Brian McLaren is a Heretic

2007 June 1
by Matt

This is an experiment in blogging. I get nary a blip of traffic on my blog, which is fine by me. As I outlined in my first post on the blog, this is really an exercise in discipline and an opportunity to keep my writing skills intact. Additionally, it is becoming a place where I process through things like youth ministry and theology.

But I was thinking the other day, “If I did want to increase my blog traffic, how could I do that?” Then I got a funny idea: I would write anti-emerging church rants. I would say things like this:

Brian McLaren believes in universalism. He denies the truth of the Gospel as the very Word of God. He is simply an unregenerate apostate. He uses Roman Catholic, mystic and eastern religions in order to help him “connect with God”. This is nothing less than blasphemy.

Tony Jones is a relativist. He denies absolute truth and makes postmodern relativism his choice hermeneutic. He advocates reading philosophy. Postmodernism is the God he bows down to. He also advocates lectio divina, centering prayer, the Jesus prayer, labyrinths, and other pagan practices.

Doug Pagitt does not rightly divide the Word of Truth. Rather than proper expository preaching, he would rather have a “dialogue” or “discussion“. He makes a mockery out of the preacher’s commitment to his pulpit. He denies the historic creeds of the church.

Great men of God like Whitefield, Edwards, Spurgeon, and Calvin would be appalled at the apostasy present in these emerging (or emergent) churches today.

I might also do things like link to Slice of Laodicea, Christian Research Network, or Apprising Ministries.

Now, truthfully, I enjoy listening to and reading Jones, McLaren, and Pagitt. I don’t have a beef with the emerging church as a whole. But I am interested in seeing if my blog traffic increases because of the pervasiveness of the above key terms. Time will tell.

Similar Posts:

Post to Twitter

14 Responses leave one →
  1. June 1, 2007

    I read another blog where someone wrote “Obama is the AntiChrist” in an effort to increase traffic. I don’t know how it worked out for him. I wrote a brief piece about Chuck Norris and I’m surprised how many people find my blog by googling “Chuck Norris.”

  2. June 1, 2007

    it’s a bummer that you feel the need to play devil’s advocate (a pet peeve of mine). couldn’t you name drop these people, but actually tell the truth about how you feel about them? i think you’d get the same amount of traffic.

    http://revolutionfl.blogspot.com

  3. tony jones permalink
    June 1, 2007

    Great blog, Matt!

  4. June 2, 2007

    Actually, the key word that caught my eye was “heretic”!

  5. June 13, 2007

    An acquaintance of mine listed a maclaren book as one of his favorites and that shocked me.

    I googled “maclaren” and “heretic” in hopes of finding a good site with a good history of all the heretical things that he has said.

    i decided to comment to encourage you. The body is need of ephesians 5:11 folk who can clearly expose false doctrine. If you’re up for the task, keep at it.

  6. June 13, 2007

    i spelled mclaren incorrectly.

  7. Sadie permalink
    July 4, 2007

    This is awesome. Rusty and I are impressed, mostly because Tony Jones wrote on your blog. Haha!!!
    As for imagination…I don’t know what to tell you. But you should watch the movie What Would Jesus Buy when it comes out. And you should convert your car to run on vegetable oil and only shower once a week so you can be more imaginative about how to smell good. Ok just kidding about the shower thing.

  8. Rachael :) permalink
    October 8, 2007

    I was actually looking for youth program for my nephews when they go to Texas and I ran across your blog. Um…odd. It was very random but funny at the same time. Nice stuff by the way. They’re seriously looking into something.

  9. wifey poo permalink
    October 8, 2007

    blawg blawg blawg…. your blawg blawg blawg…. see me comment on your blawg.

  10. joel permalink
    June 26, 2009

    Thanks for the comments, nice looking page by the way, its inspired me to make my own…. i think im going to call it “matt cleaver is a heretic” and then have lots of discussions with people who agree with my views and opinions

    • Matt permalink*
      June 26, 2009

      I don’t think you’ll get much traffic that way, but you’re welcome to try.

  11. November 25, 2009

    great stuff Matt.
    I was about to come and find you and kick the $$%% out of you until i realized you were joking!

  12. crows permalink
    December 24, 2009

    If not for your English, you guys sound and feel exactly like Muslim fundamentalist. Christian fundamentalism is nothing more than a mirror image of Islamic fundamentalism. It’s the same mindset!

    You guys are so up the proverbial religious behind that I bet none of you even know what this means.

    • Matt permalink*
      December 24, 2009

      I’m confused. Please help.

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS