Scott Freeman

Does Brian McLaren Know Where Osama Bin Laden is hiding?

I really think this guy is serious. His headline is “Why Al Qaeda Supports The Emergent Church.”

Read this excerpt:

The emergent church is an ally in the war against radical Islam–al Qaeda’s ally. Not in the sense they are supplying bullets and bombs to Osama, of course, but in the sense they are weakening our conviction to fight.

If those in the emergent “we’re-a-missional-not-an-institutional” church had their way, American church buildings would be just like European church buildings – empty. And the church, the people themselves, would be so intellectually, morally, emotionally, and spiritually lost, confused and uncertain, that they would be incapable of doing hardly anything more than inviting their Muslim oppressors in for a cappuccino and a good conversation about the sociology of knowledge, the absurdity of propositional truth, and the misplaced certitude of the Muslim metanarrative. All the while, no doubt, nodding in agreement that America probably deserved to die and mumbling something about carbon footprints.

The term “emergent church” refers to a loose association of people who share common values and attitudes toward, well, everything. It’s Christianity for postmoderns who don’t like truth, knowledge, science, authority, doctrine, institutions, or religion. They claim absolute or objective truth is unknowable, that the only “truth” that can be known is rooted in communities of shared subjective experience–the infamous “it’s my truth” of relativism.

And if nothing is objectively true, if no text has a meaning independent of the reader, then the truth claims in the Bible are no more authoritative than the funny papers. Hence, there’s no emphasis on core beliefs, essential doctrines, statements of faith or the institutions built to defend and propagate them–especially the institutional church and its Bible colleges and seminaries.

Bottom line, it’s feelings over thoughts, the heart over the head, experience over truth, deeds over creeds, narratives over propositions, the corporate over the individualistic, being inclusive rather than exclusive, with none of that offensive “in versus out” language, such as those who are “saved” and those who are “not saved,” or even the most divisive of all referents–“Christian” and “non-Christian.”

The emergent church and its allies on the religious left are to Christianity what termites are to wood. They devour it from the inside out, little bit by little bit, and you don’t notice it until it’s too late–unless you look for the droppings.

They’re leaving lots of droppings if you only have eyes to see.

The emergent church has rejected the “linear” and “modern” categories of true/false, good/evil, and right/wrong, and they recoil at the notion of applying these terms to Christianity or any other faith tradition–even radical Islam. To believe Christianity is true, good, and right is divisive, offensive, and well, rude and anti-conversational.

It’s time to call these people out from the shadows and expose them to the light of public scrutiny.

Now, I am no apologist for all things emerging. I agree with a lot and there is much in which I differ. But to paraphrase a McLaren book this guy is on an adventure in missing the point.

Every single paragraph is Coulter-esque in its naivety and dishonesty.

(HT: Aaron Monts)