A message from:

John Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks
the Meaning of Scripture, Harper, 1991, pp. 215,234

"Am I suggesting that these stories of the virgin birth are not
literally true? The answer is a simple and direct 'Yes.' Of course
these narratives are not literally true. Stars do not wander, angels
do not sing, virgins do not give birth, magi do not travel to a
distant land to present gifts to a baby, and shepherds do not go in
search of a newborn savior. ... To talk of a Father God who has a
divine-human son by a virgin woman is a mythology that our generation
would never have created, and obviously, could not use. To speak of a
Father God so enraged by human evil that he requires propitiation for
our sins that we cannot pay and thus demands the death of the
divine-human son as a guilt offering is a ludicrous idea to our
century. The sacrificial concept that focuses on the saving blood of
Jesus that somehow washes me clean, so popular in Evangelical and
Fundamentalist circles, is by and large repugnant to us today"

(John Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks
the Meaning of Scripture, Harper, 1991, pp. 215,234)