Brian McLaren's visit to us, and some thoughts on the discussion

Brian McLaren came to visit us this past Sunday.  He’s a well known Emergent Church Evangelical speaker and writer – in some circles, very popular.   

He came to speak at our combined worship service, a wonderful time we shared with Kittamaqundi Community Church this past Sunday.   And in the afternoon we were invited to K-C Church for an afternoon session with Brian.  During this afternoon/evening session, he talked about his new book, titled something about “Why did Jesus, Mohamed, the Buddha, and Moses cross the road?”   and subtitled something about Christianity in a multi-religious world.  

First, before I go on, I have to offer a disclaimer – as kind as Brian was, and her certainly was very gracious with us, I must certainly legally CYA here, and say that what I write is of course my interpretation of what he said.   Thing is – anytime we re-tell or share our experience of anything we see and/or hear is an interpretation of what we saw or heard.  Having said that… here goes:

He started with the idea that the Christian tradition, with all its good points, also has a history of violence.   Anyone knowing church history would not dispute this.  The problem is we often think of this violence in terms of history, like the Crusades.   “Sure, those were bad things then… but we don’t do this anymore.”  He talked about this historic violence and related it to today’s hostility some aspects of Christianity demonstrate towards other faiths and/or religions.   Today, in places like the US, it’s not expressed so much in physical violence, but in intolerance or the desire to convert others to one’s belief system.  He calls this Oppositional Identity:  the idea that we may need a “them” so we can really know who “us” are.   And religion is a primary way in which we strengthen our identities.  And he says this is problematic in community building.   

We played with the idea of whether or not our Christian religious traditions presuppose this hostility, or was it not the religions per se, but the people in them.    Is it that the system has violence and hostility build into it?   Or, is it more a matter of… to the degree a person is healthy (mature and developed in mind and heart), to that degree religion is healthy.   Is it as simple as saying religion is only as healthy as the healthiest person, and only as ill as the most sick person?   

I have an immediate visceral response to hearing someone saying “Islam is a religion of violence”, and leave Christianity safely off the hook!    Christianity has some pretty violent stories in its sacred texts – stories nice Sunday school teachers talk about with their young Sunday school charges; my favorite violent bible story that we all love (and don’t see it as violent in the least, (perhaps because it’s a story in our sacred texts!) is the song commemorating the battle of Jericho.   The full story has God telling Joshua to march his army around the walls 7 times, we all know that part, and then once the walls fall… they are to kill every living thing; men, women, children, animals, plants… everything!   Now I challenge any Christian to imagine reading this story (and there’s many others where that came from) as if they were in someone else’s sacred text – like, oh, say, Islam… and NOT read it as violent!   Could you see this story in anyone else’s “bible” and see it the same way you see it in your own? 

His premise is a when a denomination (or church) strengthens it’s doctrinal and theological identity in the minds and hearts of church-goers, it can more readily lead to a more hostile Christianity.  Whereas when church denominations try to diminish the hostility of their theology and/or doctrine, it also seems to diminish the identity the people have to their denomination and/or Christianity as a whole.  

He didn’t give these example specifically, but to illustrate his point, let’s look at some extremes to make a point:  Westboro Baptist church has a very clear sense of identity!     They know who they are, and they say they know what God is about; they know what God expects from them, they know what it takes to get to heaven, etc.  And they know their mission!   And from our point of view, their mission appears very hostile – you know, picketing military funerals with signs such as “God Hates Fags”.    That’s hostile.   “But we don’t do that!   How are we hostile?”   Do you find it hostile if the Mormons come to your door to try and convert you?   We all know why they’re there.  They have a mission, a job to do, and it’s to illumine your mind and heart enough to get you to be Mormon.   And the Jehovah’s Witnesses have the same mission.  

There is in our traditions a call to “evangelize”!     “Go into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”    Where do we sit with this then?  






 I have to break now – I’ll be getting my thoughts up on the blog over time, slowly, but it’ll all get there!