themattscott

My Response:

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Question 1. What is it that draws you to the movement?

The first thing that comes to mind is the differences between the members in the movement, from backgrounds, to levels of academic achievement, to belief systems all still being held while conversations are fostered. Emergent is normally thought of as a more left (liberal) leaning movement, but that’s not necessarily true, while a large number of those who fall under the title do tend in that direction, I remember being at a cohort meeting with a guy who was still quite conservative, as well as former fundamentalists who found themselves in a middle ground as far as theology goes. The ability to carry on conversation while disagreeing is a very desirable trait to me.

Other aspects that draw me to the movement really revolve around that same theme, openness to differing thought, a desire for justice, and the acceptance of one who questions and doubts.

In high school I found that I was a full fledged evangelical by Sunday, and something entirely different by weekday, I think you probably saw both sides of me a few years ago. What that dichotomy revolved around was my belief that Christianity was centered around a set of moral codes, and as much as I paid lip service to Christianity being a relationship, not a religion, it was the moral code taught to me by the Church that drove my actions. When I say moral code, I’m implying a set of thou shalts, as in, thou shalt read thine Bible, and thou shalt not drink. Of course the moral code taught to me was far larger than those two examples, the general sense that I was given (in my time in the evangelical church) was that your moral standing depended upon those things, if you didn’t follow it correctly you were either a reprobate, or someone who needed to recommit your life to Christ.

In my opinion, the source of this evangelical line of thought is the idea of the transactional Cross, where because of X then Y must happen. While I would openly admit Christ died for us, and due to our sins, I think the Cross means much more than that. As an example of sacrificial love (that we seem to have lost) and a counterpoint to the idea that violence wins (violence being an idea that we subscribe to en mass), that as a basis for faith changes things.

I’m not quite sure if you want me to get into a doctrine by doctrine dissection of my beliefs here, and I’m not sure that would be entirely helpful as I claim no absolute certainty in any of them (yet still place faith in them). If you want to know about any specific doctrines or whatever, just shoot me another message and I’ll try to etch of what I feel about it.

3. What do you think of the Church and Fundamentalism/Evangelicalism?

I’m going to touch on the second part first. I want to draw a distinction between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism here, as many I know would not. You may remember I spent my freshman year attending a fundamentalist school, and that has largely shaped my opinion of fundamentalism as a whole. Simply put, I have very little love for fundamentalism, while their beliefs may be held out of sincerity and piety, the amount of angry judgementalism that they dole out is too much for me.

As to evangelicalism, I’m a harsh critic of it/them. I think the reason for the criticism is simply that Evangelicalism is the tradition from which I came. While I can appreciate the heart behind the evangelical idea of “spreading the gospel” I don’t think where they have landed falls in line with what Jesus intended. Selling “Fire Insurance” and using fear tactics isn’t quite what I see when I read the gospels. My heart melts a little when I see (from some evangelicals) a raw and true filling of emotion when someone “Comes to Christ,” and it’s at that time that I can appreciate the movement at a higher level. However, in general I think that evangelicalism is a detrimental force on the church. The idea of prosteltyzing another to conform exactly to your views hearkens far too close to colonialism, which never works out well for the imperials, nor the colonized.

As for the church, I think I have a quote from Augustine that grasps my opinion… “The church is a whore, but she is my mother.” Simply put, we have sold out. While the remain lights in the darkness, we have embraced the damaging and damning aspects represented in the world. Things like consumerism, colonialism, greed, and an acceptance of violence stop the church from carrying on any sort of work of Justice, love, or peace. From my view, the Christ came to the broken, the needy, and the margins, basically those which the church loves to ignore.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll restate it now, if Christianity were to lose hegemony, it would be the most beneficial thing that has happened to the Church in 1970ish years.