A Dangerious Conversation

I came across this article today in the Charlotte Observer. I wasted way to much time reading it, and it just left me irritated. I generally like to read things that make me happy – like Get Fuzzy or Calvin and Hobbs. You can find the article HERE. It is a Q & A with Brian McLaren, the daddy of the Emerging Church Conversation. McLaren is 51 and the founder of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Md. He grew up as Plymouth Brethren, was educated at the University of Maryland and taught English. The article entitled “A Battle Cry for Christian Reform” is a tedious read of 34 questions on a wide variety of subject both religious and secular. I’m not motivated to trash McLaren personally, but heresy must be illuminated before it will be rejected. The entire article smells of post-millennial social gospel. Here are a few quotes for your own evaluation:

Question 1: You say that many Christians should start by replacing the idea of getting themselves and others "saved" so they can go to heaven -- the evacuation plan, I think you call with -- with this idea of getting out there, in the here and now, and healing the hurts of the world. So when Jesus said, "As the father sent me, so I sent you," he was talking not really about conversions but about tackling the world's crises -- Is that right?

Answer: "Actually, I would put the two together. If we keep recruiting people to evacuate the earth, then every person who gets saved is, in some ways, taken out of the action. It's like going to the bench of people who want to play in a football game and trying to recruit them to leave the (stadium) altogether.

A better image would be: What Jesus is asking us to do is go into the stands and recruit some people to come on the field and join us to play. The recruiting of new disciples is really connected to wanting to make a difference in the world."

Question 2: But some Christians may see the title of your book [Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope] and worry that you're saying that what also needs changing is some basic doctrine. For example: Jesus' divinity. Is that negotiable?

Answer: "I affirm in the book that I am completely orthodox in all of my beliefs about Christ. I affirm all the ancient creeds.

But here's where we have to face some deeper issues. The creeds teach us to affirm the deity of Christ. But then we have to say: What does it mean to live out the belief that Jesus was really the word of God incarnate? If we really believe that, then we'll take very seriously what he said about how we treat our enemies. Instead, we often affirm the doctrine in our words -- we can say "Lord, Lord" -- but then we don't actually do what he said.

The change I'm interested in is helping us flesh out what it means to affirm the ancient creeds and historic faith."

Question 3: What's your view of homosexuality and abortion?

Answer: "The first thing I'd want to say is that I don't think they're the two most significant moral issues in the world.

I believe in the sanctity of life, but I believe that our efforts should be toward reducing the need and desire for abortion on the front end by way of persuasion and education rather than putting our efforts on the side of legislation.

Regarding homosexuality: I think that the entire issue is badly framed and that the entire argument has become so combative and spoiled by a cultural wars mentality.

So what I'm advocating is for us, first, to acknowledge that good Christians disagree. Some of us are open and accepting toward gay people. Some of us are accepting of gay people, but we don't affirm their homosexual behavior. Some of us are neither open nor accepting. So, what we need to do is say that there is diversity and that good Christians disagree. And then we need to have some charitable and intelligent dialogue rather than the name-calling and polarizing discourse we've had in recent years."

Question 4: At your church in Maryland, you have Communion more often than at many Protestant churches. And you stressed meditation. And in your next book, I'm told, you're going to examine the importance of the inner life. Should Christians, then, look beyond their own denominational traditions sometimes?

Answer: "Just within the Christian faith, there are so many rich resources.

For example, there's the contemplative tradition within the Roman Catholic Church. There's a deep contemplative tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

There is the tradition of social activism in mainline Protestantism. There's the tradition of deep Bible study among evangelicals. These are great treasures.

One of the exciting things going on right now is people are kind of going to the back fence and exchanging treasures across the fence."

If I could take a few words to respond:

Concerning question one, if we are to be completely in tune with the way Jesus lived, why doesn’t McLaren use the language Jesus used? Didn’t Jesus say in John 3:17, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Adding in John 5:34, “I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.” Again in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

Concerning question two, when McLaren speaks of “ancient creeds and historical faith” he takes a doctrinal step away from the Bible. The question we should ask is not, “what does it mean to live out the belief that Jesus was really the word of God incarnate?” because this moves us away from directly interpreting the Bible to speculating over how we should live in accord to how we think Jesus lived. This would be perfectly acceptable to someone who has chosen to interpret the Bible through a postmodern lens, rather than evaluating a postmodern world through the Bible. It may be more simplistic, but better, to ask, what does the Bible say? And then obey it.

Concerning question three, Is it just me or does McLaren sound very postmodern?

Concerning question four, the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church do not teach a pure, biblical doctrine of salvation. There are no fences between heaven and hell where we can exchange ideas as if we were sharing freshly baked warm pumpkin pies with our neighbors.

There…I’ve said it and I feel much better.