Emerging Liberalism Part Two

Brian McLaren has "emerged" as the spokesman for the Emergent Church movement. He is articulate, likeable, and the most theological savvy of the group. He has years of experience as a pastor and his pastoral spirit really comes across when he speaks. He is a gentle man, always patient with those he speaks with.

McLaren rightly sees many problems in the contemporary Evangelical church--such as: (1) Fundamentalism, (2) a market-driven church expressed in many of the mega-churches, (3) professed believers who don't act different from the world, (4) lack of interest in social issues, (5) and a lack of generosity amongst differing theological traditions. There are more issues that trouble him, but these will suffice our considerations here. What he doesn't share as much, however, is his disdain for certain historical doctrines.

One of these "unfortunate" doctrines is the churches historical understanding of hell. The idea of a God who hates and punishes sin makes McLaren feel uncomfortable. You can hear him being interviewed on this blog site about this particular issue: www.bleedingpurplepodcast.blogspot.com. Like Robert Schuller and other liberals before him, he claims to hold to all of the historical creeds of the church, but at the same time refuses to affirm those very doctrines in his teachings. This interview is very helpful in understanding McLaren (Kudos to Josh Martin for finding it). He is being interviewed, here, by a very open liberal who seems to like McLaren very much. Unfortunately, McLaren feels right at home as well.

One of the "disarming tactics" that McLaren uses is to insist that we discuss theological issues in non Left and Right terms. In other words, don't accuse him of being a liberal on any given viewpoint. Once people start using that term on him, then his goose is cooked. He knows that better than anybody. You see, liberals know what they are teaching corresponds with liberalism, but they want you to look at the issues in a "fresh" way--we need to get rid of our "traditions" and think through the issues again.

My first impression of McLaren is that he lets his "feelings" and pastoral experience dictate his theology. He's heard all of the arguments against God before. The Doctrine of Hell is right there at the top of any critics list. In his need to "justify" God, he now feels the need to water down this particular doctrine. This demonstrates his very low view of Scripture. He's allowing his own feelings and thoughts to override what the Bible clearly teaches. Once you rationalize one doctrine away, it becomes easier to do so with others. In my next post, we will look at some of those other doctrines.