Brian McLaren, an emerging church figure and Evangelical Left activist, made a special appearance in the metro-DC area last Saturday to promote his new book entitled, Why did Moses, Jesus, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road, Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World. McLaren was Immanuel Presbyterian church’s featured speaker at their Theologian-in-Training lecture, which was open to the public and drew in approximately 60 attendees. Considering the size the sanctuary, this was a respectable showing. Yet, there was something so profoundly missing from the audience, that the McLaren camp would not want you to know about it. That is, in the sea of grey-haired audience members, the young hipsters who are supposedly “fed up with traditional Christianity” were nowhere to be found.
To hear the Evangelical Left talk, they have got a monopoly on young adults because of their “tolerant” embrace on homosexuality, focus on expanding the welfare and entitlement state, and rejection of traditional Christendom. But if one simply takes a look at the growth of evangelical churches who balance trendy and traditional, then we can start to unmask this man-made stereotype.
“Sometimes to be faithful to our descendants, we have to be unfaithful to our ancestors,” was the answer McLaren offered to CeCe, the only other 20-something in the room at the Presbyterian seminar, who questioned what the history Christians are presently creating will look like. “Sin is a failure to grow. God wants us to keep growing,” declared McLaren.
McLaren rounded out his discussion of the Christian identity in a multi-faith and post-religious world by explaining that the reason for the strife between the world’s major religions is that there exists the misconception that “our religious differences keep us apart. Our problems are not the problem, but rather a haunting religious similarity…” For Christians to take the first step towards unity, McLaren explained, we must first recognize and apologize for the fact that “in Christian history, hostility became theologically justified” as the likes of Christopher “Columbus was slaughtering, terrorizing, killing, colonizing, assimilating, invading and occupying” American natives.
The day before McLaren’s lecture, Mark Driscoll, founding Pastor of Mars Hill Church, took a different approach to history in his Fox News op-ed entitled, “What Do 55 Million People Have in Common?”
In his article, Driscoll unapologetically denounced the last forty years of legalized abortion by stating, “Both science and Scripture are absolutely clear that life begin at conception. Taking a human life is murder, by definition, which makes abortion a murderous act.” Driscoll goes one step further than many pastors and proclaimed that abortion is not only murder, but it is one of America’s greatest sins. However, the nation continues to live in denial of its transgressions. “This is a matter of justice – for the one million babies slaughtered every year as we play God and determine who lives and who dies.”
Now, it must be noted that Driscoll once belonged to McLaren’s Emerging Church scene, but chose to leave the fold, stating:
I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God’s sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.
Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington was noted as America’s 3rd fastest-growing church with over 6,000 members in attendance. Filled with hip 20 and 30-somethings and rock-concert-like atmosphere, Driscoll does not shy away from the tough topics that might perceive him as too “political,” “fanatical,” or “right-wing.” Abortion, homosexuality, the role of women in the church, pornography’s harmful effects – nothing is left off the table when it comes to Driscoll’s sermons. Still, Dricoll’s congregation keeps on growing and his sermons are consistently among the top iTunes downloads.
Apparently, young evangelicals are not wholly turned off from the innate sovereignty of Scripture. This is the belief of the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Evangelical Program. We know that young evangelicals desperately want acceptance and purpose in a broken world and, because of that, they do buy into the “tolerant” liberal ideology instead of adhering to God’s commandments. They accommodate abortion and homosexuality for fear of alienating themselves from popular society. Or they confuse God’s Kingdom with unlimited Big Government. But we know that for evangelicalism to thrive, the next generation must be taught how to stand, unwavering, for Jesus Christ and all of God’s commandments. This simple fact is clearly evidence by Driscoll and Mars Hill’s success in reaching the next generation.
Perhaps McLaren could learn a lesson or two from Driscoll. It is possible that you do not have to distort Scripture and deny absolute Truths to appeal to young evangelicals. Perhaps, just perhaps, the unapologetic message of Jesus Christ is enough.
Comment by Roger Wolsey on October 22, 2013 at 1:22 pm
Interesting points. Worthy of discussion to be sure. Similarly, here’s something Driscoll can learn from progressives. “Why Mark Driscoll Needs an Elephant”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2012/01/why-mark-driscoll-needs-an-elephant/
Comment by Nick on October 22, 2013 at 2:01 pm
As one who has undertaken the burden of gaining a theological degree after receiving a degree in society and religion, I feel your remarks are far more slanted that you, yourself, as a writer admit. The generally aggressive and frustrated tone, use of quotations to highlight words that carry political overtones, and the point that only McLaren can have something to learn do far less justice to reasoning and more for the abject spin that many conservative blogs in the religious sphere host. As Christ would preach, blessed are the meek, which means “gentle.”
Comment by Greg Paley on October 22, 2013 at 7:18 pm
If you read the reviews on Amazon of McLaren’s horrible book, you definitely notice that people who identify their age are NOT young people. People on the religious left typically write and preach not for young people, but some mental image they have of young people. McLaren’s fans are not young people but people his age or even older, roughly the equivalent of the “hip” clergy in the 1960s who wore bell-bottom jeans and grew their hair over their ears, making a comical contrast to baldness on the top. McLaren represents to a T this “I’m hip and cool, so I won’t ever get old” coterie of aging lefties. Having given his stamp of approval to gay marriage (as if anyone cared), McLaren may actually live long enough to give his approval to polyamory, polygamy, adult-child sex, and who knows what else. The young people who will care about his approval could probably meet in a corner booth at Denny’s.
Comment by Mark McNeil on October 23, 2013 at 8:37 am
When the Spirit moves, so do the people.
Comment by Chris Lang on October 23, 2013 at 8:52 am
The problem is that modern scholarship has abandoned the authority of the scriptures. We are taught that the only genuine (apostolic) books in the New Testament are seven letters of Paul, that the Gospels include fictional material, and that the Exodus never happened. Christian teachings such as substitutionary atonement or the reality of hell seem illogical, cruel or atavistic to people exposed to this modern scholarship (taught in every secular university and mainline/liberal seminaries and schools of religion). So people will either hold to a denatured Christianity or else join the rapidly-increasing group of nones, atheists and agnostics who have better things to do on Sunday mornings than sitting through tired liturgies and putting pledge envelopes into the plate.
Comment by MJ on October 23, 2013 at 2:07 pm
“We know that young evangelicals desperately want acceptance and purpose in a broken world and, because of that, they do buy into the “tolerant” liberal ideology instead of adhering to God’s commandments.”
Talk about passing the buck.
Such circular reasoning makes me dizzy, as does the idea of a right-wing political action group masquerading as a religious think tank.
Comment by Bishop Andrew Gerales Gentry on November 13, 2013 at 9:45 pm
“American Evangelical Christianity” is a counterfeit faith that serves above all the market place. The notion of “sola scriptura” is historically inaccurate and dangerous. The Church gave us the Scriptures and the Canon thereto not the other way round. I believe in inclusivity and holiness of love regardless of the gender involved because of the Gospel and Person of Jesus Christ who is the Way and the Truth and the Life.
Comment by George Waite on December 12, 2013 at 7:14 pm
Why bother to go to church if you can work for gay marriage in organizations designed to do just that: work for gay marriage legalization? Why bother to pay money (every week) and spend 1-2 hours on Sunday mornings singing and reciting when you could be sleeping in or out hiking somewhere?
Just because people applaud your church’s positions doesn’t mean they’re going to show up on Sundays; they may cut you some slack if they are into cultural productions and decide to mention that “there are some of them that are pretty nice”, but other than that it’s not going to have much effect on membership.