It saddens me to see someone like Brian McLaren given such an opportunity to influence youth pastors and students by a prominent evangelical church like Willow Creek. THIS looks like an indication of his message to them. However well-intentioned he may be, his message is a subtle capitulation to postmodernism.
I want students to resist the ideas of culture, not be captured by them. So if you're a parent, youth worker, or Christian educator in Southern California, let me invite you to this event, sponsored by Wheatstone Academy. Greg will give an analysis of culture and I'll be laying out ten practical ideas to help "raise up a new generation of culturally-savvy Christians." I hope you can join us.
>>“Everything Must Change
Oh no!
I hope he doesn’t start with the Bible.
Posted by: Kevin W | October 25, 2007 at 01:31 PM
If everything must change, is Brain McLaren going to start watching Fox News and quit recycling or am I the only one who has to change here?
What a load of liberal vomit. He doesn't know it but this fat, balding idiot is only just now picking up on social issues brought about in the 60s. That's right, Brian McLaren's big new church move is culturally 30 years behind the world. It used to be the Fundamentalists with the nerdy bee-hive hairdos way past their prime, now it's the doughy, gooey, unshaved baby boomers.
You could re-edit his exact video and talk about how there is a movement of young Christians who want to change from culture and stop listening to liberal CNN and get their cues from weepy, hippy-worship songs and emergent power-point displays that look like they were designed by a tattoo artist in Flash.
Idiot.
Posted by: doug t | October 25, 2007 at 03:01 PM
"More and more Christians are dissatisfied...."
"More and more Evangelicals are dissatisfied...."
"More and more Roman Catholics are tired...."
It seems McLaren and his followers "can't get no satisfaction," which further supports Doug's 60's thesis. Perhaps he could fast forward about ten years and start "talkin' 'bout the China Grove" or something.
Posted by: Timbo | October 25, 2007 at 04:12 PM
Thanks for posting this Melinda. I sat through the video with my mouth hanging open in utter amazement that this pastor presented the profundity of the sanctity of life by disguising it (calling it a"single issue") and then dismissing it by characterizing those who hold this view in an uncharitable way.
The view that human beings are made in the image of God and ought to be protected by our laws and the wider community is not a "single issue." It is the principle that is the point of justice itself: to love our neighbors as ourselves; to exercise charity; to help the vulnerable and the weak.
The focus of McLaren's comment is the viewer--the Youtube voyeur--who ought not to hear from McLaren, or from another other clergy for that matter, that one's internal dissatisfaction is the way we measure the adequacy of our understanding of theology and the world. Suppose, for example, that someone, after watching this video concludes, "I'm not satisfied with McLaren's presentation. Thus, on the very grounds that he suggests we assess others, I will now assess him."
This posture harms the soul. It nurtures in Christians the very adolescent understanding of the self that is the problem.
Posted by: Francis Beckwith | October 25, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Is it just me or does Brian McLaren seem to use ‘Christianity’ to advance, what he may believe, is ‘an even greater Cause?’
I may be over-the-top here.
Francis; I wonder if McLaren would call ‘human rights’ of a different flavor a single issue as well?
Posted by: Kevin W | October 26, 2007 at 06:10 AM
If everything must change, then must the rule that everything must change change as well?
Posted by: Nick | October 26, 2007 at 06:26 AM
The thing that disturbs me the most (and that is saying a lot) is the last line. He wants teach us what it means to be a true Christian. This, to me, is the truly dangerous germ. If he is revealing true Christianity, then it would imply that those Christians who do not adhere to his definition are not truly Christian. This appears to be the root of extreme intolerance wrapped in the ultimate message of tolerance. I am simultaneously exasperated at his silliness and a bit disturbed.
Posted by: Jay Watts | October 26, 2007 at 06:59 AM
The wolves are sneeking into the Church. All he is talking about is a "works-righteousness" Christianity which isn't Chritianity at all. People are getting dissatisfied because of the crap this guy is talking about. People need to hear the gospel every week-------we are saved by Grace alone, thru Faith alone, by CHRIST alone. We don't need some new "liberation (Marxist) theology junk.
Posted by: Les | October 26, 2007 at 07:37 AM
Jay said,
"This appears to be the root of extreme intolerance wrapped in the ultimate message of tolerance. I am simultaneously exasperated at his silliness and a bit disturbed."
That's exactly how I felt. It's like McLaren dismisses millions of Christians who don't feel the need to ape culture. It ends up being the most judgmental, condescending statement against many happy, fulfilled, vibrant Christians I know.
I didn't at first catch that point that Beckwith made, that this foundational concept of life is dismissed as a "single issue" as if it's on par with school vouchers or taxing cigarettes.
I feel bad for the youth who feel culturally isolated from the last generation of Chirstians only to get tied up in this trivial placebo.
Posted by: doug t | October 26, 2007 at 07:47 AM
If everything must change, then I hope this changes first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSm0VyHGH40
Posted by: Timbo | October 26, 2007 at 08:54 AM
Catchy toon and there was a mention of redemption, but let's not worry about judging all of those evil consevative Christians and those waskawee weepublicans let's concentrate for a minute on the centrality of the gospel and the theme of the entire Bible. We are ALL sinners and we need to be redeemed.
If more of the Church's taught a BALANCE of law and gospel we wouldn't have to worry about taking care of the poor or feeding the hungry because we would all do these things out of gratitude for our free gift of salvation thru Christ.
Posted by: Les | October 26, 2007 at 02:57 PM
I like McLaren's solution better. If we ignore the "single issue" and kill all of the babies we won't have to feed and take care of them.
I'm curious where the BALANCE of the law is in McLaren's work. I mean besides the way he puritanically judges Christian tradition.
Posted by: doug t | October 26, 2007 at 05:40 PM