As part of a book-club initiative (that failed to meet more than once after we read the first book) this past summer a small group of my friends read "The New Christians," by Tony Jones. Jones was, until a few weeks ago, the national director for Emergent Village, the online epicenter of the emergent church. I had cause to reread this book a few weeks ago for a paper I wrote about postmodernism's affect on the evangelical church, most clearly evident in the emergent church movement.
Anyways, Tony Jones has recently decided that the GLBTQ community (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer) should be embraced by the church, since they "can live lives in accordance with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!)."
This statement/position is indicative of the emergent church's liberal leanings, and while Jones scoffs at the "slippery slope" accusations that have been hurled at him, one can hardly deny, at least in Jones' case, that once you start downplaying the authority of Scripture and re-interpreting the plain meaning of the text of Scripture, you will end up apostatizing from biblical Christianity. In "The New Christians," Jones relates the following story: There was a group of GLBT people that were told that they could not rise to leadership positions in their church. Rather than affirming the church's (biblical) position, someone who Jones came into contact with started a church around those GLBT people so that they wouldn't feel "alienated" from Christianity. Now, Jones himself has decided that GLBT can experience the grace of God just as much as the rest of us while remaining in the GLBT lifestyle.
I realize that many of you may not be familiar with postmodern thought or the emergent church, but they are radically affecting the younger generations of church-goers, including your children. Postmodern influence is huge, and we should all have a basic understanding of it so that we know how to engage our children who come home from college with a new or "enlightened" understanding of truth, the Scriptures, and Christianity.
This is an excellent book on the emergent church, and so is this, if you want to read about the movement from a conservative evangelical perspective. This book is the one written by Tony Jones and will provide a glimpse of the emergent church from the inside if you'd like that perspective. I have the first and third books listed here if you'd like to borrow them.
Anyways, Tony Jones has recently decided that the GLBTQ community (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender/Transsexual, Queer) should be embraced by the church, since they "can live lives in accordance with biblical Christianity (as least as much as any of us can!)."
This statement/position is indicative of the emergent church's liberal leanings, and while Jones scoffs at the "slippery slope" accusations that have been hurled at him, one can hardly deny, at least in Jones' case, that once you start downplaying the authority of Scripture and re-interpreting the plain meaning of the text of Scripture, you will end up apostatizing from biblical Christianity. In "The New Christians," Jones relates the following story: There was a group of GLBT people that were told that they could not rise to leadership positions in their church. Rather than affirming the church's (biblical) position, someone who Jones came into contact with started a church around those GLBT people so that they wouldn't feel "alienated" from Christianity. Now, Jones himself has decided that GLBT can experience the grace of God just as much as the rest of us while remaining in the GLBT lifestyle.
I realize that many of you may not be familiar with postmodern thought or the emergent church, but they are radically affecting the younger generations of church-goers, including your children. Postmodern influence is huge, and we should all have a basic understanding of it so that we know how to engage our children who come home from college with a new or "enlightened" understanding of truth, the Scriptures, and Christianity.
This is an excellent book on the emergent church, and so is this, if you want to read about the movement from a conservative evangelical perspective. This book is the one written by Tony Jones and will provide a glimpse of the emergent church from the inside if you'd like that perspective. I have the first and third books listed here if you'd like to borrow them.
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