Surely when we think of individuals closely tied with the emerging / emergent church, Brian McLaren is at the top of the list. Since we began our conversation, I subscribed to his blog feed. Recently he posted a sort of Q&A on the question of 'Why do evangelicals dislike you?' If you are interested in his take on why evangelicals are critical of him and his description of the people that should be disagreeing with him, check it out HERE.
This are the folks he says should dislike him. He gives fuller descriptions of why on the post.
1. Religious Right Evangelicals
2. Strict 5-point Calvinists
3. Other kinds of fundamentalists
In this post, Brian suggests that those who criticize him should read one of the books he wrote. I agree and so I am going to begin reading the book he suggests we start with, The Secret Message of Jesus. Look for some quotes and reflections to come.
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That's nice. So anyone who still disagrees with him fits into one of those categories. Right-wing, Fundamentalists, etc., now include anyone who believes the Bible has spoken definitively about any of his 10 issues, including but not limited to the gay matter. Effective way to deal with criticism--just paint the critic in a color everyone recognizes as unacceptable and not have to deal with their actual points. Just like the out-and-out secularists have been doing for years. If you want to be liked by those who "matter" this is an effective strategy. Problem is, there's no conversion necessary once we get to speak to them, because it turns out, in his telling, that they didn't really have a problem to begin with.
ReplyDeleteCaustic? Maybe. But I can't get past the idea that historic Christianity has within itself the resources to reframe the message for today's world. It does not have to be re-invented, and everything does not have to change. MacLaren et al want to do the reframing without the burdens of orthodox theology; I want to do it with the full wealth of conviction, to borrow a phrase from Diogenes Allen.
Actually, McLaren doesn't say that these three categories cover the territory. There may be others who dislike his stand who are in categories he has not yet listed. I've read McLaren's Generous Orthodoxy and his A New Kind of Christian. From those books, my main complaint--if any--is what he leaves unsaid rather that what he does say.
ReplyDeleteAs an ex-gay, of course I disagree about the degree to which McLaren is accepting of same-sex sexual behavior. But I have no complaint about the need for showing gays unconditional love. Books by Alan Chambers, Chad Thompson, and Emily Parke Chase say this much better than I could, and better than McLaren does. (Truth in advertising: Emily is my wife.)
Catholic writer E. Michael Jones calls Martin Luther a "degenerate modern" (in Jones' book of that title), yet Luther occasioned a helpful counter-reformation in the Catholic Church. Maybe McLaren's sloppy agápē will instigate a much-needed counter-reformation of the Evangelical Church, a revolution of love.