Apprising Ministries points you to a couple of pieces concerning heretical Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren and his latest book A New Kind of Christianity (ANKoC). Previously I’ve told you that in ANKoC McLaren, through “10 questions that are transforming the faith,” has begun laying out the newer version of Progressive Christianity which the Emergent Church is calling Emergence Christianity. First there’s the curious headline for a recent Associated Baptist Press article by Bob Allen called Seminary professors attack new book by Brian McLaren.

It’s important to note here that the ABP is partner with the left-leaning Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which separated from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1990. And then today a tweet by Tripp Fuller, a student of progressive/process theologian Dr. Philip Clayton, as well as collaborator with Clayton in his Transforming Theology project.

Fuller wanted us to know:

Jonathan Walton nail Al Mohler and Co. on their Brian McLaren bashing. http://ow.ly/1ucMr Read Walton’s comments too. Good Stuff. (Online source)

And wouldn’t you know it, when we follow that link, we read of another “attack” on McLaren in Baptist Professors Attack McLaren’s New Kind of Christianity over at Religion Dispatches. This hit piece is by Princeton Seminary educated “Professor-Author-Lecturer” Dr. Jonathan L. Walton, “who’s also assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside.” Both articles have to do with something I covered a bit ago in Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Panel Discussion On Brian McLaren where Dr. Al Mohler led a panel discussion on ANKoC with a few of his SBTS professors.

In his report Allen reminds us that SBTS “recently devoted an entire hour-long chapel service to a panel discussion panning” ANKoC by McLaren. Allen’s ABP party line leaks out as he tells us:

While new in that it approaches theology from a post-modern perspective, the panelists said McLaren’s book in many ways merely rehashes ideas from theological liberalism, a 19th century movement that attempted to accommodate modern thinking and developments into the Christian faith.

The Southern Baptist Convention roundly rejected that notion in the late 20th century, purging seminaries of professors perceived to be “liberals” and replacing them with “inerrantist” faculty members adopting a more fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. (Online source)

No, what happened is they removed people aligned with what SBC cult expert Dr. Walter Martin had called “the cult of liberalism” and simply returned focus correctly to the fundamentals of the historic, orthodox, Christian faith. In Dr. Walton’s piece he really does come right out swinging:

Earlier this month R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, convened an hour-long panel dedicated to Brian McLaren’s latest book A New Kind of Christianity. More than a scholarly debate about the book, however, the panel amounted to four Christian apologists teeing off on the book like six-year olds with an oversized bat. (Online source)

Walton also makes the confession, “I’ll be honest and admit that I have not read McLaren’s book.” I’d have also wondered if he was familiar with what the SBTS panel had actually said but Walton does say he’d listened “to these Southern Baptist seminary professors.” The fact is, it’s Brian McLaren who is on the attack because he hates the genuine Christian faith; and instead, wants a whole new Global religion.

Well, below I give you the video of the panel in question; in closing this out for now I’ll just let the reader decide if this is an “attack,” or rather, a defense from McLaren’s own initial attack.

See also:

JESUS, RECONSIDERED: BRIAN MCLAREN AND AL MOHLER ON NPR

BRIAN MCLAREN AND HIS NEW EMERGING PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY

THE EMERGING CHURCH, PHILIP CLAYTON, AND NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY

CALLID KEEFE-PERRY, KEN SILVA, AND THEOLOGY AFTER GOOGLE

LIBERALISM 2.0 THE NEW PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN

RICHARD ROHR AND THE EMERGING CHURCH AS THE THIRD WAY

DOUG PAGITT, JOHN PIPER, AND KARMA KICK-BACK