Brian McLaren Is Changing Things

I'm blogging from my hotel room in Charlotte after the first session of the "Everything Must Change" book tour. This is the first time I've heard Brian McLaren speak in person. He is not an overly charismatic figure, but I do love what he is doing. It seems that his goal is to wake up Evangelical Christians to the idea of progressive political views. His stump speech is very good. He also does a wonderful job of keeping the conversation out of the "left vs. right" and "democrat vs. republican" mode. Obviously, it IS about being progressive and that means being democrat on most issues, but he frames the discussion without making specific party statements. So many young people are completely turned off by politics. Brian is a master of connecting the dots for people who have yet to see the connections. There isn't much "new" here, but I'm sure it will be new to some. It is the right message at the right time.

There was some interesting music and art presented. Evangelicals can't talk without singing coombiyah a few times and praying first, so this was no different. I wasn't particularly impressed with the trimmings, but only because trimmings not are my "bag". After the first session, we had some small group discussions. Holly Rankin Zaher lead our group in a discussion about anti-consumerism. I know Holly's sister from way back, so it was good to meet her. She has made some amazing changes in her life including using many homemade products, using only vinegar and water to clean instead of chemical cleaners, and no longer shopping at big box stores like Wal-Mart. We had a good discussion even if it was cut short. I hope tomorrow will allow more time to get connected. There seems to be an eclectic group here this weekend.

Ready for Change

Brian McLaren's "Everything Must Change" tour is coming to Charlotte, NC Feb 1-2. I'm going to attend along with a few friends. We have been discussing this inspiring book for the last few months and it has been a catalyst for several very deep conversations. The conference is shaping up to be an exciting moment in the life of the Emergent conversation. I'm ready!

After the conference, Brian will be involved in an interfaith dialogue on Saturday Feb. 2 at 5:30 PM with local Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities. This dialogue is open to the public so if you can't make the whole conference you may want to check out this special event.

Change Is Not Easy

In his book “Everything Must Change”, Brian McLaren gives a great example of how Jesus’ political statements have too often been shaped to fit modern middle-class suburban life. He makes the point by looking at Matthew’s account of the Canaanite woman and Jesus (Matthew 15:21-28). Many people look at this message as an example for how modern individuals should treat other people. We should resist the urge to make it easy. This message is bigger than a third grade Sunday school lesson about being nice and letting your neighbors borrow a cup of sugar or an occasional power tool. This message is political and it foreshadows Jesus' critical message about the balance of power in Israel and its political relationships with its neighbors.

Brain highlights the unusual use of the word “Canaanite”. This word was a word of hostility towards a people that had been a long time enemy of Israel. These people had been defeated in order to settle the Promised Land and many border wars continued long after. Israel looked down on them and the way he addresses her at first was a type of racial slur used by the story teller to present the history backdrop for the punch line. In this story, Jesus rejects the woman then he later embraces her to suggest that the way these people were being treated was wrong and that those old divisions and wars are now over. Instead of conquering Canaanites, this Jew will feed her. The parable may or may not have been a literal conversation of the historical Jesus, but the symbolism does reference a real historical system of injustice. The scene foreshadows what Jesus told the authorities in Jerusalem about their treatment of people and how the violence of their past could only beget more violence in their future. I guess Jesus was hip to the concept of Karma.

The point Brian makes is that Jesus is suggesting an entirely different way of dealing with political divisions and settling tension on a global level. This “other way” is justice and forgiveness rather than violence, prejudice, and holding grudges. Jesus' storytellers craft this event in a way that challenges the politics of their leaders who must have cringed at the thought of Jesus' actions toward this long time enemy. It is unfortunate that stories like this have been domesticated and stripped of their power to change the world. The domestication of these stories is what allows our leaders to claim Christ in name, but ignore his message. One solution is to free our stories from their domesticated prison. That won't be easy.

Imperial Domestication of Jesus

Like most Evangelicals, I was taught a very specific technique for looking at scripture. You pick out a verse and think of ways that the verse can be applied to your personal life. You let the Holy Spirit guide you and reveal the meanings that are intended as a fix for the issues in your own life. There is no doubt that this can “work”. Many lives (including my own) have been blessed by this method and the Bible can be an extremely transformational and comforting book when read this way. However, what happens when we take some of the most profound social and political statements ever written and domesticate them by reducing them to truths about our own personal relationships and private needs? Is there a downside to this approach?

Christians often complain that our religion is loosing its position of influence in the world. I believe that Christianity got what it has asked for when it domesticated the good news of Jesus. When the message of Jesus was skewed toward merely another personal message about private issues of piety, self-help, and the eternal salvation of our souls, then Christianity became a private religion with private results. Let’s face it - it is easier to focus on ourselves because it can often feel like we just don’t have any control over our city, state, national, and global issues. I think this is exactly what the Empire wants us to think. The imperial forces that acquired and institutionalized Christianity needed to domesticate its radical anti-imperial message by shifting its emphasis and that shift has huge psychological effects to this day. We have been told that those big issues are “in God’s hands” and therefore out of our hands. We have lost hope in the ability to make big changes and when hope is lost then the battle is over. We feel a lack of power so we focus on what we can control, then we disconnect from the system and lose more power so we focus more on ourselves. This vicious cycle continues until all hope is lost and all power has dissipated.

Brian McLaren is challenging this domestication of Jesus in his new book “Everything Must Change”. He is challenging Christians to look deeper at our sacred texts and recover its message of hope for big changes and its lost challenge to be more than a religion of personal piety. Jesus’ critique of the Pharisees was not a criticism of their “Jewishness”. His message was not about being less Jewish. Jesus’ message was about returning Israel to its full sense of being God’s people and it’s calling as a radical catalyst for global change.

[in this book]We have raised the possibility that Jesus’ message might be seen as an alternative framing story that, if believed, could save the system from suicide. To test this possibility, we will need to consider the possibility that “Jesus” as we have understood him has himself been domesticated and made part of the dominant framing story. For Jesus to save the system, we must first, in a sense, save Jesus – by reframing him outside the confines of our dominant and largely unquestioned assumptions. (p. 73)

The conventional view, however, is more dualistic, with human souls and other “spiritual” things in one category and human bodies and other “secular” things in another. This dualism conveniently keeps faith a private and personal “spiritual” matter so believers see themselves as “just passing through” this world, steering them away from “worldly” social engagement beyond their personal, family, and church-related concerns(p.81)

Domesticated Jesus

More good stuff from Brian McLaren whose new book "Everything Must Change" is making a big splash this month.

"We [Christians] have to ask ourselves some deep questions. To what degree have we lost the plot? To what degree have we ended up with a religion that talks about Jesus, sings about Jesus, but Jesus has just become kind of a hood ornament on our own vehicle that we're driving to our own destination."

"Do we really get the good news of Jesus or are we living out another story using a lot of Jesus talk plastered onto it."

Everything Must Change

I received my copy of Brian McLaren's new book "Everything Must Change". It started a bit slow and I was worried that it might devolve into a watered down form of environmental activism (not that there's anything wrong environmental activism) but thankfully it is so much more. Brian has a gift for articulating important elements of Biblical scholarship in a very digestible format for those who are new to theological discussions. In addition to being accessible, the book is organized with group discussions in mind.

I'm sure this book will offend some very conservative people (because everything does), but Brian has succeeded in presenting this material in a non-threatening manner that holds onto just enough traditional theology to entertain a broad audience. I understand why he was a successful pastor because he has created a perfect balance of prophetic critique, education, and inspiration. This message is right on target to make huge waves in the Evangelical Christian community where people like Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan are not allowed. I hope it finds its way into that space. It is sure to open many hearts and minds.

Change is Coming...

I pre-orderd Brian Mclaren's new book "Everything Must Change" (I'm addicted to Amazon.com) and it should arrive at my door in the next day or two. As Brian says in the video, it's about two basic questions: 1) what are the biggest crises facing the world today, and 2) what do the life and teachings of Jesus have to say to those global crises? The early reviews say it will be even more controversial than his previous books.


I hope to find a few local friends that will agree to begin a discussion group. If you are in the Augusta area and would like to buy a copy and begin meeting to discuss the book then let me know.

Well Said...

This is a great video clip by Brian Mclaren.

I grew up in a church that saw the Kingdom of God as something that happens in the future after we all die. Then I spent 10 years in a couple of churches with people that understood the "now" aspect of this Kingdom, but they thought it was mostly about learning how to perform miracles and telling the future. It is refreshing to finally hear someone within Evangelical Christianity talk about the Kingdom as something other than a fairy-tale, a supernatural phenomenon, or an act of military force. For me, it is all about real people making real changes toward peace and justice right now. I may disagree with Brian's decision to hang onto certain Evangelical beliefs, but I really like his approach to Jesus' message about the Kingdom of God.

Brian Mclaren's newest book...

Here is Brian reading a bit of his upcoming book. I thought it was relevent to my current frame of mind.

McLaren on Worship

I like what author Brian McLaren says about art, propaganda, and the worship industry in this video. I've been deeply involved in worship at several churches and I can relate to what Brian says.

McLaren's take on Hell...

Here are the links to a 3 part interview with Brian McLaren about his views on Hell. I really like what he has to say on the subject. I think that an idea of an exclusivist type of afterlife (or any afterlife at all) is questionable at best. At worst it is an ideal that crept into human psychology and religion in order to manipulate the masses into submission. Another example of the empire doing what empire's do best.

part 1

part 2

part 3

Brian Mclaren at Princeton...

Follow this link to hear a great talk from Brian Mclaren about the "church emerging". You will notice he is extremely focused on emerging PAST the devisiveness of liberal v. conservative and mainline v. evangelical. Of course he ends up leaning left, but he doesn't hold back in his critique of both ends of the spectrum.

My favorite line is in his summary...

"...churches on the left are dying and churches on the right are growing mentally ill"

Link to audio

Hell...

Every time I think that I may have an original thought or at least a new slant on an existing thought, Brian Mclaren publishes a book about it before I can even write it in a blog post. He did it again with his latest book “The last word and the word after that”. I read it this weekend and I think it really brought home some ideas I had been wrestling with for several months. The book is the last chapter in the trilogy he began in “A new kind of Christian” and although I loved the 1st book, this latest one was much more applicable than either of the first two books. I got a bit bored in the 2nd book “The story we find ourselves in” mainly because it dealt with creation / evolution and I had no real problems accepting evolution the way many Christians here in the Bible belt continue to struggle. I had been having several conversations the last few weeks about the “after-life” and I was shocked to get this book in the mail (I pre-ordered it) and realize that it is all about hell and the warped theology that has evolved about hell through the history of the church.

Of course the book is true to the writing style of Mclaren that wraps his thoughts about theology into story form. Although I am “post-protestant” in my personal theology (to borrow a Mclaren term), I am not very post modern in my line of thinking. I am much more scientific and would prefer a bulleted list of concrete conclusions, so wading through a “story” to get the answer is not particularly intriguing to me. I do however love these characters which he creates to help the story unfold. I really appreciate that I now have several books that represent how I think theologically that I can recommend to friends and family who could never read a dry scientific presentation of facts and conclusions.

The more I think about hell the more I realize how central it is to how we approach our lives. Letting go of a literal belief in hell frees us to see that the reason for following the way of Jesus is all about the “here and now”. Understanding the kingdom of God as God’s dream or vision for things here on earth changes everything. I was afraid that letting go of a good fire and brimstone view of hell would introduce a sort of “anything goes” type of mentality, but I think I can now see how it has a complete opposite effect on my life. I can no longer live this life as practice for something else or hold on to the hopes that whatever is wrong now will get fixed next time around. Instead I am left with a sense of urgency that was missing before. I’m not sure how this will play out in my life, but I know I would rather face tomorrow with a sense of urgency to follow the message of Jesus than a sense of complacency.

A New Kind of Christian

I have read a bunch of books in the last year that have helped me reshape my view of God and the Bible but I had a real hard time expressing what I now believe to other people (my wife and other people at church in particular). I started reading “A new kind of Christian” by Brian Mclaren and I couldn’t put it down (thaks Chad!). I read the whole thing last night. I feel vindicated by it. I also feel like I spent a year walking from NY to CA when there was a plane ticket sitting on my kitchen table that I didn’t know was there. I wish I had read this earlier. Although maybe it is better that I found these ideas on my own and now find others that came to the same conclusions. Maybe my belief system will be stronger since I feel like I have more “ownership” of the ideas rather than if I was just following the herd and doing what I was told.

Just like the lead character in the book if I actually expressed how I felt I thought I would get kicked out of the church or something. That’s why I refused to lead a small group when I was asked by our group. I am tired of being controversial but I didn’t want to keep preaching the party line either. I have felt like I am “in between” theologies and haven’t nailed it down yet or figured out exactly how these views should effect my everyday life, but this book made me realize that maybe I don’t have to (or can’t) get it all carved out in stone before I begin moving again.

http://www.anewkindofchristian.com/