from A GENEROUS ORTHODOXY
by Brian D. McLaren, Zondervan, 2004
McLaren is considered on of the founders of the emergy church movement.
For more informattion on McLaren
go to the five pages on him in the November 2004 Christianity
Today.
"In my readings and
travels, I have been exposed to many committed Christians who
believe that Marxism and Communism were filling the gap that should
have been filled by Christians - Christians who understood the
revolutionary social and political implications of the teaching and
example of Jesus, whose gospel was good news to the poor, along with
a challenge toward generosity for the rich.
"Because Christians failed to preach
and practice this dimension of the gospel, secular movements arose
to fill the gap. ...
"Jesus confronts the corrupt,
compromised religious system and violent, unjust political and
economic powers of his day through nonviolent resistance. ... Humanity is oppressed by corrupt powers,
systems, and regimes. Jesus commissions and leads bands of activists
to confront unjust regimes and make room for the shalom of
God." (p. 62-3,65)
"The surface causes of environmental carelessness among conservative Christians are legion. including subcontracting the evangelical mind out to right-wing politicians and greedy business interests. Too often we put the gospel of Jesus through the strainer of consumerist-capitalism and retain only the thin broth that this modern-day Caesar lets pass through. We often display a reactionary tendency to be against whatever 'liberals' are for." (p. 233)
"God sent Jesus into
the world with a saving love, and Jesus sends us with a similar
saving love - love for the fatherless and widows, the poor and
forgotten to be sure, but also for all God's little creatures who
suffer from the same selfish greed and arrogance that oppress
vulnerable humans. ... So, as the old system of church-as-chaplain/baptizer/servant-of-state-and-commerce
gives way to a new prophetic role ... For increasing numbers of us
who consider ourselves post-liberal and post-conservative, 'sacred'
words such as private (meaning personal and
individual), ownership (meaning autonomous personal
and individual control), and enterprise (meaning
autonomous, personal, individual control over projects to use God's
world for our purposes) seem to fly in the face of kingdom values
like communal (meaning seeing beyond the individual to
the community), fellowship (which means sharing,
holding in common with eh community, not grasping as 'mine!') and mission
(meaning our participation in God's projects in God's world
for God's purposes.
"I must admit that, apart from a
miracle, I see no human power capable of standing up to the
expanding empire of global consumerism, which author Tom Beaudoin
ominously calls 'theocapitalism.' But as a Christian, miracles
aren't out of the question for me. It is very possible that a
biblical stewardship that celebrates God's ultimate
ownership could someday fuel a new grace-based economy - just as
private ownership currently fuels our greed-based consumerist
economy." (p. 238-400