08AR13-34

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Apologia Report 13:34

September 25, 2008

Subject: America and the Challenge of Religious Diversity

In this issue:

EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT - pro and con assessment identifies leaders behind four main segments within movement

KELLER, TIM - World magazine's Book of the Year winner

PLURALISM - the impressive insights of Robert Wuthnow

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - the luxury jet and its significance

YOGA - recent public radio broadcast emphasizes its religious nature

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EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT

In his "From the Editor" column (page 3), Elliot Miller begins: "The emerging church movement could be the number one internal challenge facing evangelical Christians in the early twenty-first century." No insignificant remark, coming from him. Miller describes his principal concerns as the "errant assumptions of postmodernism," such as "relativism, skepticism, theological indifference, and outright theological liberalism."

"Navigating the Emerging Church Highway" by Mark Driscoll, a pastor with Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington and "one of the movements early leaders," breaks the movement down into four segments: Emerging Evangelicals, House Church Evangelicals, Emerging Reformers, and Emergent Liberals.

After describing the first three groups, Driscoll explains why he considers the fourth problematic. He also profiles the three main Emergent Liberals: Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, and Rob Bell. Christian Research Journal, 31:4 - 2008, pp10-21.

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KELLER, TIM

Another sign that Christian apologetics is gaining strength at the beginning of the 21st century? In "Anti-Moralist Christianity" Marvin Olasky finds that Keller's Reason for God [1] is the most likely candidate of all Christian books published within the last year to "change many lives and ways of thinking. ...

"Keller is the gifted pastor of an ecclesiastical semi-miracle, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Few though that young urban professionals would flock to a biblically orthodox church but Keller's flock now numbers over 5,000, and his church has birthed many others throughout the New York metropolitan area and around the world."

Olasky does a good job of profiling Keller and includes a question-and-answer format interview. World, Jun 28/Jul 5 '08, pp68-71.

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PLURALISM

"Responding to the New Religious Pluralism" by noted sociologist Robert Wuthnow -- includes this statistical summary: "By 2000 there were approximately 1,200 mosques in the United States with between two million and four million adherents. Thirty percent of these mosques had been established in the 1990s and another 32 percent in the 1980s. Currently there are 1,600 mosques with an estimated membership of six million, 65 percent of whom are foreign born and come from at least sixty-eight different countries. There are more than 700 Hindu temples, up form about 200 in the early 1990s, with between 1.5 and two million members. U.S. Buddhists number between 2.5 and four million and are represented by at least 1,000 meditation centers, 70 percent of which have been established since 1985. ...

"For the past seven years, I have been studying the responses of the Christian population in the United States to the new religious diversity." He reports that his "interviews with Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists showed that what they most want from Christians is not just to be left alone and not a thin veneer of tolerance, but understanding."

In his review of Wuthnow's book America and the Challenge of Religious Diversity [2] also featured in this issue (pp175-176), Glenn Lucke observes that "Wuthnow detects avoidance as the most common strategy for dealing with diversity." Showing great insight, in considering what lies behind this "avoidance behavior" for most Christians, Wuthnow explains that "The potential peril is not that we will convert, but that we will have to think harder about what we truly believe. In fact, the very awareness of other faith traditions is already having a profound effect on the grassroots theology of American Christians."

Wuthnow divides the Christian population into three groups: eclectic (no religious preference), inclusive (mild religious preference), and exclusive (no true alternatives). (Note: Our summary descriptions, not Wuthnow's, are in parentheses.) The observations Wuthnow arrives at based on his study are just as insightful: "Eclectic Christians have often been jarred by the complexity of contemporary life to the point that they cannot find truth in any one faith tradition and indeed are often skeptical about truth itself. ...

"The question inclusive Christians face is not so much whether specific teachings of other religions are true but whether a special commitment to their own tradition is warranted. A faith of this kind involves deciding that spirituality, like intimacy, is nurtured best through a lasting commitment. ...

"Through more frequent contact with neighbors and co-workers from other faith traditions, exclusive Christians increasingly recognize that evangelism must be conducted in a spirit of love and understanding. ...

"Honed by pluralism, many exclusive Christians are coming to understand the Bible more as a guidebook for an abundant life than as an answer sheet." Crosscurrents, 58:1 - 2008, pp43-50.

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WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT

The homes of Word-Faith celebrities are usually featured by their critics as evidence of abusive wealth accumulation. In "What Would Jesus Fly?" Rusty Leonard and Warren Cole Smith provide reasonable justification for changing this approach. As Ole Anthony explains, "ownership and use of luxury jets is one of the surest indicators that donor money is not being used for ministry purposes."

"Exhibit A" would appear to be Eagle Mountain International Church, associated with Kenneth Copeland, which "owns three, including a Cessna 750, the fastest civilian airplane available in the world."

To put this in perspective, the authors explain that "used 'entry level' jets can be found for less than $2 million, while new top-end jets can sell for more than $50 million.

"The 'fully loaded' costs for these jets ... can easily go over $10,000 per hour...." (Imagine how many dollar-bills-per-second that would be flying out of an open, mid-flight, window. - RP) A sidebar lists "more than 30 churches and Christian ministries with luxury jets." World, Jul 12/19 '08, pp40-42.

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YOGA

Many say that yoga is not religious. To the contrary, on Sunday, September 14, public radio stations featured the Speaking of Faith program "Yoga: Meditation in Action," one of the most strongly religious presentations of yoga that we've noticed at the national level. It profiles Seane Corn, described as "a star" in America's burgeoning yoga movement. Corn "teaches yoga at the Exhale Center for Sacred Movement in Venice, California, [and] is the National Yoga Ambassador for YouthAIDS, and co-founder of 'Off the Mat, Into the World.'"

The program is summarized: "Yoga studios are cropping up on street corners across the U.S. Now there are yoga classes at YMCAs, law schools, and corporate headquarters. This 5000-year-old spiritual technology is converging intriguingly with 21st-century medical science and with many religious and philosophical perspectives. Seane Corn takes us inside the practicalities and power of yoga, and describes how it helps her face the darkness in herself and the world." <speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2008/yoga/>

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, byÊTimothy Keller (Dutton, 2008, hardcover, 320 pages)

<www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525950494/apologiareport>

2 - America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, by Robert Wuthnow (Princeton Univ Prs, 2007, paperback, 416 pages) <www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691134111/apologiareport>

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