Dear Emma,<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve asked me what I think of Brian McLaren, and I assume by that you are talking about his many writings. And you\u2019ve asked me \u201chow\u201d to think about him. As a person, Brian is gracious and kind, disarming and quiet, and unlike most Christian leaders I\u2019ve encountered, the sort of man that makes you feel important when he is with you. Character counts a lot for me, and so I hope you can meet him some day: you will experience him as a genuine (if new kind of) Christian. <\/p>\n
You mentioned that you have read some scary things about Brian on blogs. Which raises a sadness for me: if you were to google Brian McLaren\u2019s name and then read what (supposed) Christians have said about him, you\u2019d have a good illustration of lions eating their young. I was recently telling a student that if Brian were a non-Christian, the one thing he\u2019d never become is an evangelical. Some of his critics have done everything but show the grace of Christ to him. To return to my earlier point about his character, he remains gracious in spite of how many evangelicals have treated him. No matter how much we value orthodoxy, we can never justify being mean-spirited and malicious as we defend it. Let me give you a piece of advice about Brian\u2019s books: he is a deliberate provocateur<\/em>, and he\u2019s about as good at it as anyone I\u2019ve ever met. Your questions to me concern his \u201corthodoxy.\u201d He says things at times that I\u2019d say differently, but we should read Brian for what he is doing and not as a systematic theologian. He is trying to get evangelical Christians \u2014 and you say you are \u201ckinda and kinda not\u201d an evangelical \u2014 to ask new questions about beliefs that have gone largely unchallenged for a century. If you read Generous Orthodoxy<\/em> \u2014 many of us in the emerging movement shorten that book in writing to GO <\/em>\u2014 for what it is, you will be led into all kinds of questions and Brian\u2019s GO<\/em> will drive you back to the Bible to make you think what you really do believe.<\/p>\n Take Mary, for instance. Brian tells a story about being near a big image of Mary and he found himself weeping. I don\u2019t remember all the details \u2014 I\u2019m pretty sure it is found in GO <\/em>\u2014 but it shows how he can get you to think. That scene made me think about why Mary\u2019s image is so evocative for so many today (do you find yourself attracted to her? do you think it is because \u201cabsence [among evangelicals] makes their heart grow fonder\u201d?). It made me think about what the Bible does say \u2014 and what both the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox have taught and how the Reformers themselves had very high thoughts about Mary. And I found myself reading the Magnificat and the next thing I knew I was doing exactly what Brian intends \u2014 asking questions. Well, that\u2019s an illustration from my life. Maybe you have others \u2014 do you?<\/p>\n If Brian is a provocative writer, he is also doing something that takes great courage: he\u2019s trying to reconstruct Christianity from the ground up. Brian wants to know what is at the bottom, what is the essence, what is most important, how are we to live and what are we to believe. And, this means Brian is willing to question everything and everyone. But Brian\u2019s questioning is not so much skepticism as it is questioning and conversation. \u201cConversation\u201d is one of Brian\u2019s favorite terms \u2014 and as an emerging Christian myself I agree with him. Let\u2019s not fight about all this; let\u2019s ask questions and listen to one another. Even if I find myself disagreeing with Brian at times, I do enjoy the conversation. I\u2019d rather discuss Mary with Brian than with almost anyone I know. (Which I\u2019ve only done briefly.)<\/p>\n One more thing for you to think about when it comes to Brian: he has become more and more politically active. Really, I\u2019m not sure it is accurate to say this since I don\u2019t know that much about Brian\u2019s political action a decade or so ago. But, Brian is more aligned with folks like Jim Wallis, and he\u2019s talking more about environment and social justice. One time you told me you liked my expression \u201cpurple theology.\u201d Well confession time for me: I swiped that from Brian\u2019s article when he spoke about \u201cpurple politics.\u201d Brian says Christians need to be more \u201cpurple\u201d in their politics, and I\u2019m a big fan of that idea. I hope Brian will lead many to be genuinely purple. It seems to me that far too many Christians place sooooo much hope in the election process and think that if a Democrat or a Republican wins then everything will be better \u2014 I don\u2019t believe that. It doesn\u2019t make that much difference in my judgment. That is why I hope more and more of us can be purple. Brian has stated that \u2014 and we\u2019ll have to see how it all turns out.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry this letter got so long.<\/p>\n Blessings,<\/p>\n Scot<\/p>\n This begins a new weekly series on letters and ideas I have exchanged with young emerging Christians, bu which I\u2019m now cobbling together into coherent letters.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Emma, You\u2019ve asked me what I think of Brian McLaren, and I assume by that you are talking about his many writings. And you\u2019ve asked me \u201chow\u201d to think about him. As a person, Brian is gracious and kind, disarming and quiet, and unlike most Christian leaders I\u2019ve encountered, the sort of man that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,1736],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-emerging-movement"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nNearly everyone asks me about his Generous Orthodoxy<\/em> (because it is his most theological book) or about A New Kind of Christian<\/em> \u2014 one piece of fiction I have read. I think I told you in an earlier letter that, as Kris sometimes says of me, I\u2019m not constitutionally capable of reading fiction. But, I did read New Kind<\/em>.<\/p>\n