Why So Angry?

Russell Moore, while filling in for Albert Mohler on the Albert Mohler radio program several months ago, interviewed Tony Jones of Emergent Village.

Listen to the interview.
Read Jones's (.pdf) paper that Moore focuses on during the interview.


After the interview, Moore had some commentary. The following quote caught my attention.

Russell Moore: I think the reason that the emerging church conversation is gaining a foothold is because many in the emerging church are pointing to some people in our churches and they are absolutely right. Too many of our churches are not counter-cultural. Too many of our churches do not have real authenticity. Too many of our churches do not have real community. Too many of our churches are awash in consumerism and boring, American middle-class life.

I think the problem is that you have some people that are coming in willing to talk about these things and they're called "Emerging" because they wear black turtlenecks or sit on a stool, but they're faithful Christians. But you have others, like [Tony Jones], kind of growing out of youth ministry curriculum peddlers and [unclear], taking consumerism to the next level.... That's not new. The inerrancy debate that Tony Jones says is new? That's been going on since the Garden of Eden, and it still is. Truth is of God. Truth is about Jesus.

I think it's interesting and somewhat confusing that he starts off by generally agreeing with a lot of what Emergent Village and those in the greater emerging church conversation have been saying*, and then finishes by pouring a load of disdain over most of them. And then he finishes with two seemingly irrelevant rallying platitudes that no one would disagree with. Where does this strong urge to criticize and condemn come from?

Also, Moore repeatedly used a quote to defend the idea of absolute truth that was something along the lines of "my Word is forever settled in the heavens." I hadn't heard it before, and I can't find it in the Bible anywhere. I see a hymn that has it. Is this Scripture or not?

What a confusing and exciting and weird and fun and strange time to be a Christian.


*With the one glaring exception of what I bolded in Moore's comments. Can someone explain to me why "counter-cultural" is good?

A Story About Absoluticity

Some friends over at Merging Lanes posted a link to Albert Mohler's blog, where he talks about the dangers of postmodernism for the church. One of the comments on Merging Lanes said this:

But if you can’t say the Trinity is true across all time, humanity, comprehension, etc. then what good is it? Aren’t we to be pitied above all men if it’s only true to us(that would seem to imply that it doesn’t really exist, if it can’t be equally true to any person)? If the Gospel is not an absolute truth, then it seems to rob it of all of its divine power beyond the Thomas Jefferson-manual-of-living-a-good-life stuff.

I like to think of this conversation about absolutes in the context of a metaphorical story about two guys looking up at God, describing him. We'll call them Larry and Todd.

Larry: I can see God, and he's definitely a square.

Todd: Oh yes, I see God too and he is most definitely a square.

Larry: A square with a circle inside it.

Todd: Yes! A red square with a circle inside it.

Larry: It's true, a red square with a blue circle inside it.

Todd: Whoa, um... you mean a red square with a yellow circle in it, right?

Larry: No, it's definitely a blue circle, right there, inside the red square.

Todd: Well I see the square, and the circle, but the circle is colored yellow. Look, it's yellow just like the sun, or a dandelion, you know... yellow?

Larry: I know what yellow is, but the circle is blue, like the ocean or the sky. I can see it right there.

Todd: Well, I hate to break it to you, but you're wrong. Perhaps you should listen to these collected recordings of some famous modern apologists who argue why the circle is yellow, and how it can be proven using logic and reason.

Larry: Hmm... well, maybe it's both?

Todd: WHAT? Oh no, are you some kind of relativist?

Larry: Well no, I mean I think there's an absolute truth about the color of the circle, but maybe the circle I'm looking at is blue while the circle you're looking at is yellow?

Todd: Ohhhh, so there's no circle at all. It's just whatever color we want it to be, to us, and that's the "truth". I get it. Everything is true.

Larry: No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that maybe... maybe there's a 3rd dimension that we don't understand, and what we're seeing is a "cube" that actually has 6 different sides with 6 differently colored circles? And how God chooses to reveal himself to me is with the blue-circle side but to you he's the yellow-circle side?

Todd: A "3rd dimension"? A "cube"? What are you on about? Here, take these tapes, read these books, and you'll begin to understand that there IS absolute truth and it involves a yellow circle...

...and so on.

For a much better version with the same moral, see John Godfrey Saxe's Blind Men and the Elephant.





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