Time magazine named author and pastor Brian McLaren one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America.
McLaren has written more than 20 books, and he is a principal figure in the Emerging Church, a Christian movement that rejects the organized and institutional church in favor of a more modern, accepting community.
McLaren’s new book is called Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World.
McLaren chose the title deliberately, evoking the beginning of a familiar joke in the hope that Christians would be more understanding of the religions that surround them. “One thing I think is quite certain,” McLaren tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz, “If Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed were to bump into each other along the road and go have a cup of tea or whatever, I think we all know they would treat one another far different and far better than a lot of their followers would.”
His smug-looking smile with his half-closed eyes irritates the life out of me. Why does anyone take this theologically ignorant man seriously?
“so the goal was to get someone to questions their faith and then switch sides” – This convinces me that McClaren is not an adherent of reformed theology since he seems to think that he is the one that is converting people. Perhaps if he embraced a sovereign God he would see people of other faiths as precious children of God to be engaged and prayed for so the Holy Spirit will convict and convert them. I think he is still stuck on how much he has to do to effect God’s plan as part of earning his salvation, rather than patiently waiting on God. He also might have an easier time accepting that God’s Holy Bible really does mean what it says and does not need help from folks like him to interpret what God meant!
Clarin – I’m going to give McClaren a pass on the picture and assume his smile and half-closed eyes were due to the photographer taking his picture with the sun directly in his eyes. Also, in a personal meeting, you can bet Jesus would express his love for Moses, Buddha, and Mohammed followed by him declaring to them that no one can come to the Father except through him.
He regularly has bad luck with photographers, then. McLaren is just another example of someone exiting orthodoxy. It’s called liberalism, which is by its very nature parasitic on true faith.
“If Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed were to bump into each other along the road and go have a cup of tea or whatever, I think we all know they would treat one another far different and far better than a lot of their followers would.”
Jesus – yes, the Buddha – okay, Moses – maybe so, Mohammed – don’t bet on it.
I should just say I don’t know this at all. Our Lord was certainly capable of extraordinarily vivid criticism of those He saw as “blind guides”.
Or if you want to put it another way, the cup-of-tea-with-friends view of Jesus runs up against the Gospel narrative of the Cross. Jesus is not executed for being nice.
Ahh, he writes of an effete Jesus or Jesus-cum-Phil Donahue.
The man had the physique of a laborer, a carpenter, and was in his early 30s, still at the height of a man’s physical prowess, able to wreck moneychangers’ tables and not be physically challenged by anyone present.
I guess what this man writes is what passes for post-modern theology – basically touchy, feely pap.