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Gentle Reader,
You know what time it is. Kate and the crowd and some chocolate. A little humor and a little prayer.
We: open.
Go.
“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.”
Rob Bell is causing a fuss again, although I don’t know why anything he says catches anyone by surprise. He hasn’t changed his stance on anything, really. I read Velvet Elvis years ago and wasn’t impressed by either the theology or the writing style. I saw a couple of the Nooma videos and found nothing substantial in them. I perused enough of Love Wins before chucking it across the room to know that it was just the same, tired, old “relevant” religion in a slicker, hipster-pleasing package. (Seriously, where does Bell get his clothes? During his interview with Oprah he sported some pretty sweet cuffed skinny jeans. And, oh, the boots!)
Side note: I won’t even get into how silly it is to take spiritual direction from Oprah right now.
I’ve never met Bell. I have no idea what he’s like in person. But based on his writing, I can say with certainty that what he sells isn’t the truth. The mishandling and even dismissal of Scripture, the constant harping on being “relevant,” (so bizarre to me, because what can possibly be more relevant – and transcendent – than Christ and Him crucified?), the outright call to travel along the world’s trajectory….
There’s nothing new under the sun. This kind of stuff has been preached and plastered everywhere for centuries. Bell is simply the latest, hippest peddler.
We have GOT to know the truth. We have got to be steeped in it. We have to know it backwards and forwards and inside out.
Should we be open enough to consider ideas? To have conversations? Absolutely.
But let’s not be so open we lose that which is most dear.
Stop.
