I take comments like Greg Koukl's very seriously
"Be forewarned. The Emergent Church is the most theologically corrosive view/movement/trend in a long time. The Seeker movement and the "Laughing Revival" of the last decade pale in comparison. And it’s consuming millions, especially young people. We’ll keep you posted."
I am trying not be a reactionary but this obviously has me concerned. I have heard many evangelicals whom I respect (Ken Boa, JP Moreland, Chuck Colson) express deep concerns about the views of truth expressed by the EC leaders. I hope to read some of McLaren's work first hand to judge for myself. I may find that I am wasting my time at the front door engaging modernism/naturalism while *pomo* came in the back door and completely eroded the church's view of truth and knowledge.
Phil Steiger had some good posts on the EC movement here and a great series on apologetics and the EC movement starting here.
I share Phil's concern.
UPDATE: Dignan wrote an excellent post on his concerns about the Emergent movement. I recommend reading it and the comment thread. If anyone else has a recommendation on good reading, please post a comment. It is an important discussion.
UPDATE #2: David warns us to not go overboard focusing on Brian McLaren at Through a Glass Darkly: Apologetics and Soft Foundationalism. Brian is not the only voice out there in the emergent church. David focuses on aspects of epistemology (knowing) and thinks there are positive aspects to postmodern epistemology. I openly admit my skepticism to associating postmodernism with the word "positive" especially when the word "knowledge" is in the sentence. I respect David and think highly of his opinion. I am willing to listen to his arguments.
John at Blogotional: The Trend INDEED Continues also posts on the linkage between the emergent church and Joel Osteen's brand of self-help, feel good message. I had not connected those dots. John lives in my old stomping grounds (La Crescenta, CA). I am glad he linked to my post. Now I have another good blog to read.
Catez at Allthings2all: Post Modernism and Christianity posted an excellent three part series on post modernism. I am sorry I missed it the first time (it was a month ago). I am glad she pointed it out to me. Incidentally, the first time I saw her name "Catez Stevens", I confess I thought this was a guy using a knock off psuedo-name from Cat Stevens (as in "Cat's in the Cradle"). My apologies if the musical Cat Stevens is too much of a relic from the past. His time was after the flood, I promise.
UPDATE #3: I better not plan on going on Jeopardy any time soon.
From Scott McClare:
"Minor nitpick: Harry Chapin sang "The Cat's in the Cradle."
Cat Stevens is known for (amongst other things) "Morning Has Broken," "Wild World," and "Moonshadow."
Thank you Scott, and my apologies to Mr. Chapin and Mr. Stevens Yusuf Islam. Whoever said the blogosphere is not self-correcting has not blogged very long.
Also, thanks to Douglas for oodles of good links about EC posts over at Challies. That will keep me busy for a while.