Reading through Brian McLaren’s end of the year letter gave me a sudden shock. What was so surprising, you ask? I actually agreed with him. Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop affirming absolute truth or start hanging on Rob Bell’s every word. I’m just saying that Mr. McLaren had an interesting point. Here’s a quote from the letter:
“…please don’t respond harshly to criticism. Yes, some people are mean-spirited, but many are simply misinformed or under stress and afraid; some are as yet unready or unable to see the possibility that their current views could be improved; and many are well-meaning and simply disagree. In any case, let’s refuse to respond in kind when mocked, slandered, misrepresented, or simply disagreed with; let’s surprise people with grace and good cheer. Hot religious rhetoric is nothing new in religious history, and in fact, we’ve got it easy if all that’s coming at is us harsh words.”
I’m pretty new to the blog scene, but it doesn’t take long to see that people tend to get a little vengeful and bitter. There’s nothing wrong with theological discussion, debate, and disagreement. However, let’s be careful how we go about it. We can beware of false teaching and speak the truth in love all at once. In the rest of the letter, McLaren gives the impression that the emergent church is suffering from a martyr complex. However, this segment was a good reminder to me. The goal of theological discussion shouldn’t be to win the argument, but to glorify God by growing and standing firm in the truth.
