[Yes, I know this is my fourth post of the day. I'm catching up on my blog reading!]
I just found an article so outlandish that it's almost funny. Except that the guy is serious. I'll cut him a little slack - there are people within the emerging church that fit his description. But to say Al-Qaeda Supports the Emergent Church!?!
This is the same kind of whiny, lack of understanding, bomb-throwing that people on the other side of the aisle are routinely accused of (and rightly so, often). God forbid we should actually try to understand a Christian movement before we declare it anathema! Both sides (traditional Fundamentalists and emerging/missional types) could learn a thing or two about constructive criticism, eh?
Hatushili
Saturday, August 11, 2007
What a broad brush with which you paint!
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2 comments:
That article was a lot like watching a drama flick... I laughed, I cried, and when it was over I wished I would have done something else.
I can't believe the complete lack of research and data used to support the main ideas, one of which I found particularly interesting...
"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."
But more interesting (or aggravating) than the article itself were the responses. Just awful. The world is watching us respond to our brothers and sisters in such a way and we wonder why they aren’t attracted to us...geesh.
What I found most disturbing about the comments people left on that blog was that none of the 50 or so that I read mention anything specific about the emerging church. It seems that these people have simply decided that "emerging church = liberal or fake Christian". Sad.
Mr. Pastore (the author of the post) leaves little doubt that he considers emerging and/or liberal "Christians" to be wolves and sheep's clothing. I don't know how else to take the wood/termites analogy. Apparently his criteria for testing the faith of someone who claims the name of Jesus is different than the Bible's test - it can readily be argued that the emerging crowd is bearing more fruit than the "conservative" masses.
It is true, on the other hand, that most of the emerging crowd have lost touch with many sound doctrines of the faith. So where's the balance? We'll never be able to politely but passionately discuss this question until people stop lobbing bombs like "Al-Qaeda supports the emergent church", that's for sure.
Hatushili
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