Love him or hate him, Brian is doing his best to respond in a Christ-like way to criticism.
Yes.
Here's a video where he discusses these issues head on with Alan Roxbugh.
Wish I could post it on the bob.blog, but you need to go here to see it.
I hope to interact with Brian's latest book sometime this weekend or early next week.
Not a big McLaren fan, and disagree with him most of the time, but love his thoughfulness and willingness to do more than "wink."
Posted by: tom | October 04, 2007 at 10:31 AM
How do we make sense of the gospel in light of this changing world? vs.
How do we make sense of this changing world in light of the gospel?
Looking at a changing world through the lens of the gospel vs
Looking at the gospel through the lens of a changing world.
just some initial thoughts.
Posted by: Ed | October 04, 2007 at 12:49 PM
Not sure what to make of it. At this point in the interview he has only responded to the idea that he needs to act Christian when he is drawing fire. However, it is not a direct response to any one criticism. For instance, Mark Driscoll claimed that Brian will never take a public stance on homosexuality - and thus far it seems that is right. It is also claimed that Brian disregards the resurrection of Christ - is this true? I am not really looking for answers from anyone here - I would prefer those answers from Brian.
Hopefully future interviews are more enlightening on where he stands on issues listed above as well as sufficiency of Christ to save and the Trinity. At this point his careful answers seem more about avoiding the real questions.
Grace and Peace.
Posted by: Shaun Sells | October 04, 2007 at 02:18 PM
Why does Brian have to take a stand on homosexuality? Why do people need that answer? What need is it serving? It just reminds me of the people around Jesus throwing loaded questions at him in hopes of yelling to the crowd "Aha! See! See! He violates _____!"
Posted by: Andrew | October 04, 2007 at 06:28 PM
Excellent point Andrew.
I think I just had something in mind going into the interview, as he was addressing critics. I guess I was hoping he would say "they are wrong about my beliefs in this, but not about this."
Obviously that was not the goal of this interview.
May God richly bless you (and Brian).
Posted by: Shaun Sells | October 04, 2007 at 07:08 PM
This is the last 20 minutes of Alan's interview with Brian. There are 40+ more minutes of video that will be up in two parts, mid-October and the first of November. (They are sitting unedited on my computer right now.)
The actual interview is primarily about Brian's new book, Everything Must Change.
With the amount of blog noise about Mark D's heretic comments, Al and I thought it appropriate to put up this portion of the interview first.
Posted by: Bill Kinnon | October 05, 2007 at 12:37 PM
I'm a respectful observer of the emerging church, I don't have any major gripe with it and I think generally it is a positive movement for Christendom as a whole. However, to me - Brian McLaren is the emerging church caricature - all questions, no answers - treads some very wobbly ground when it comes to theology and has some decidedly dodgy influences. I find it strange that there seem to be no one within the emerging church calling him on any of this. It's almost like every charismatic unquestionably defending Benny Hinn!
Personally, I think the emerging church would get taken a lot more seriously if they distanced themselves from guys like McLaren, in the same way most serious charismatics distance themselves from the charismaniac lunatic fringe.
Posted by: ianmcn | October 05, 2007 at 01:50 PM
I'm not so sure many in the charismatic church and I am a leader in one of the larger charismatic/pentecostal bodies do distance themselves from the "charismanianc" fringe such as Benny Hinn. Believe me I've criticized Hinn and Osteen and had to go to battle.
Posted by: Sam Andress | October 05, 2007 at 04:01 PM