The Rest of The Story We Find Ourselves In
**Disclaimer: I am doing an admittedly dangerous and possibly frustrating thing here. I am defending Brian McLaren. This should not be taken as blanket endorsement of McLaren’s thoughts. I will admit, I like a lot of what he says, but there is some that I disagree with.
Well, it seems that Mr. Silva has gotten tired of talking about Rob Bell for a while, and has now set his sights on Brian McLaren. This is not surprising since McLaren has become a de facto spokesman of sorts for the Emergent movement, but what it surprising, is how so easily facts get twisted in these attacks.
In this piece, we are told that Brian McLaren is “Speaking for Satan” - a pretty serious charge. Ken gives this quote from D.A. Carson’s book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, which says:
substitutionary atonement doesn’t address the question of why, if God wants to forgive us, he doesn’t just do it. How can punishing an innocent person make things better? “That just sounds like one more injustice in the cosmic equation. It sounds like divine child abuse. You know?”
Now it would be one thing if this quote were an accurate representation of McLaren’s work. What Silva is doing is actually quoting someone who is pulling one line from McLaren’s book, The Story We Find Ourselves In. For those that aren’t familiar with this book, it is the second in his New Kind of Christian trilogy.
These books are essentially semi-autobiographical novels. They tell the story of middle-aged pastor, named Dan Poole, who has a crisis of faith, and ends up having a bunch of conversations about faith with Neo, a biology teacher who turns out to be somewhat of a mentor to Dan. The passage that this quote is ripped out of is from the chapter entitled “More Than Even All the Windows Can Show”. In this chapter Dan, Neo, Carol (Dan’s wife), and Kerry (Neo’s friend) are having a convseration about why Jesus had to die. Below is an excerpt:
Carol was quiet for a minute, very thoughtful, first looking down at her feet, then over at the mountains that surrounded us, and then back to Kerry in front of her. “Well, I believe that God sent Jesus into the world to absorb all the punishment for our sins. That’s what the cross was all about. It was Jesus absorbing the punishment that all of us deserve. He became the substitute for all of us. As he suffered and died, all our wrongs were paid for, so all of us can be forgiven. OK?”
Kerry smiled. “I know that is supposed to mean something to me, and I suppose I can see it, but it raises so many questions.”
“Go ahead,” Carol said. “What questions?”
“For starters, if God wants to forgive us, why doesn’t he just do it? How does punishing an innocent person make things better? That just sounds like one more injustice in the cosmic equation. It sounds like divine child abuse. You know?”
Carol looked for help. ”I don’t think I’m doing very well. Dan? Neo?”
I spoke up. “Kerry, what Carol just tried to explain is what theologians call a theory of atonement. It’s a possible explanation for how Jesus’ life and death play a role in the salvation of the human race.”
Kerry responded, “Yes. I can see that you would need such a theory. It’s just that it…well, Christian dogma and doctrine don’t make complete sense to me. No offense, but I grew up with this stuff, and it just stopped working for me as I grew older.”
“I understand,” I said. “Really, what Carol explained is just one of six theories. It’s called the ’substitutionary atonement’ theory. To me, it’s like…” - I gestured up toward the sky - it’s like trying to see the whole beautiful, majestic sky from one of your hospital windows.”
The chapter goes on to talk about the different theories of atonement, and it doesn’t deny any of them. It just says that none of them capture the full meaning of the cross. There will always be part of the beauty that is mysterious. Brian McLaren never denies substitutionary atonement as a valid explanation in this book or in any of his other books. If anything, he like other theologians, realize that it has the potential to be misunderstood. This is a far cry from a denial.
So once again, it goes to show that if you do a little research, like actually reading the book for yourself, you can avoid making a fool out of yourself.
