Apprising Ministries has told you that gay affirming “pastor” Jay Bakker heads up a a rather rapscallion bunch spiritually who call themselves Outlaw Preachers, which is a subset of the neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church de-formation of the Christian faith. And Bakker wanted to make sure we knew about:

via @huffingtonpost: Why Do Evangelicals Dislike Me So Much? http://huff.to/9ll5ix (Online source)

Following the link we come to the HuffPost from Emerging Church guru Brian McLaren where he wonders Why Do Evangelicals Dislike Me So Much? Of course he’s only using that title as a rhetorical device; however, if McLaren really wanted to know he’d begin to get an inkling in my artcle Brian McLaren And His New Emerging Progressive Theology. For example in that piece I happened to mention that, while Brian McLaren continues to claim that he’s an evangelical, instead he’s openly espousing a newer hybrid form of Progressive Christianity that’s actually completely at odds with anything even remotely connected to historic evangelicalism.

Hmm, now I dunno, but something like that could contain at least a little clue, no? In fact, in Philip Clayton And His Transforming Theology you’ll see that this “big tent” version of progressive Christian theology [read: universalism], which is still being cobbled together by his friends like uber-liberal Harvey Cox and panentheist progressive/liberal theologian  Dr. Philip Clayton, is so broad that it evens includes the non-Christian cult of Unitarian Universalism. Now I’d have to say that right here would be a really good place to start: Brian McLaren simply does not believe the doctrine of historic evangelicalism.

So with this in mind we can see that McLaren’s being rather deceiving when, in his case, he opines: “It’s not hard to fall out of the good graces of the most conservative elements of any religious community.” Especially so with Brian McLaren who very publicly, and repeatedly, repudiates virtually everything that the evangelical community believes and teaches. And don’t go chasing him down the rabbit trail concerning his use of the phrase “the most conservative” because that’s Emergent-speak for those who would dare to believe the biblical and historic, orthodox, Christian faith once for all delivered to the saints.

McLaren goes on to suggest “those authority figures often become even more testy under stress.” Yes, they can; but as you’ll see in When In Doubt Resort To Obfuscation Brian Merritt, so can people in McLaren’s Emerging Church camp. This proves nothing; false doctrine remains false whether one ignores it, tolerates it, or whether they become angry about it. Then McLaren says:

One doesn’t have to go far to see some of the sources of that stress, whether we’re looking among Evangelical Christians (as Carol Howard Merritt recently described) or among Roman Catholic Christians (as Ian Masters recently summarized). (Online source)

1) Here’s Brian McLaren defying Protestant evangelicalism again by adding “Christian” after those who adhere to the doctrine of the Church of Rome which long ago anathematized the very Gospel of Jesus Christ; and 2) I deconstructed the HuffPost by PCUSA pastrix Carol Howard Merritt in Why Evangelicalism Is Failing A New Generation, As Is The Emerging Church to which McLaren refers. As I demonstrate in my article the only “stress” is she doesn’t really understand the Christian faith and historic evangelicalism, which then throws her well off the mark concerning her subject matter in the first place.

And unpacking this next section from McLaren’s post will show you that the rest of his piece is nothing but a series of rabbitt trails having zero to do with why Brian McLaren is about as evangelical as I am Emergent:

The impact of conservative or fundamentalist displeasure extends far beyond fundamentalism’s borders into moderate religious territory. As some of the New Atheists have pointed out, highly conservative authority figures multiply their power by keeping moderate elements afraid of becoming the objects of conservative ire. (Online source)

When you see someone in the Emerging Church who adheres to the new version of “big tent” progressive Christian theology—Liberalism 2.0—which Brian McLaren has begun laying out in his book A New Kind of Christianity use the word “conservative” in regard to a Bible-believing Christian such as myself it’s important to realize that they actually mean “fundamentalist.” And you need to understand that means, to them, somebody who is very narrow-minded (i.e. not too intelligent), and because of this, see the McLarens as threats to our world-view, which is why they see us as supposedly filled with fear and hate.

A case in point is the aforementioned BrianMerritt, who is pastor of Palisades Community Church and Carol Howard Merritt’s husband, while talking about me to McLaren’s Red Letter Christian associate, progressive Christian historian Diana Butler Bass. He tells her:

It is frightening to think one’s thought is becoming irrelevant. When truth is more important than love it looks sad (Online source)

However, 1) the truth is biblical doctrine isn’t “my” thought, and 2) it’s always going to be relevant; if the Lord tarries His Truth will remain long after the Brian Merritts, who stand in the spiritually empty tradition of the original liberals, are gone. I’m simply doing my job; and I always keep 1 Corithians 15:10 before me that I be reminded, but for God’s grace, I would be those I’m correcting, rebuking, and encouraging. I’ve said many times, and everyone who knows me would testify as well, I really don’t take this stuff personally. And I’d say to Merritt that what’s actually sad is when the love of man trumps God’s truth.

Then Merritt adds:

@dianabutlerbass I’ve been where he is. So, I can almost feel the rage, fear and guilt in all his attacks. Makes me sad. (Online source)

Seems mind-reading is a spiritual gift of the new progressive liberalism; rather, I’d offer it’s more likely that Brian Merritt is transfering onto me the way he would feel. But therein you see an example of what Brian McLaren was saying in his HuffPost; those who are actually evangelical and defend biblical doctrine from McLaren’s misrepresentation of it e.g. Dr. Al Mohler are reacting out of fear and anger to “attack” him. No, as I pointed out in Reports About The “Attack” On Brian McLaren it was, instead, Brian McLaren who decided to attack evangelical doctrine; so the truth is, Mohler merely defended his beliefs.

The rest of McLaren’s HuffPost rant can be boiled down to him attempting to make us think he’s doing some service to the church by trying to deconstruct the genuine biblical Christian faith, in ways not too dissimilar to his forebears in the original cult of liberalism, and then attempting to play the martyr because Bible-believing Christians ala Jude 3 attempt to stop him from doing so. McLaren is no brother of mine; and as a matter of fact, he actually reminds me of the children I raised when they hit their pouty “know-it-all” teenage phase as he’s essentially whining: You’re not going to tell me what to believe!

Brian McLaren then plays his final hand, and imagine that, he also somehow even manages to get two links to his book into one sentence; not very counter-culture, but nonetheless impressive:

I’m a Christian. I love God, Jesus, the Bible, prayer, worship, serving others — the whole package. But when my conscience tells me that I’m hurting people by complying with religious conventions, I don’t keep pressing the button. I start asking questions. That’s why I wrote my book, and that’s why I’m willing to get into trouble for it. (Online source)

In closing this, for now, let me just draw your attention to McLaren’s testimony above: I’m a Christian. I love God, Jesus, the Bible, prayer, worship, serving others — the whole package. Really? You do realize that those very same two sentences could just as well have been uttered by someone, say, who is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). As a matter of fact I already showed you in The New Christianity Of Brian McLaren And The Emerging Church that McLaren is on record as saying:

“The thing that gives me hope is that there’s an attitude among Christians on the ground where so many of us are sick of the kind of debates and fights that cause Christians to vilify one another.” McLaren said even churches such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which many mainstream Christian denominations consider outside the Christian fold, should be welcomed. (Online source)

And so we reach the heart of the matter; I’m afraid that with Brian McLaren and this new form of liberal/progressive theology, which is becoming another religion entirely, we’re dealing with another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. I’m not angry with someone like Brian McLaren; and I’m certainly not afraid of him. The truth is, I feel sorry for him; if McLaren really believes what he’s just written in that book then he has now put himself here:

For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19, NASB)

Loving my neighbor as myself, I now say to Brian McLaren and all who follow those who believe like him, please repent before it’s too late…

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

FRUIT OF THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ADVANCED BY THE EMERGING CHURCH