Response to the Last Video


Brian Mclaren - The Anti-Doctrine Doctrinizer.... or New Reformer?

I appreciated Derek and Craig's comments on the previous video. Like Craig, I also watched these videos several times, and this particular one the most. This is the first time I have heard Ravi Zacharias speak on the Emergent church and Brian McLaren in particular.

It was interesting for me, because Ravi is a family friend. When I first heard Ravi speak I was 12 or 13, and for the first time I felt that I too could go into Christian ministry, because there was an Indian (like me!) preaching and speaking. It was so empowering. And also, I have met Brian McLaren, although just briefly, like a hand-shake at First Baptist Church.

The discussion and the attitudes displayed by the three men are exactly what many in the emergent church are reacting against - a sort of smug confidence that we evangelicals have cornered truth.

Personally, I believe the Kingdom of God is pretty wide. Wide enough to include the post-modern tinkering of Brian Mclaren and the rationalist (modern) apologetics of Ravi Zacharias.

There is some truth to what these men are saying. Leaders in the emergent church such as Padgitt and McLaren are consistently evasive when it comes to thorny issues such as the reality of hell and homosexuality.

I think these Emergent leaders are reacting against past hard lines on these issues that have alienated seekers. But in their attempts to be sensitive, they swing too far in the other direction.

What bothered me most about this video was the complete lack of humility on the part of the conservatives to understand and learn from these people they disagree from. Ravi asks where does this movement come from. But, does not dig deeper to investigate the socio-cultural phenomena in which the movement was birthed out of.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I liked your thoughts on this Santosh. I agree with you regarding the Kingdom being large enough for the contributions of Mclaren and Emergent. I thought Ravi's shot at McLaren's 'The Secret Message of Jesus' to be in the same vein of Carson's 'Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church'. Academics sitting back and posturing while not actually interacting with the sources. McLaren's book wasn't about discovering THE secret. It was a play on words and sarcasm as Mclaren then demonstrates that this 'secret' really isn't a secret it's the kingdom of God. McLaren never announces that he's found something new.
10:52 AM
Santosh said…
Anonymous - who are you?
7:47 PM
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