Brian McLaren (or B-Mac, as I think we’re calling him now), the author of several books that have been seminal in the emerging church conversation (including A New Kind of Christian, The Last Word and the Word After That, and A Generous Orthodoxy) has been asked by Tony Jones, Director of Emergent to write his story in a three-part blog. You can read the first part here.
B-Mac has become both the unintended spokesperson for emerging theology and the unwitting whipping boy for those who oppose it. Reading about his journey and his thoughts about “many things that are being confidently asserted as objective, absolute, propositional truth about ‘Brian McLaren’ ” is a reminder that he is a fellow wayfarer, and intends to keep it that way. I admire his courage and passion for Jesus, even in the face of vitriole and deliberate misunderstanding. Being a straw man has to suck.
Chad 11:27 am on 10 August 2005 Permalink
I struggle with B-mac… I think I have a boycrush on him, (philosophically speaking, of course…) but I want to be wary against letting myself personally elevate him to a state that he himself would find implausable.
Anywhooo… I agree that his critics are particularly ungenerous, and I wish that I could find a way to rubuke them in a loving, yet hateful way. There’s one in particular that pisses me off, and it’s this guy… http://demergent.blogspot.com/ While I think he’s pretty funny, and we’d most likely enjoy a spirited conversation, I think that in the longrun it illustrates a spite that underlies with the Evangelicals. Ironically, EV Christians going after McLaren remind me of Liberal Pundits going after Conservative Christians (insert name here). It’s a one dimentional, virulent critique; lacking grace, nuance, or insight.
Kind of like my post…
Chad 11:29 am on 10 August 2005 Permalink
Dude! I am awaiting moderation?!? You frickin’ commie! What’s this all about?!?!? I am my own moderator!!!
The B_gnomes are drunk.
Morphea 11:52 am on 10 August 2005 Permalink
Did you have links in your comment? Michael said that’s why he made me wait a couple of time. You don’t want Addison Rd. to be spammed, now do you?
Michael Lee, our protector. Now if only Yahoo Chat would follow his example.
Cerise
michael lee 12:34 pm on 10 August 2005 Permalink
ok, two things. first of all, any comment with a link in it gets held for moderation. I delete about 5 spam comments per day that are nothing but links to casino and adult sites. This way, they get deleted before you all have to endure them.
Second thing is this – you guys are all registered users, and your level is high enough that you can log in and approve your own comments.
Also, I am not a commie. I am a fervent and millitant free market capitalist. The only thing I like about communism are the hats.
Morphea 12:41 pm on 10 August 2005 Permalink
OK, three things:
1. I worded the “made me wait thing poorly” – so sorry. Comrade. [snicker]
2. I protest the wholesale killing of links to useful and informative adult sites.
3. I didn’t know about logging in and messing with my own posts. Can I correct typos?
4. I don’t have a fourth thing but wanted to have a much longer list than Michael.
That is all – Cerise
chad 1:19 pm on 10 August 2005 Permalink
Allright… fine…
Actually I don’t think I am registered yet… I’m waay more emergent and non conformist then any of you.
Morphea 3:17 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
[back on subject] OK, so I read all three installments and…drat. Pooey. I was hoping I could read the blog and get a nice taste of the real Brian McLaren and then move on from a subject, that while intriguing, has little bearing on what I see in my spiritual future (I can hear god laughing – can you?). I never did read his three books, Aly, sorry. But now I’m hooked. This is all too interesting to ignore, which is what has elicited some soft-swearing from yours truly. Despite my habitual distate for the idea of evangelism (I feel like the spirit is leading me to NOT get into this at this time), McLaren’s ideas about Christianity will provide me with much (grudging) reading for many days to come. This is actually a good thing, since I’m trying to read Lecomte du Nouy’s “Destiny of Man” and am not making much headway at all.
Cerise
Morphea 3:20 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
And will somebody for the love of god PLEASE tell me what the dickens “authentic community” really means to emergent folks? Geez – talk about your buzzwords. It sounds nice but makes my head go all over white noise when I read/hear it.
Cerise
michael lee 3:53 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
authentic community means people in their 20s who listen to indie rock while comparing body art. in-authentic community means people in their 40s who listen to Clay Aiken while comparing their kids’ finger-paintings. Or something there-abouts.
Morphea 4:07 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
[lauging] I deserved that. Thanks, Michael. Oooh, that Clay Aiken dig was just too naughty for words. Don’t you know he’s a brother in Christ? I was going to apologize for being flippant but now I fee like I’m in the best company for it. Love ya, brother.
Cerise
aly hawkins 4:17 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
You’re right, “authentic community” has turned into a ridiculous buzzword – but then again, EVERYTHING gets turned into a buzzword, nowadays. (Less Travelled had an interesting couple of posts about this the last few weeks – “the idolatrous virtue of authenticity” and “love and authentic engagement.” I don’t have time to grab the links, sorry!)
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I think what is meant by it is abandoning the hyper-individuation that the Enlightenment and Neitzche and the Marlboro Man have given us, that characterizes so much of our cultural and religious experience, that demands that we stand back from each other and declare we’ve got our shee-yat together…and instead grabbing hold of the idea that faith is best done in relationship, in fact, was designed to be done in relationship.
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Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed has a blog entry about this today – “Generous (evanglelical) Orthodoxy: Community” – that I highly recommend. He explains things way better than me.
Morphea 4:18 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
HANG ON. I’m not even IN my 20s any more! Any room in Michael’s heart for 30-somethings whose favorite thing to do is sip wine and talktalktalk about things of an evening? I have body art…
Cerise
Morphea 4:24 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
Ooooh, Aly, I like that. [joyous squirm] Relationship. Re-LAAAAAA-tionship. I love to hear that, since I’d BATHE in relatioship if my tub were bigger. YES! Extroverts everywhere will be flocking to the EC just because we won’t have to pretend we’d rather be alone and independent. Come on, everybody, group hug!!
I’ve had way too much coffee today.
Cerise
michael lee 6:32 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
Cerise, there is always room in my heart. You are, it is becoming abundantly clear, my sort of people.
aly hawkins 6:44 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
That, and Michael’s not far behind you on not being 20-something anymore. And he’s VERY able when it comes to sipping [read: quaffing] win and talktalktalking of an evening.
aly hawkins 6:45 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
And by “win” I meant “wine.”
Bobby 7:32 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
Hey, did anyone see the PBS video linked from the site Aly mentioned?… He had a lot of good things to say, I thought, but
there was one thing that kind of freaked me out. It’s at about 6:30 on part 2 of the PBS video. Specifically:
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“That doesn’t mean we throw out the Bible; but we’ve got to learn ways to engage with the wisdom of the Bible that help us be more ethical, and not less.”
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Here’s how I would translate that – “People are wrong to interpret the Bible their way, taking pieces here and there that they want. What they really should do is interpret it my way. and take the pieces here and there that I want.” Is that putting too fine a point on it? I’d love some interpretation on B-Mac’s interpretation.
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Here’s the URL, I don’t really know how to add them to the post. I’m new to this whole computer thing. Oh wait…
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http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week846/cover.html
Morphea 11:26 pm on 11 August 2005 Permalink
Michael’s sort of people.
Yay.
Yay yay yay.
DRINKS ALL AROUND!!! [pant, pant, pant]
Cerise
aly hawkins 12:49 pm on 12 August 2005 Permalink
Bobby, I am admittedly a fan of McLaren, so this is far from unbiased analysis – but here goes anyway.
I think there are two things at work here: 1) Sound Bite Syndrome. This is TV, and the editor is king. If you read some of McLaren’s writing (A Generous Orthodoxy is a good place to start) about his view of the Bible and biblical intepretation, I think you’ll find he’s pretty far from the “everybody should do it my way” camp. 2) I think he’s talking here about the idea that if the overarching message of the Bible is actually the message of Jesus – the Kingdom of God is at hand – then it stands to reason that any interpretation we make of it should not contradict the vision Jesus painted of that Kingdom. (I would also argue that many interpretations popular in our time have a tendency to contradict the vision, and those should be re-examined.)
Hope this helps…