Monday, July 31, 2006

i can’t help but notice that…

clerks II is underperforming at the box office while slightly disappointing movies like pirates of the carribean and worthless trash like john tucker must die are soaring. if you like kevin smith, get off your ass and go see this fantastic flick.*

israel’s current campaign against palestinian fundamentalism fits right into w’s game plan. why attack syria when we can have israel invade for us?**

God seems intent on crucifying my space issues, sound sensitivity and well-developed narcissism bit by bit by bit.

the cardinals just got swept by a team that is 19 games under .500, made one of the most meaningless trades of my lifetime** and are probably not going to improve the team by the 4 p.m. e.s.t. trade deadline.

emergent - with its focus on mission, para-church-esque organization and openness to methodological innovation - is a pure product of evangelicalism.**** can you imagine a similar initiative being launched by the greek orthodox or roman catholic church? i didn’t think so. if you disagree with me take a long, hard look at the leading lights in the emergent conversation. as far as i know each and every one of them has roots in american evangelicalism. not that this is a bad thing. i would actually argue that emergent is a wonderful expression of the evolutionary nature of evangelicalism. i find it funny that the branch of christianity that constantly takes issue with evolutionary theory is also the one that is evolutionary by design. ok, i'm shutting up.*****

i have currently have 31 voice mails and no hope of returning all the calls before 5 pm. buh-bye.

* expect a kevin smith clark review this week.

** this logic is seconded by my elderly, pacifistic, jewish co-worker. please note that before you read any anti-semitism into my comment.

*** luna for belliard?! why didn’t we just trade molina for ausmus, encarnacion for wilkerson or mulder for hudson? if i’ve said it once, i’ve said it a thousand times, these cheap-ass republican owners are simply keeping the bottom line in check so that they can flip the club within the next year. our pre-fabricated baseball heaven is quickly devolving into baseball purgatory.

**** more on this to come. maybe. if i can find the time.

***** and hoping against hope that
kid positive continues this argument on my behalf.

6 comments:

Matthew said...

I think that you make a very interesting point that emergent could only have come from evangelicalism. Emergent, as a movement, responds primarily to issues within historical evangelicalism like those that you've listed--methodological and theological orthodoxy, the state of the church and the Church, and the Body of Christ's mission to those without faith. Roman Catholicism couldn't birth such a movement because those are not heavy issues within Roman Catholicism, just as evangelicalism couldn't have birthed the Catholic Worker movement.

Now, to point to the "leading lights" of emergent is both to recognize a strength and a potential flaw. The leaders of emergent are very encouraging as people who both push the authority of the Bible in the life of Christian community while recognizing the situatedness of said Christian community within a ceratain historical/cultural context, but at the same time, the "leading lights" are a bunch of white European males. For emergent to be relevent to the Church worldwide, we need to drum up some diversity in the conversation from all believers--across the lines of denomination, culture, and gender. To make an impact on an increasingly unchurched and un-Christian world, we need fresh insight from across the Body. Emergent springing solely from evangelicalism is not a bad thing--it is a rather limiting thing, but a limit that can be overcome with commitment to the openness to innovation which is its founding charism.

james said...

Intersting point Matt. I too would like to see a far wider diversity among the emergent crowd. Good to hear from you dude!

Beth said...

Agree with you 100% that emergent is a specifically evangelical development. It's why those of us who weren't nurtured in an evangelical environment can only really be more-or less-sympathetic conversation partners to emergent: just not at all the same set of preciptating questions, issues, and assumptions.

Before Girl said...

Just buy sound dampening headphones. $8 excluding shipping costs, Smith & Wesson website. Sure, they are used by people on gun ranges, but come on-the hacking cough, the chatter, etc., surely are as loud as gunshots, right?

g13 said...

thanks for all your comments.

let me add that i do not think emergent's evangelical backround is any sense a bad thing, but it is something that needs to be recognized. without acknowledging our roots it will be difficult to connect with others and move towards God's beautiful, unexpected future.

it's also worth noting that the whiteys at emergent are well aware of the group's demographic uniformity and are actively inviting women, non-whiteys and non-westerners to participate in the conversation.

welcome to the conversation matt. i'm really glad you stopped by.

Anonymous said...

hey g-c'est moi-doerfler. thought it was interesting of you, Matt, to characterize the world as "increasingly unchurched and un-Christian" ... perhaps the 'western' world, but it seems that the world in total is actually hearing and believing more of the gospel of Christ than ever before given the strength of the Spirit's movement in Africa, S. America, China, Korea ... I guess I wouldn't be so down on it. My one cent (even less?;) is that the emergent movement is driven by reactionary dynamics to American Middle/Upper Class White Suburban Churches, and thus its power to shape church cultures who don't share the angst created by that setting is much smaller. My sample size is small, but having taken literally 1,000's of sales calls for a noteworthy Christian bookseller over the last four years, I can't remember if any non-white sounding voices have bought emergent material. Regardless, I like to listen in to the emergent conversation--I especially value creative approaches to living out the gospel that still seek to be true to Scripture--but not sharing the reactionary scheme, having grown up in a small, struggling protestant church in a wealthy NJ suburb, I just think-the more believers the better ... God knows what he's doing.