On Brian McLaren

In the wake of research motivated by the disturbing fact that Lifeway Christian Stores is promoting works by Brian McLaren I stumbled upon an interesting blog by Dr. Thomas Howe, Professor of Bible and Biblical Languages Southern Evangelical Seminary.  The beginning and the end of the blog follow:

Because of an up-coming commitment at SES, I have been researching the writings of Brian McLaren and the Emerging Church. One text that I felt obligated to read is perhaps McLaren’s most popular text, A Generous Orthodoxy. In this book, McLaren turns out to be no different, methodologically, from those with whom he takes issue. He is generous with doctrine, but he is exclusivist with methodology. Anyone who does not think like him is vilified and ostracized from McLaren’s clan. He paints his opponents with one broad brush. He misunderstands and misrepresents facts, movements, and people. He builds straw-men, but he ends up not even being able to destroy them. His self deprecation turns out to be a smoke screen for his superiority and arrogance. . .

Under the guise of generosity, the book is finally a condemnation and vilification of anyone who would be so arrogant as to think they know anything or believe that they should believe anything. Brian McLaren knows that you cannot know, and he believes he is the one who should tell everyone else what they shouldn’t believe.

For the full blog go to The Syntax Repair Shop.