Bishop John Shelby Spong’s Takedown of Religious Nonsense

At the American Humanist Association’s conference last month in Chicago, attendees kept telling me that the speech given by Bishop John Shelby Spong was the highlight of the weekend for them. Spong is a retired Episcopal bishop known for his liberal stances and he was receiving the AHA’s Religious Liberty Award.

His acceptance speech is now online and it’s fantastic. It begins at the 7:53 mark below:

There’s a lot of good stuff throughout the talk. Right off the bat, Spong mentions that “In the course of my life, I have had 16 death threats. But never by an atheist.” I also enjoyed the bit at 14:36 about the silly biblical notion that men are superior to women.

But check out the whole thing — the keynote address by Dr. Jared Diamond is also included in the video — and, if any parts stand out, please leave the timestamps/summaries in the comments.