You know you’re doing something worthwhile when all the right people are denouncing you.
A couple of weeks ago Herescope denounced Jay Gary, Diana Butler-Bass, Brian McLaren and myself, who will be hanging out at the World Future Society’s annual conference in D.C. We’ll be talking about “The Future of the Religious Right” and of global Christian faith in general, but the Heroscope team sees our work as promoting “new theologies and practices,” and “disparaging…of biblical prophecy.” Somehow, they suspect that all this winds up “creating an evolutionary convergence” where we all sing Kumbaya and venerate Gaia and Easter bunnies. As if that’s a bad thing!
Moving along: I’ve already told you the kind of flack The Shack has been getting recently with the heresy-hunter websites. Well, as Steve Knight reports at Emergent Village, now our ‘ol pal Mark Driscoll is in on the action too (you can watch his eight-minute YouTube rant on the E.V. link). Apparently he’s mighty uncomfortable with the sacred feminine, anthropomorphic depictions of God, and the idea of the Trinity (and thus, human relatedness) as mutually submissive rather than chain-of-command hierarchical. Sigh. Co-publisher Wayne Jacobsen blogs his response to the question “Is The Shack Heresy?”
Of course Frank Viola has had his share of critique concerning Pagan Christianity–not all from shrill heresy hunters, but certainly enough of it. Well, Tim Dale over at Karis Productions produced this pretty funny spoof response:
I have two observations about all the shelling and attack from this past month: Most of the people above are friends of mine, and for the most part, we can all laugh this off (in the cases of Frank and Team Shack, they can laugh all the way to the bank, as these books have really struck a chord with most readers and have become best-sellers)–even if we don’t know whether to laugh or cry sometimes. Others, though, are not so fortunate–heresy-hunters can cost people their livelihoods.
I don’t have the privilege of knowing Peter Enns, but his story has been all over the blogosphere recently. As Christianity Today reports, Enns has been suspended from his teaching post at Westminster Theological Seminary for writing his 2005 book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, which takes a hard look at the messy, complex, and human aspects of Scripture from an evangelically-informed text criticism point of view. The Board of Trustees said:
“That for the good of the Seminary (Faculty Manual II.4.C.4) Professor Peter Enns be suspended at the close of this school year, that is May 23, 2008 (Constitution Article III, Section 15), and that the Institutional Personnel Committee (IPC) recommend the appropriate process for the Board to consider whether Professor Enns should be terminated from his employment at the Seminary. Further that the IPC present their recommendations to the Board at its meeting in May 2008.”
I understand that confessionally Christian schools are not as enamored with “freedom of thought at any cost” like their liberal arts counterparts; I get that evangelical higher learning institutions are trying to maintain a precarious balance between intellectual integrity and nurturing creedal faith commitments. All the same, Enns is not Bishop Spong or something–he’s asking questions about Holy Writ that the rest of the Church (and world at large) have been asking since the 19th century. Like it or not, those who read and love the Bible are going to begin pondering its more troubling aspects with greater honesty and ideological flexibility.
Heresy-hunting is far from the world’s worst problem. (Next time, I’m going to blog about sex trafficking. Please try to refrain from throwing yourself off a building.) Nonetheless, it is a downer. As I mused last year, sometimes I wonder why I even bother participating in this kind of ‘dialogue’–it all seems so insular. Sometimes I just want to throw my blog into the ocean (so to speak) and becoming a wandering hermit…with my wife and child, of course. But for now, I suppose I’ll leave everyone with an easily-rebuttable maxim: If you don’t have something kind to blog, don’t blog anything at all.
Related:
Mike Todd’s The Shack Film casting call
John MacArthur launches Nothing Must Change tour
Heretic Hunter video
Brad Cummings and Wayne J have something constructive to say about all of this in their Doctrine Police podcast at The God Journey
After talking on the phone with Frank, I penned a short article on Pagan Conversations. I am still reading his book, and planning on longer interview with Frank.
The important thing is that on all sides the rhetoric of personal attack can be stifling. My question is this, do you think the “funny” video you posted which vilifies anyone who disagrees with Frank as “hateful” is any different than the heresy hunter websites you mention? If so, how?
Hi Mike,
One statement really resonated with me. “Heresy-hunting is far from the world’s worst problem.”
It may not be. But in some ways, it’s a meta-problem (or even a hella-problem). It takes time, energy, resources away from addressing real issues like sex trafficking.
The people who’s ministries are called “Grace to you” but then proclaim “Nothing must change, except you” are so filled with a sense of their own self-importance that they’re unable to see their own self-impotence. They bind heavy burdens on others but are unwilling to lift anyone’s burden. They turn “love your neighbor” into “condemn your neighbor.” They sit in God’ seat and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
It’s much easier to fight against someone else’s beliefs than to engage real people with real problems in the real world.
The rant of Kevin is now ended.
Mike
As one who is proficient in making Freudian slips, I see that (perhaps) you made one. The blog is “Herescope”, not “Heroscope.” Maybe it wasn’t a slip after all, but a not-so-subtle jab instead?
Speaking of Freudian, Kevin, was “self-impotence” a Freudian or a clever play on “self-importance” in your previous comment?
Steve,
It was very intentional.
BTW, I’m not as riled up as I was yesterday. The heresy hunters may always be around, but God loves them too.
I certainly hope my most recent series of comments wasn’t seen as an attempt at “heresy hunting” and I hope that when I do get frustrated with *some* things emergent, I do so with gentleness and charity. If I ever fail to do that…just let me know, alrighty?
Peace, Andrew