”Think Different – Accept Uncertainty” Part III: A Call to Re-Image God and All Religious Symbols

Question:

Thank you for reclaiming the Bible!  I have also read your reflections on miracles and healing.  I and many others, especially in the Episcopal Church, are very involved in healing ministry.  I think you say that we are not praying over people for a divine intervention.  I am beginning to think that the positive release of cosmic energy—the Cosmic Christ—is what accounts for any healing which does occur.  Often when people pray over me, I feel a release of heat, energy, etc. coming from the person praying over me.  Can you help me understand healing ministry?

Answer:

Dear Patrick,

I doubt if I can do what you are requesting, especially in the limited space of a question and answer format. There are far too many variables in every human transaction, far too many unpredictable outcomes and far too many ways people seek to explain the unexplainable.

I can only assert that love and caring bring life and wholeness to people.  I do not know how it works, or when it works, or why it works.  I distrust most people who call themselves “healers” as if healing power is channeled through them.  They never can explain when that healing power fails to work as it inevitably does in every case, since death finally claims us all.

Should we stop praying or engaging in what we call healing prayer?  No, to me that is a symbol of our interconnections, our interdependence and the need we have to care for one another.

I am convinced that lives are more closely related than any of us realizes.  I am convinced that mental energy flows from person to person as love and even as healing power, but I am not impressed by those who think that they can define it.  I am convinced that the word “God” stands for that reality in which we all achieve oneness with ourselves, with one another and with that which is ultimately real.  Beyond that, however, I want to make no assertions as to what it is that either brings healing or causes brokenness.

As you surmise in your question, the practice of healing tends to reflect a particular understanding of God as a supernatural, external presence.  That is not a view of God that resonates with me at all.  I regard it rather as an expression of a deep human hope that there is someone or some power able and willing to take care of us.  The reality is, however, that this view of God fails us far more often than it helps us.  That is also why religious people spend far more time defending God from the charges of being unjust or unfair than from anything else.

~John Shelby Spong

Login to be able to comment directly on the website. Join in the discussion!

Interested in staying informed of the latest updates to ProgressiveChristianity.org? Click here to sign up for our free monthly e-Bulletin, which has articles, reviews, books, events, and more.

Look for us on Facebook and LIKE the new Facebook fan page for ProgressiveChristianity.org!

You can also follow Bishop Spong on Twitter.

Thank you for taking this journey with us!

Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support@johnshelbyspong.com or 253-303-0354.