DOUG PAGITT AND KEN SILVA
By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Jan 16, 2011 in Current Issues, Emergence Christianity, Emergent Church, Features
The online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries has been covering the rise within mainstream squishy evanjellyfish of the sinfully ecumenical neo-liberal cult of the Emergent Church aka the Emerging Church with its quasi-universalism in a new version of Progressive Christian theology under their spiritual circus “big tent” Emergence Christianity.
As I explained in Emergent Church: A Diseased Tree the discernment ministry Herescope has some excellent articles that uncover the real truth about the actual beginnings, through Leadership Network (LN), of the EC—which is a seeker friendly movement for the pouty postmodern set.
In Leadership Network Spawns Emergent Church we’re told:
Do not be deceived. The “emerging church” movement did not spontaneously erupt. It was a well-funded and well-organized movement from its very inception. It appears to have been fashioned by a handful of corporate business leaders who wished to create a counter-cultural evangelical movement. The intended purpose appears to have been identifying and recruiting potential young leaders for comprehensive indoctrination. One of the chief outcomes has been the further degradation and deconstruction of traditional Christianity. (Online source)
That heretical universalist Emerging Church pastor Doug Pagitt, one third of the unholy EC trinity of apostates along with Living Spiritual Teacher and EC guru Brian McLaren and their friend Tony Jones—progressive “theologian in residence” at Pagitt’s Solomon’s Porch, admits what Hererscope just pointed out is clear from a recent interview. Pagitt confesses:
I was hired [by Leadership Network] to create, what they refered to in internal language there, as the Young Leaders Network…the way I handled the majority of what I did in the Young Leader Network was to travel all over the country, follow up on leads, and meet people, and ask them if they would want to join together with others in these kind of conversations… I almost think that Ken Silva would have no one to write about if we hadn’t created this little network.
Also in his book A Generous Orthodoxy EC guru Brian McLaren then explains:
In the late 1990’s, I was invited to become part of Leadership Network’s Young Leader Networks (YLN), also briefly known as the TerraNova Project. I was grandfathered in as the network’s “old guy,”…I met with Doug Pagitt to discuss our future plans, YLN having just been launched by Leadership Network to continue on its own as an independent entity.[1]
So we have Doug Pagitt and LN to thank for the heretical Brian McLaren being invited to slither into your Young Adult and Youth Groups; and as I pointed out in Doug Pagitt And Arrogance of Liberal/Progressive Christians, heresies refers to factions, divisions, and in line with Dr. John MacArthur I see Pagitt’s teachings concerning soteriology to be a form of universalism. Not only that but, as I showed you in Toxic Theology Of Doug Pagitt, I’m hardly alone in that regard; consider the following from no less an authority on the Christian faith than Dr. John MacArthur who has said:
Let me just cut to the chase on this one: [Doug] Pagitt is a Universalist. What he was saying is real simple. He was saying when you die your spirit goes to God and judgment means that whatever was not right about you, whatever was bad about you, whatever was substantially lacking about you, gets all resolved. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Buddhist, a Hindu or a Muslim—doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian really; we’re all going to end up in this wonderful, warm and fuzzy relationship with God. That’s just classic universalism.
(Online source)
Today Pagitt would tweet:
Following that link we go to Sign of the times: Astrology story soars like a comet; so tongue-in-cheek Doug Pagitt was asked:
Of course the syncretistic Pagitt ignores the substance of the question and responds:
Here’s the Facebook page for Doug Pagitt Radio, whose podcasts are sponsored by Fuller Theological Seminary, and also gives further evidence of Pagitt’s kind of universalism:
As you can plainly see “professional religious person” Pagitt is making up a form of universalism by telling people “of God’s invitation for all people to participate in the benefit and blessing of the world.” I’m not really sure why Doug Pagitt thinks I’d really want me on his program when he’s leveled ad hominems at me accusing me of the “stalking” of women leaders by following their tweets and facebook” and of writing “gossip, slander and misinformation.”[2] Doug Pagitt has also called me “dishonest” while alleging I am “slandering” and “misleading people about me and others.”[3]
This heretical teacher has even told me that I am the one in sin as:
Your unwillingness to allow others to speak to you or answer you and for you to continue to slander while hiding is sin.
You need to repent of it and change your ways.
For you to not be willing to listen to godly counsel is very concerning and a sign of your hard heart.
Come on my show, or allow me to meet you in person and show you your sin.
(Online source)
Oddly enough, Doug Pagitt told me about my supposed “unwillingness to allow others to speak to” me, um well, while we were having a dialogue in a combox over at his personal blog; in the real world that is hardly hiding and being unwilling to speak. Unfortuately, Pagitt has no ground to stand on because the documentation is right within my writings concerning the false teachings of Doug Pagitt. Here’s a couple of quick examples; first, in my post Toxic Theology Of Doug Pagitt I’ve already pointed you to a review of Pagitt’s book A Christianity Worth Believing appropriately entitled A Simple Review of “A Christianity Worth Believing”, which I also cited in Michael Dowd And Doug Pagitt Of The Emerging Church.
There we read:
What Christianity has Pagitt presented us? We are taught that sin isn’t a serious issue, that Jesus was simply an example of what we’re meant to do, that the crucifixion wasn’t necessary in the long run, that the afterlife isn’t important, and that we can learn a lot more from holistic medicine than we can the Bible. At what point does this become Christianity? How can this be Christianity? The role of Christ is diminished and our role with God is simply played out in a post-modern ideal that borders along pantheism. You can call it spirituality, but you can’t call it Christianity. (Online source)
Like I also brought out previously, he could quite literally say: “Hi, I’m Doug Pagitt; I’m a Christian, though I don’t believe virtually anything Christians believe.” Then secondly, there’s the below from Dr. John Bohannon, who points out that— in classic centered on the self postmodern existentialism—for Doug Pagitt:
the Bible is an active and living book that, in his own words, “invites us to step into the stories, not as observers, but as participants in the faith that is alive and well and still being created.” The implication being, the Bible is not a fixed, immutable, infallible Word from above, but rather a piece of God’s ongoing story in humanity; a story that Pagitt, Solomon’s Porch, and other communities of faith, can participate in as they join in the ongoing creative activity of writing their own story for today, just as Paul did for his day.[4]
There is a bright side however, apparently Pagitt places me in some solid company when he wrote “in some ways [this is] very reminiscent of the folks that make comments about me on a regular basis, people like Ken Silva, Todd Friel, Kevin DeYoung and the like.”[5] O sure Doug Pagitt, I suppose that they’re all dishonest and slanderers as well. I know I can live with that like. :)
________________________________________________________________________________
Endnotes:
[1] Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy [Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Emergent YS, 2004], 275.
[2] http://tiny.cc/6o30i, accessed 1/16/11.
[3] http://tiny.cc/q7qui, accessed 1/16/11.
[4] John Bohanon, Preaching & The Emerging Church: An Examination of Four Founding Leaders: Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, and Doug Pagitt [Seattle: CreateSpace, 2010], 88.
[5] http://tiny.cc/j54po, accessed 1/16/11.
See also:
DOUG PAGITT AND ALLEGED SLANDER
MENTAL OFF-ROADING RADIO WITH DOUG PAGITT AND MICHAEL DOWD
MICHAEL DOWD & SPENCER BURKE—INTEGRITY AND EVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY (PART 2)
DOUG PAGITT AND HOMOSEXUAL SIN
DOUG PAGITT, THE EMERGING CHURCH, AND AFFIRMING HOMOSEXUALITY
Subscribe via RSS