I'm once again not surprised by the poor behavior within the church, but this time its received much press and shows just how poor some of the leadership's discernment is.
I am of course speaking of the recent #robbell TWITTER war over his upcoming book, Love Wins.
From 1 tweet by a high profile leader/pastor in the church, the entire globe was brought into a nasty fight of divisions and exclusiveness.
So, I will not discuss the theological matters that were being fought. Rather, I will focus on the unfortunate effects of what happens when we forget to be grace-filled, and divide.
The Huffington Post said it best: "The fact that this controversy became the most dissected piece of news in the evangelical world at the same time the regime of Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi was escalating violent attacks on its own people this weekend offers a sobering commentary on the priorities (and irrelevance) of too-many evangelical leaders."
In fact their entire article hit the nail on the head.
YOU CAN READ IT HERE...
Once again the church is known for what it's against. In this case, opinion.
I'll read the book when it comes out, and make an educated post on its ideas and questions then (but regardless of what's written, I will not be threatened, or hurt, or feel the need to jump into character assassination on any camp). Until then, I'm not jumping to conclusions.
Peace,
Ross
p.s. here's Rob Bell's PROMO VIDEO for Love Wins.
4 comments:
We're talking about the very Gospel itself here, just as with the Reformation.
Bell, has departed the faith as in They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)
This is no light matter because Bell is preaching a different gospel (cf. 1 Galatians 1:6-9); was Paul exhibiting "poor behavior" with what he wrote?
Or how about Jesus in Matthew 23 when He was also dealing with false religious leaders?
I would imagine 10 different people might give us 10 different understandings of these texts. We ought to be confident enough in the ways we bind and loose passages that others interpretations are not seen as threatening. Thats why a grace-filled conversation is vital.
Thanks for the comment!
-Ross
The question boils down to exclusivism vs. universalism. To say that Christianity is not exclusivistic is kind of a naive position to take in my opinion.
Like Ken said, Jesus corrected false views. The new testament letters also contain correction of false views.
True, but is there a single instance where Jesus corrects in a more conservative or exclusive way than the church was currently teaching/preaching/living?
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