On Criticisms of Emergent

Good gravy, it's been a while. The last month has been one of the most out-of-control months of my life. But I suppose it's been reminding me that I never had control in the first place. Which is a very, very good thing.

So. I'm back, and I've got all these thoughts bouncing around in my head like 6-year-olds at Topo Gigio's. Sorting them out will take some time, but I have a general idea of what I want to say. Let's leave the environmental hot-topic for now, and move on to something else near and dear to my heart; Emerging Christianity.

Emerging Christianity, for those of you who don't know, is a movement within evangelicalism (mostly) that appeared on the scene a few years ago and set some kind of land-speed record for being condemned by the conservative evangelicals. Emergent was unique, however, in actually asking for criticism from Christians in general. The condemnation was in many cases fast an wildly inaccurate, although highly entertaining. After a short time, however, some serious critics emerged (heh) and the dialogue was on.

My experiences with both sides of the debate began when, after reading A New Kind of Christian, I did a Google search on the Emerging Church. I wound up at the old Emergent-US blog, started reading the entries, then began commenting (as Dan-D from Canada). At the time I had a rather naive idea about the Emerging Church and the general public attitude towards it ("Wow, everyone is going to love this! Christianity that puts an emphasis on love! Hooray!"). I was shocked to discover that, apparently, not everyone was as enamored of the movement as I thought they ought to be.

This did 2 things for me. It made me slow down and more closely examine the whole Emergent phenomenon. This was great, because I did start to notice some of the more extreme aspects that have been associated with it (universalism, for example - while not something that McLaren, Miller or any other have even remotely supported there are some who would want to have Emergent hold this view). I became a great deal more cautious with my support, examining the claims of the authors instead of saying, "He's an Emerging Christian, I must agree with what he says!" I began to appreciate more fully what Emergent was actually about rather than the common perceptions/misconceptions. I knew that whatever Emergent was trying to do, it would have to follow the Bible and rely on God to accomplish it.

The second thing it did for me was open me up to dialogue with many, many learned people. I was forced to examine scripture, theological traditions, and philosophy like I hadn't since college. On both sides of the debate I made friends, friends who would challenge me and uplift me. And I found an intellectual community of believers that I felt a part of. Even after I had made the decision to throw my lot in with Emerging Christianity (a decision made largely due to the actions of several critics of Emergent) I kept in contact with several people who were critics. I've been very blessed by those relationships.

However. One thing I've been disheartened by is the actions/words of some critics. I am the first person to admit that there ought to be people watching and making sure that Emergent does not alter the gospel or the person of Christ to be "cool" or "attractive" to people in our age. And this must be done by observing the scriptures and traditions of the church. But some critics have been unnecessarily harsh, sarcastic, and cruel. Even the graciously worded and delivered "Response to Criticisms" that Emergent-US put out was treated with disrespect (or, in the case of Emergent-No, borderline paranoia). And it's not just the critics - both sides have acted disgracefully. What ever happened to "They will know you by your love for one another?" The excuse I've heard from some critics has been that Emerging Christians are heretics, not true Christians, so there's no reason to respect/love them. That makes me very sad.

This is my question: how can we as "Emerging Christians" graciously respond to the sarcastic and hateful criticisms that often come? Where are the thoughtful and constructive criticisms that we've seen in the past? And is there any common ground that we can reach?

I sincerely hope that some genuine, loving critics see this post. We need that dialogue.