Before I even get started, a bit of clarification. I am a Christian. Whatever your prejudices to that descriptor, I’m fine with, but let’s be clear about that up front. With that in mind, when my perspectives and opinions seem slanted to those beliefs, it won’t surprise anyone. Having established that, let’s proceed.
Over the last week, a great back & forth has been going on between, initially a bunch of Christian Pastors, later bloggers, op-ed columnists, et al. & finally a great percentage of let’s just say everyday Christians.
The whole thing centers on an as yet unpublished book by mega Pastor Rob Bell. Bell is a radical insightful voice amongst a generation of new Christian leadership that wrestles with the challenge of bringing our beliefs to an ever-changing world. His church is one of the fastest growing churches on the planet and his books & short films are some of the most popular in the country. And it is Bell’s most recent book (and his publisher’s write up for it) that has set off a firestorm this past week. The book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell & The Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, opens a dialogue for some very hard questions facing our modern world. At the center of the debate is the subject of universalism.
Now Christians, like most scholarly folk love to use words we seldom hear anywhere else and this can cause us to talk over anyone who is not “in the loop.” That said, in short universalism is the belief that Hell is largely unfounded and that by Christ’s sacrifice & God’s grace everyone goes to Heaven.
Now even for Christians that do not use fear as a tactic for reaching people with the Love of God, this can be a contentious subject. In fact the argument is centuries old and nothing new really. And this limited info on Bell’s new book has set things afire for sure.
My own experience with the circus went like this. A friend sent me a link to the CNN Belief Blog story of The Gospel Coalition’s Justin Taylor calling out Bell’s teaching as heretical. I linked to Taylor’s original blog, which led me to Twitter accounts from John Piper, Christian musicians & others. From there I found myself on Matthew Paul Turner’s excellent site (www.jesusneedsnewpr.net) and so on and so on.
In short Bell wrote a book (which the general public can’t even read yet), Taylor took issue with the scriptural accuracy of its main point (I believe rightfully so), Turner took issue with Taylor & others for their critique of Bell and a host of commenters & social network junkies (me included) joined in the debate.
Being perfectly up front, I think scripture clearly supports the existence of Hell and further, I do not believe God can be as loving & as sovereign as all Christians agree him to be without its existence (but that is not the point of this post & truthfully a longer discussion for another time).
Further, it should be noted that few are certain yet what Bell’s book actually suggests. Most of the furor seems to be based more on a YouTube trailer for the book & his publisher’s (HarperCollins) write-up for the book. Bell deserves to be fairly vetted on the merits of the book itself and not anyone’s initial perceptions of him. Does he loved to ask odd questions? Yes. Can he push buttons? Yes. But let’s pace ourselves before we start throwing around words like “heretic.”
Now, let’s pause on that for a second.
Approximately 8 hours ago, a Twitter feed links to an article about how a British High Court has banned a Christian couple from being foster parents in the UK because in short their beliefs are homophobic. Furor erupts & Christians cry “foul,” and everybody goes a bit nuts. 6 hours ago the same Twitter feed posts a larger explanation of the case. Traditionally for something to come to the High Court it had to first have an initial ruling. In this case the family wanted the High Court to overturn their City Council’s ban on them being adoptive/foster care parents based on their traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs on marriage (one man, one woman, one lifetime).The only problem is the City Council had never handed down such a ban to the family. In fact they hadn’t made any decision at all, but had shown some concern when interviewing the family and the issue came up.
What happened in essence was an impasse. British law prevents discrimination on adoption based on religious beliefs as well as sexual orientation and the couple along with their City Council filed an application to the court for guidance.
Now forgive me for getting a bit political, but the High Court ultimately did what the US Supreme Court seldom does. They chose to make no ruling. As they see it, the court is responsible to preside over the law-not make the law. Novel idea. Is the issue still cause for a concern to Christians in the UK (and the western world at large)? Yes. But it is not this great injustice that was originally reported.
So in a span of just two hours a host of us (me included) get all worked up by a random news article and then come back down to earth when a little more light is shed on the subject.
In a span of a week, some of the most influential Christians in the world get into a heated debate over an as yet unpublished book.
Why do we do this?
Why do we consistently fly off the handle and act so defensively?
Not just Christians, but human beings in general?
Why?
A few of my thoughts:
- Most people (myself included) lack perspective. If I can lose perspective when my wife is stressed over a long week with the kids-thinking she is being difficult-than I can certainly lose perspective at what real persecution looks like.
- Those of us in the western world seem to put too high a premium on “our feelings.” Your feelings are not a constitutional protected liberty and we could all do well to earn a PhD in “sticks n stones…”
- We overly inflate the value of our opinions. Just an idea, but let me posit a scenario. I’m thinking of a television personality. Politically one-sided. Bordering on a lunatic. Consistently twists soundbites & quotes out of context to impose his ideal. Narrow minded and oppressive. Now who am I talking about?
Glenn Beck?
Bill Maher?
Bill O’Reilly?
Keith Olberman?
All of the Above?
All depends on your perspective.
Maybe I’m off here, but I believe we are putting ourselves at risk with this pattern. In short I believe we over value intellect & intellectual achievement. Now hear me out: an education is one of the most crucial things to human development. I have often said if I stop learning, I die. What concerns me is that we seem to be drifting farther & farther towards a culture of self. The more I know, the better I am. And though it is certainly not the intent, we create an extension that says the more I know, the better I am-than you.
We embrace the marketplace of ideas, where anyone who is willing can come and taste of the wares of a host of ideologies and perspectives. I can sell my goods and you yours, but we neglect that there are beggars in the street unable to even been seen amongst the cast-off opinions that we’ve strewn the streets with.
On a global scale to use intellect as the defining quality of any man or woman’s worth is to cast-off literally billions of people who will never have access to even the most limited of educations. Not only is intellect culturally relative, so is the wealth that often determines the rate of our intellect. Here in the western world it creeps up less blatantly when what life you are born into is the ultimate measuring stick of what you might achieve. And let’s be clear, while racism is just as prevalent as ever (it may have just changed the methodology), the real color gap is the color green. Intellect is an industry and across the western world we’ve found a way to mass produce it while still making it mostly an elitist luxury.
For the Christian this is even more troubling. In my opinion (and scholarly types with lots of letters after their name will agree or disagree), the central key to faith in Christ is how your interpret the Bible. It all hinges on God’s Word. If you believe in Christ as Saviour or Lord, where else can you turn for reliable perspective?
To follow Christ, His Word’s have to be the foundation for all you build upon. You can’t hybrid it with any number of works from Freud to Marx to Dawkins to Piper. It must have supremacy or the whole thing is built on a house of cards waiting for the first casual wind to knock it down. If you’re going to proclaim yourself a Christian than mean it (and no this is not a veiled indictment on Bell, Taylor, Turner or any others from above).
Regardless of where you stand with Christ, westernized humanity has got to come to grips with its own arrogance. We need a quick dose of humility when we dialogue. If we cannot show grace or courtesy to our peers, how can we ever extend it to those who disagree with us.
To my fellow Christians in particular, by our sinful nature we were never ever worthy of dialogue with the God of All Creation, yet by Grace in the covering of Christ he actually chooses to dialogue with us. You may feel that anyone who disagrees with you doesn’t get it and you don’t have time for, but just understand that to do so is to not show the grace that was afforded you and to an extent, sinful.
You have to be willing to listen before you speak. (Romans 10:17)
The current climate of loud soundbites, arguing and poor give & take will only grow at our current trajectory. It’s Babel all over again and instead of bricks, this tower is made of books, blogs, sermons, quotes and twitter feeds. We could all stand to slow down. To genuinely listen to each other before we try to persuade each other. To seek to meet everyone (not just the ones who agree with us) at their point of need. To be willing to set aside my agenda for a greater good.
Or we could just keeping yelling from behind our keyboards and see if that makes any difference. Doesn’t look like it has so far.
