Father Brown came to St Francis after graduating from Virginia Seminary in 2003. Before entering ministry, he served 25 years in the United States Marine Corps and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. His current position is Associate for Pastoral Care and Adult Christian Education. Father Brown also serves as chaplain to the local fire department, is a counselor on the Kentucky Community Crisis Response Team, and is the Diocese of Kentucky Representative for Disaster Response to the national church. St Francis in the Fields is a traditional church of about 2000 parishioners in Harrods Creek, a bedroom community of the greater Louisville Metropolitan area in the diocese of Kentucky.

In an interview Father Brown gave to AAC Kentucky, he said that he was surprised to receive a phone call from a friend congratulating him on his recent notoriety by being depicted in Bishop Spong's latest book, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love.

"I thought he was kidding until he sent me the excerpt he'd been given by the editor of our diocesan newspaper. When I read it, I was stunned. Bishop Spong maligned a community of faith he has never visited and accused me, someone with whom he's never even spoken, of violating the freedom of speech of my parishioners. He referred to my priestly oath to uphold the doctrine of the church espoused in the creeds as "breathtaking in its naiveté", and characterized me as quote: "the holy man from the office of the heavenly sheriff."

What was all the fuss about? A reading group had been operating in the church, under the auspices of the education program, using its spaces and taking advantage of church discounts to purchase books. They prided themselves on reading edgier material. They had dwindled to about only 7 active members by the time Father Brown was called to St Francis. In conversation with different members of the group, it became apparent to Father Brown that the steady diet of what they were reading was not building up the faith of the church.

"One member indicated she could not accept the divinity of Christ. When I asked her why, she said that she had read too much. When I approached the group's leader with my concerns about her response and wanted to know what they had been reading– he became immediately defensive. Crazy me, I thought adult Christian education should actually promote the creedal faith, rather than weaken it, so I felt it was important to introduce some authors to that curriculum who could argue favorably for the creedal faith. I addressed the group at one of their meetings and told them they could not continue without interjecting some balance in the curriculum. I put my concerns and suggestions for alternative readings in writing."

What were the results of that action?

"They chose not to accept my offer and left the church. That was over a year and a half ago. While there have been some mean spirited activities by people in the diocese against me, to include clergy from other churches - the name calling had largely died down until Spong's book came out. I guess sharing my letter with Bishop Spong was their 'nuclear option'."

How did Spong misrepresent the letter?

"It's really funny when you think about it. I asked the group in my letter to embrace some balance - and he accuses me of departing from "via media". I provided the group a list of some quality and respected writers and he dismissed them all as being Christian propagandists who are boring, unscholarly and unoriginal. By unoriginal, maybe Spong means they don't make things up."

The list of authors in Father Brown's letter included N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, a participating member of the Eames Commission that produced the Windsor Report; Raymond E. Brown, author of the Anchor Bible Series 2 volume work, The Gospel According to John ; Lesslie Newbigin, respected missiologist and former Bishop of South India whose compelling work Foolishness to the Greeks, is a must read in the current cultural climate; and JND Kelly, who wrote the classic histories, Early Christian Doctrines and Early Christian Creeds.

"I was really intrigued", Brown said, "that Bishop Spong speaks so dismissively of such respected authors - but carefully leaves their names out of his piece because it would weaken his argument. In much the same way he was eager to take shots at my actions, referring to my letter, but was careful to do so without sharing any of its content or context. It's typical of the revisionism he is known for."

"It's also somewhat ironic" Brown added, "that Bishop Spong chides me for being lax about guarding the freedom of speech, when I spent 25 years in the uniform of this country defending the Bishop's right to be wrong."

What action will you take?

"You shouldn't be able to misrepresent people's actions and call them names in print with impunity. I've been told that there is a pretty good case for libel here, but I'm a parish priest. I don't have the resources or the time to devote to that kind of thing. It would only become a bigger distraction to the parish - and ultimately sell more of his books which is the last thing I want to do. For now, I am satisfied to let my Rector [The Rev. Robin Jennings] ask my Bishop, [The Rt. Rev. Edwin Gulick] to intervene."

END