NOw here’s a great no-contest. MOhler vs McLaren. MOhler makes himself and his empire of holier-than-thou and certainly “a lot smarter-than-thou” out to be the gaurdians of truth; and again is amazingly clueless.
Crosswalk.com – Albert Mohler’s Weblog
McLaren intends to be provocative, explaining that this reflects his “belief that clarity is sometimes overrated, and that shock, obscurity, playfulness, and intrigue (carefully articulated) often stimulate more thought than clarity.”
McLaren is also honest about the fact that he lacks any formal theological education. As a matter of fact, he seems rather proud of this fact, insinuating that formal theological education is likely to trap persons in a habit of trying to determine right belief.
This author’s purpose is transparent and consistent. Embracing the worldview of the postmodern age, he embraces relativism at the cost of clarity in matters of truth and intends to redefine Christianity for this new age, largely in terms of an eccentric mixture of elements he would take from virtually every theological position and variant.
This quote, from a blog praised by IcThus, the original pointer to this Mohler piece, (the blog is called Nick Lewis: The Blog)
From Nick Lewis, Post Title: Pharisee Nation
Most North American Christians are now becoming more and more like these hypocritical Pharisees. We side with the rulers, the bankers, and the corporate millionaires and billionaires. We run the Pentagon, bless the bombing raids, support executions, make nuclear weapons and seek global domination for America as if that was what the nonviolent Jesus wants. And we dismiss anyone who disagrees with us.
We have become a mean, vicious people, what the bible calls “stiff-necked people.†And we do it all with the mistaken belief that we have the blessing of God.
In the past, empires persecuted religious groups and threatened them into passivity and silence. Now these so-called Christians run the American empire, and teach a subtle spirituality of empire to back up their power in the name of God. This spirituality of empire insists that violence saves us, might makes right, war is justified, bombing raids are blessed, nuclear weapons offer the only true security from terrorism, and the good news is not love for our enemies, but the elimination of them. The empire is working hard these days to tell the nation–and the churches–what is moral and immoral, sinful and holy. It denounces certain personal behavior as immoral, in order to distract us from the blatant immorality and mortal sin of the U.S. bombing raids which have left 100,000 Iraqis dead, or our ongoing development of thousands of weapons of mass destruction. Our Pharisee rulers would have us believe that our wars and our weapons are holy and blessed by God.
In the old days, the early Christians had big words for such behavior, such lies. They were called “blasphemous, idolatrous, heretical, hypocritical and sinful.†Such words and actions were denounced as the betrayal, denial and execution of Jesus all over again in the world’s poor. But the empire needs the church to bless and support its wars, or at least to remain passive and silent. As we Christians go along with the Bush administration and the American empire, we betray Jesus, renounce his teachings, and create a “Church of Christ without Christ,“ as Flannery O’Connor foresaw.
Amen NIck. Much of what you say reminds me so much of Mohler.
MOre examples from MOhler:
Orthodoxy must be generous, but it cannot be so generous that it ceases to be orthodox. Inevitably, Christianity asserts truths that, to the postmodern mind, will appear decidedly ungenerous.
And you, Mr. Mohler, do that quite well. This “post modern” mind here pretty much loathes your kind and your style and your “attitude” and concept and understanding of theology, and consider it quite the embarassment that the likes of you have destroyed the good Church home for millions of folks.
Nevertheless, this is the truth that leads to everlasting life. The gospel simply is not up for renegotiation in the twenty-first century. A true Christian generosity recognizes the infinitely generous nature of the truth that genuinely saves. Accept no substitutes.
As long as YOU are the chief negotiator, and grand-interpreter; yea, even the fundy-Baptist version of Pope, complete with an air of absolute arrogance not exhibited by the Pope. YOur theology , Mr.Mohler, is a quite UN-genoerous, as well as DIS-engenuous, and feeds your ego much more so, I must believe, than your soul. Modern day Pharisees (not to make such a comparison so unflattering to Pharisees….but I am referring to the non-Jesus opposing ones….the ones who opposed Jesus because they considered him to be “blasphemous” and “unorthodox”, these are the ones whom Mohler seems to have inherited from; the ones who actually oppose the Kingdom of God because it doesn’t square with their own “post-whatever” narcissistic , culturally captive theological bastardization that fits their own sad personal drive to power and authoritarianism.
In other words, it is so humble that it will not answer some questions that will not rest without an answer. In this case, a nonanswer is an answer. A responsible theological argument must acknowledge that difficult questions demand to be answered.
So sad to see ; “Jesus is the Answer” to him seems to be an intellectual contest. A true example of an unwitting acceptance of “modern thought” that absolutizes the human intellect over the true nature of faith; and allows itself to accept things so contrary to Jesus’ nature in the name of that same Jesus.
Quick Correction, Pharisee Nation was not written by me. It was written by John Dear. Your take was fascinating by the way. It would seem that theology — like law — is so complex; for what it is it, other than a reflection of the chatoic motivations, desires, ethics, and ideals of human beings.
I don’t fully understand Mohler’s problem, but it makes sense what has been said here. Also, like I said on Vaughn’s Icthus blog, I haven’t read any of McLaren’s books yet.
However, the thing that really sort of popped out to me in Mohler’s response is how he ended it. “Accept no substitutes.” Isn’t that originally a marketing phrased for consumed goods? It seems that right there, that says a whole lot about the kind of “truth” Mohler is attempting, without discussion, to peddle.
Hey, thanks Nick. Yeah, the “reflection of the chatoic motivations, desires, ethics, and ideals of human beings” in theology get quite scary sometimes. It’s become all the more real to me as I observe the signs of former evils of empire in the present group of neocons who take blasphmey to a whole new level, all the more so because of the enlistment of so many in the Church who have so whole heartedly been sucked into the cultural Christianity trap, and been spoon fed such heresy by the Right, and by the matching self-righteous leaders such as Mohler, Land, Falwell, Ralph Reed, Dobson.
And thanks for the links to John Dear. We’re introducing so many new voices to each other in this Progressive Christian Ring.
Dale
Eric,
Yes, I agree that:
“He keeps saying things, implying that they are awful, without saying why, as if it’s some sort of cultural code speak”. MOhler is full of “liberal menace” whispering, and he certainly hammers all the points constantly, like the Right wing echo chamber that he is, with an added layer of pietistic pomposity. His favorite boogie man seems to to be “The Culture of Death”, whcih he obviously limits to abortion , genetic science, and euthaniasia. But he is all pro-DEATH when it comes to war, death penalty, and anything that the fundamentalist echo chamber feels emoboldened to harp on, all the while missing how utterly “modernistic” and “cultural” his own theology really is. McLaren sees all that. Mohler doesn’t have a clue, so how could he think anything positive about someone who actually does some free thinking about God? Mohler is stuck in the early 20th century. Jesus had words for people such as that, like “whited tombs, full of dead men’s bones”. Jesus saw that culture (0f the Pharisee sect that were constantly after him, and infecting the masses with their brand of piety without love) as a culture of death.
Dale