Well, like millions of other muggles around the world (close to 12 million in the US alone) I have been knee deep in the wonderful world of wizards and Dark Lords reading Harry Potter. My sister Jennifer has been telling me for years that they are good books, so has my cousin Meade. I recently took them up on their advice to read the books and have, thus far, tore through the first 4 books in 4 days (although I did sneak some peaks at the new and final book, just to find out if Harry died…and I’m not saying either way so I don’t spoil it for you).
While I have been reading with my mouth watering over the sound of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, I have been keeping up with other blogs and doing some other “summer” reading (it’s always nice to get a chance to read what you want to read instead of reading something for a class…for some reason or another, it’s always more enjoyable). This past week, my ole fundy mundy friends over at Egomaniacs have pooled their collective closed minds together to come up with a line of posters caricaturing the emerging movement.
To be honest, some of them are funny (I laughed out loud at the Narrative Theology one).
But what the posters display is a complete lack of understanding and a complete lack of the willingness to attempt to understand anything that differs from what Johnson and his sidekicks believe to be the truth. They know the truth and everyone else should be damned, or at least ripped apart on their blog (which they, of course, justify by saying they are “defending the faith”). There is not a trace of humility in what they say, which is a sad reflection of the state of Christianity today.
I have an idea: Let’s spend hours and hours in Photoshop ripping apart other believers based on our caricatures of them instead of actually attempting to understand them.
Sounds like a great plan. I’m off to adobe.com right now.
26 July 2007 at 11.27 am
Ha ha!
26 July 2007 at 6.27 pm
I guess I cancel my posting segment called Photoshop Phriday.
You know the idea of truth and humility came up today at work. My pastor and I were admirering how Jack Miller would say some pretty hard things, but was at the same time pointing out that he needed to hear even harder things said to him.
To paraphrase Miller
We should not make humility the enemy of truth when God has made them friends.
Oh yeah and concerting that picture on your post: The only sin I noticed in that picture were those haircuts.
27 July 2007 at 8.43 am
[...] I am guessing that most seminary guys dont read this book, maybe Im wrong and its required for Emerging Missiology 101. I’ve read this book three times now, and I still enjoy the way that Driscoll, seeks to be [...]
27 July 2007 at 8.48 am
4 Harry Potter books in 4 days?! That’s almost 2,000 pages. You’re insane! I started book 4 a few days ago and am on page 75.
1 August 2007 at 12.18 am
hey art -
i appreciate you pointing out how lame it is to spend hours photoshopping pictures when some of those people do not truly understand what the emerging movement is trying to do/say/point out/encourage/accomplish. in light of that comment, do you think anything said on any of those posters holds any weight? i guess i am specifically thinking of some concerns with people in the emerging movement fully embracing carnal (i can’t think of another word at the moment) activities, writing them off as enjoying their freedom in christ. do you think that excuse can go too far at times?
1 August 2007 at 10.36 pm
I’m sure they hold some weight with some people, but I’m not one of them. It’s like me critiquing the game of cricket and then wanting every cricket fan to listen to me. I don’t know anything about cricket. I have never really tried to understand cricket. I just see people standing in a field with weird knee pads and flat paddles. I wouldn’t expect a cricket fan to take my critiques to heart, no matter how passionate I make them.
In the same way, Johnson and his pals not only don’t understand the emerging movement; they don’t even make the effort to try. This is why I don’t take them seriously, but just look at them as being just as crazy as a cricket fan would look at me if I made fun of the goofy shin pads.
I’m not sure to whom you are referring when you say that some people embrace sinful activities. Of course I would say that this is wrong, as I would hope any Christian would.
I guess I would have to understand what the definition of “carnal activities” is.
Does it mean smoking, drinking, or cursing?
Or does it mean embracing homosexuality and/or allowing people to live together before they are married?
While I would say the latter is clearly spoken about in Scripture, the former is not (unless you are talking about getting drunk or offending people…which are definitely prohibited).
Are some people going to abuse their liberty and attempt to justify it? Absolutely. But this isn’t an emerging church problem alone. It happens in every denomination.
2 August 2007 at 12.44 pm
thanks for your response. it’s absolutely true that abusing liberty is a church problem, not just an emerging church problem. i’m sad that johnson and co. just don’t seem to understand. they must do some research before they write critiques; so i wonder where the disconnect is. or perhaps why they seem to lump all kinds of people together and critique them as a whole – everyone from mclaren to driscoll to others.
i’m about to start reading driscoll’s “confessions” – should be good.
- morgan.
16 August 2007 at 6.37 pm
Frank Turk and Bob Hyatt have been going at it on bob.blog over these posters. Thought you might be interested.