I'll let Bishop Spong answer your question. Here is a quote from his book "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism":

The Word of God in Scripture confronts me with the revelation that all human beings are created in God’s image and reflect God’s holiness. All human beings means all human beings … all human beings. Men and women, homosexual persons and heterosexual persons, all races, nationalities, and persons of any ethnic background, all communists and capitalists, rich and poor, old and young, religious and nonreligious, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus, atheists and agnostics – all persons reflect the holiness of God, for all are made in God’s image. How can I enslave, segregate, denigrate, oppress, violate, or victimize one who bears the image of the Holy One? How can one worship the source of being, the great “I AM”, except by having the courage to be the self God created each of us to be? The Christian is the one called so deeply into life, into love, and into being that he or she can say with a Christlike integrity, I AM!