Spong, who led the Diocese of Newark, N.J., for 21 years, said Tuesday he will be writing a monthly column on a Web site being set up by a former Penthouse editor.
“I’m a little bit concerned that some people are treating this as some sort of salacious thing,” the 69-year-old Spong said by telephone from Harvard, where he is teaching at the Divinity School this spring. “It’s an attempt to discuss sexuality in a serious way.”
Spong said his first column for ThePosition.com will ask whether the Ten Commandments are biased against women.
“It talks about religion and sexuality throughout the ages and points out that in some ancient traditions there were temple prostitutes,” he said. “Basically, I will be looking at wherever issues of sexuality touch the world of religion.”
Spong, who retired in January, is no newcomer to controversy. Despite the church’s stated policy, he supported ordaining noncelibate homosexuals.
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