Category: book club

Book reviews, thoughts and reflections

Andrew Jones chats with Brian McLaren

Andrew Jones shared a recent e-mail conversation with pastor, author and speaker Brian McLaren on his blog about his latest book, Everything Must Change.
Great questions from Jones I thought (several occurred to me and several that didn’t – I think I just remained optimistic when something wasn’t directly addressed, it wasn’t because it was purposely left out because McLaren didn’t agree, but more because he wasn’t the focus of the book) and great answers from McLaren I thought.
You can read the whole conversation on Jones’ blog, but of course I’ll share a few highlights:

McLaren: One of the things that I hope the book does (by understatement, perhaps?) is help people think of “church” in broader ways. For example, I don’t think that the church per se is going to intentionally solve economic problems in Africa. But churches will inspire entrepreneurs and activists and politicians and health care workers and community organizers and film-makers, etc., to work together in ways that will bring more and more healing. In this way, “church work” is building up the church, but “the work of the church” is doing kingdom work in our daily lives and jobs, from business to art to government to education to agriculture to whatever.

Jones: 2. The apparent absence of HOPE in your view of future things. Maybe i missed it but you don’t seem to acknowledge hope in the afterlife, resurrection of the dead, etc in your book and i had to guess whether you had walked away from these foundational orthodox doctrines or you were focusing exclusively on the immanence of the gospel in today’s world for effect.
McLaren: Again, I set a pretty specific goal for myself in this book: to explore global crises and what the message of Jesus says to those crises. I did address life after death in Secret Message of Jesus, chapter 20. So I haven’t walked away from hope in the afterlife, etc. If anything, I see more than ever how hope in the afterlife is necessary to keep us going when progress in this life seems slow or nonexistent.

Jones: Brian, your view on the last things has a few of us guessing. How does your eschatological position compare with . . say . . an evangelical post-millenial view? And do you believe in life after death?
McLaren: Just to be super clear … YES! I believe in life after death! I find it hard to line up my views with conventional pre, post, or amillenial views because I think they are all based on an assumption I don’t share, i.e. that the book of Revelation is intended to tell us how the world will end. This view presupposes a deterministic view of history, which I don’t share. I suppose I’m more Wesleyan and Anabaptist in this regard than Calvinist. Anyway, I talk about this in detail in SMJ, and refer to it briefly in EMC – I believe the Book of Revelation is an example of Jewish Apocalyptic which, although it may be concerned with the end of the age, is not really talking about the end of the world at all. In this, I follow NT Wright’s general line of thought, so if I’m off the ranch, so is he. I see Biblical prophecy in terms of warnings and promises, which are different from prognostications. If I had to put a name on my eschatology, I suppose I would call it “Participatory” – meaning that God invites us to participate in God’s ongoing work in the world, leading to the ultimate victory of all that is good and the ultimate defeat of evil. Beyond that, there are a lot of eschatological details I was much surer about twenty years ago when I read the Bible less and popular end-times books more!

Jones: You seem to be calling the American church to a new level of repentance, one that is deeper and more connected with structures. How has the response been?
McLaren: My loyal critics are by and large ignoring this book (so far), or if they pay attention to it – this is very sad to me – they generally ignore everything about poverty, war, and environmental destruction, and focus on doctrinal issues they disagree with me about. Sheesh. I can only hope that someone they agree with theologically will get them thinking more seriously about global crises. Apart from these loyal critics, though, response is really encouraging. People are telling me they are coming to faith or back to faith through the book … and they are feeling more confident to call themselves followers of Jesus when Jesus is presented not just as a fire escape and savior from the world, but as a liberating king and savior of the world. I am also hearing privately from some “big names” who can’t afford to associate with me publicly because of all the nastiness in the American religious world, but who are thankful for the book and affirming of its message.

Is Brian McLaren anti-Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement?

A few excerpts from the comments section of the blog:

You’d have a point about McLaren if it wasn’t for the fact that he has consistently attacks the doctrine of Christ’s Penal Substitutionary Atonement.

In his book “a new kind of Christian” he likens it to cosmic child abuse. There is a recurring pattern and history with McLaren regarding Christ’s death on the cross and that patter is to re-imagine, redefine it and steer us away from what the scriptures clearly teach on it.

It bugs me when people take things out of context and don’t cite their sources.

You mean to tell me you don’t think the cross exposed “the cruelty and injustice of those in power?”
You don’t think it instilled “hope and confidence in the oppressed.”

Join in the fun and leave your own thoughts and comments in the comment section.

Quote the whole dang thing!

Oh how I wish more people would have spent some time in a journalism class!

I’m so tired of people quoting only half of a statement because that’s all they chose to hear.

I’ve got the day off today (nice) and I woke up and read another section of “Jesus for President.” Bought it last night before going to the Dallas Museum of Art with Laurie.

I was good and ready to write a quick blog post about the what I had read before when my friend John forwards this to me from a site he forwards stuff from pretty constantly:

EXCERPT:

There is a word that describes John Dominic Crossan and that word is Heretic.

On a related note: Brian McLaren of the Emergent Church in his latest book Everything Must Change quotes favorably from Crossan’s latest book. McLaren and Crossan reinterpret the message of the gospel in such a way as to practically eliminate the doctrine of Christ’s Penal Substitutionary Atonement (This is the Biblical teaching that tells us the Jesus was pierced for our transgressions and died as our substitute on the cross in order to propitiate God’s wrath against our sins). After quoting Crossan on pages 122 and 123, Brian McLaren concludes that rather than die for our sins, “Jesus will use his cross to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed.”

That is not the Biblical gospel!

That is a bunch of Emergent goblidy gook!

But here again the scriptures tell us plainly what the gospel is and so we ask who are you going to believe?
Mark 10:45 [Jesus said] “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Arrghh! I’ve read the book. I knew exactly when I read the email which portion of the book it came from. I had to jump up immediately. Head out to my truck and grab the book.

My response

again… taking one line out of an entire chapter.

McLaren NEVER says, “rather than die for our sins…” McLaren is making the point about Jesus’ framing story compared to that of Ceaser Augustus.

Now I’ve got to type this whole thing out to prove my point……. geeze….

The empires “good news” is a framing story of peace through domination, peace through redemptive violence, peace through centralized power and control, peace through elimination of enemies. (Sounds a lot like modern America doesn’t it*) It involves the gods legitimizing those in power so that resistance to their sacred regime becomes not only treason but also heresy. The imperial narrative that drives them to dominance often drives them to self-destruction. Jesus’ alternative framing story, as we’ve seen involves God bringing down those in power (Luke 1:52-53) so that the poor can be legitimized (Luke 4:18) and so that the religious collaboration with the empire can be exposed as hypocrisy. The empire uses crosses to punish rebels and instill fear and submission to the oppressed: Jesus will use a cross to expose the cruelty and injustice of those in power and instill hope and confidence in the oppressed.

*my note

I have to wonder – would we really have that much to talk about, blog about, write about, get angry about if we’d only quote the whole dang thing. Maybe if, rather than listening for a sound bite to put on YouTube we’d actually take a couple hours (or maybe minutes) and read the entire chapter or book, or listen to the entire message.

Example 2

I have to share this from Kevin Hendricks re: the recent hub-bub about Jeremiah Wright:

Wow. The craziness is flying over comments made by Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I’ve read reactions from people stronly opposed to Wright, and from people defending Wright (or at least giving some helpful context — Knightopia links to several more).

Some of what Wright says is clearly off the deep end (i.e., the government invented AIDS to wipe out people of color). But I think some of his comments are right on. Like the “God Damn America” comments:

“The government gives them the drugs [referring to the Iran-Contra Affair], builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people — God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (Seattle Times)

The ABC News story left out the last sentence, which I think helps give some context. Wright is preaching prophetically, like the prophets of old, who spoke out against injustice. I love America and the freedoms we have, but it’s not anti-American to speak out against injustice committed by America. That’s patriotic. (I wish Obama would have made that point.)

And America has some injustice going on when there are more black men in prison than in college.

The Screwtape Letters

“The best way to drive out the devil if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” – Martin Luther

Well – I finished two books over the last few days, Brian McLaren’s challenging Everything Must Change and Brennan Manning’s Ragamuffin Gospel. Both great reads and I also thought they were complimentary of each other in many aspects.

I don’t typically read more than one book at a time but ended up doing that this time around. With the books complimenting several ideas between the two, it made remembering who said what that much harder.

Now that these books are done (and I’m still chewing on them) I decided to pick up an old favorite, C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. I think I read this 10-15 years ago, about the time Bono came out with his McPhisto character and Mirror Ball Man.


It was suggested in the Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me video that the McPhisto character was based on several ideas from The Screwtape Letters (Bono confirmed this in later interviews) – so naturally, I had to read it.

The book is written from the premise of an unusual correspondence between Uncle Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood. Both can be pictured as demons, or spirits or servants of the Devil if you will. The letters are advice from the senior tempter, Screwtape, to his nephew or apprentice, Wormwood, on how to handle one of his “patients.” (read more from Wikipedia)

As I read this morning, Screwtape advises young Wormwood on how to handle the patient’s relationship with his “un-saved” mother. It reminds me of the idea of living an Inverted lifestyle that we’ve talked about so much at encounter recently.

Screwtape suggests several ideas for Wormwood:

  • Keep his mind on the inner life… You must bring him to a condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.
  • It is impossible to prevent his praying for his mother… but make sure that his prayers are always very “spiritual,” that he is always concerned about the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism… His attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins which can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself… His ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother… I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s “soul” to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.
  • …it usually happens that each has tones of voice or expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that… Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy.
  • See to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother’s utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and context of the suspected intention.

Any of that ring true for you? Anyone else see themselves painted in this picture?

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. – Mark 8:35

Everything Must Change


Finished reading Everything Must Change today on the way into work.

Excellent. I think as several others have pointed out in our book club – Everything Must Change… but it must begin with ME.

“another world is possible, available now for all who believe.”

referring to those who would rise up against the common framing story we find ourselves currently surrounded by McLaren rights…

“they would seek to be the revolution they wished to see in the world… This kind of group would be the current expression of Jesus’ original band of disciples. It would be the church as Jesus intended. Groups like this wouldn’t need buildings, pipe organs, rock bands, layers of institutional structure, video projectors, parking lots, and so on… What they would need would be simple: a passion to understand Jesus and his message and a commitment to live out that understanding in a world in which everything must change.”

I’m teaching from this book now over the next several weeks for our community group. I’m basically putting together some “curriculum” as we go – I’d love to share it and get input from others who have read the book (or are reading it) but haven’t decided yet what format to use. Should I simply post a PDF of what I have or would others be interested in adding to it, making notes etc and make this a community effort using a Wiki of some sort?

Thank you

Mike Huckabee in Plano Texas

From Mike Huckabee:

Dear Faithful Friends,

Last night was a tough one for all of us. While Janet and I stood on the stage, we felt as if we were surrounded by a much larger family than our immediate family. We have been surrounded throughout the process by a large and growing family of faithful friends whose efforts in the campaign have humbled and amazed us day after day. I regularly wept or choked back tears just reading comments on the blog when I realized the sacrifices that so many have made for the campaign.

We had held out hope that we would win enough delegates to keep the contest going, but had vowed that if Senator McCain actually got the 1191 delegates, we would accept the will of the voters. In the end, the relentless hammering of the media that we “couldn’t win” influenced enough voters and while we campaigned long and hard in the final states, it simply wasn’t enough. I congratulate Senator McCain and will do what I can to assist him and influence him to take strong stands for issues that we conservatives cherish.

I don’t see the long journey having reached its destination, but merely taking a detour. As my Marine friend Clebe McLary says, “I didn’t lose–it’s just that the game ended before I got finished playing.”

In the immediate days ahead, we will be transitioning from campaign mode. For 14 months, there have been a lot of things put on hold in our lives. We have to join the many incredible people on our staff to figure out “what’s next?” But this much I can tell you—we want to stay in touch and start now building a platform to continue addressing issues that brought us together in the first place.

Throughout my life, I’ve found that there are sometimes three possible answers to our prayers–“Yes,” “No,” or “Not Now.” I would like to think our prayers were answered with a “Not Now.”

We will keep our website up and as we transition, will want to create a way to keep in touch and continue the battle for our families, our freedom, and our future. We also want to make certain we are doing everything we can to assist key Senate and House races around the country, in places where we feel we can make a difference. You can expect us to be very active online as we do this.

In the immediate time, we have to make sure that we pay all the bills of the campaign and end in the black, help our staff find ways to earn a living, and make sure that we don’t lose the momentum of the past 14 months, but instead follow the plan:

REFLECT, REST, RENEW, and RE-BOOT!

I really welcome your input and thoughts during these coming days. Pray for us as we seek wisdom as to what steps we take now. Despite what some have thought, we really didn’t have a “Plan B’ in the wings–we always thought we’d be in this until the inauguration in January of 2009!

God has been so good to us! We can never fully express our gratitude for all you have done and how you have touched and blessed our lives. I truly hope I didn’t let you down. I promise to you that I gave it all I had to the last minute and left it “all on the field.” What is more amazing is how you were willing to be “poured out” to the point of empty in order to be with us all the way. I stand amazed by it all and overwhelmed with gratitude.

We will dust off, pick ourselves up off the canvas, and answer the bell for the next round, whatever that may be. We love you all, and trust that the journey has just begun!

With tired bodies and grateful hearts,

Mike and Janet Huckabee

—

bummed…

I’m more bummed today that I was last night. I think everyone in the office is pretty bummed. Folks were either voting for Huckabee (very few) or Obama. Obama’s campaign lives on – but I think everyone was sad to see him lose in Texas.
Don’t know what’s in store for Huckabee or the next 9 months, 4 years or 8 years. Wait – 9 months till the general election?….. goodness!

I was reading last night in Everything Must Change before heading to bed and I thought this summary of Jesus may be similar to the hope people feel in their candidates. Sure, no candidate has all the answers. No candidate can please everyone but I think those that jump in behind a candidate feel there’s a sense of hope that this person will be different. This person will bring about change. I’m not really trying to compare political candidates to Jesus – but I’m saying that people are looking for a savior and I think we often confuse that with political leaders or celebrities or friends or loved ones. And when it doesn’t work out – we really feel let down by the candidate themselves, or maybe the other voters.

Maybe I’m just feeling down because I’ve never really been on the losing side of an election. My first presidential election was in 2000 and I supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 (the lesser of two evils by 2004).

Either way – I love this picture of Jesus that McLaren paints and the hope that Jesus brings with him.

I pictured Jesus, wandering through the villages of Galilee, walking among his own oppressed and dominated people, people who… had lost hope. Their hopelessness left them paralyzed and powerless between two primary schemes of despair – the violent despair of terrorist resistance or the resigned despair capitulation and collaboration with their powerful oppressors. He didn’t fix all their problems, even though many of them wanted him to and hated him when he didn’t. He didn’t organize any army or hatch a plot or design liberal democracy or create a new get-rich-quick business plan. He didn’t scapegoat anybody – if anything, he kept letting scapegoats off the hook, taking their side to the consternation of their hyperreligious critics.

Instead he simply let the people know he liked them – and so did God…

… And he did one other thing: he told the people something outrageous, something so familiar to us, so familiar to me that it is only in rare moments that I get a glimpse of how wild it really was. It wasn’t an if/then statement – if you do this and this and this, then you’ll get that result. That would have been more pressure, another chance to fall.

No, all he did was tell them that something was already true: the kingdom of God is here. Already.