The Future of Openness? A Review of Creation Made Free

In 2007, I was exploring Greg Boyd's newly launched ministry website when I stumbled upon an upcoming conference he was scheduled to attend on the site's calendar page. The event was called the "Open Theology and Science" seminar and it was to take place in mere weeks just outside Boston (where I live) at Eastern Nazarene College. I was ecstatic! I immediately scoured the ENC website for more information. To my delight, the school's website housed a complete description of the event including a schedule of the public debates and lectures that were to be held, along with a complete list of the conference participants. The list read like an Open theology hall of fame! The dream team of the Open View would all be there: Pinnock, Polkinghorne, Sanders, Hasker, Basinger, Rice, Boyd… I could hardly believe my eyes.

I counted down the days like a kid waiting for Christmas and attended every second of every publicly held event with what Joshua Tom calls "nerdy glee." I met and spoke with many of the Openness scholars I'd admired for years at the point, and continue to admire to this day. For a theology geek like me, it was tantamount to meeting rock stars. My wife and friends teased me mercilessly about my giddiness.

While I primarily attended the conference for the theology, I couldn't help but marvel at the presentations given on Open theology's potential to propel forward a deeper, more meaningful dialog with the sciences. That Openness made sense of the Bible was enough for me to affirm the view, but its capacity to bridge the unnecessary cultural divide between biblical Christian faith and serious scientific research only magnified its value for me.

However, I was a bit confused by the presence of Process theists at the conference, and wondered if I had been mistaken in my conviction that Openness was quite distinct from Process. Having vigorously defended Openness from the accusation by classical theists that it is 'Process in disguise', I felt slightly betrayed. Were Open View proponents compromising their distinctiveness? At several points throughout the public events I was assured this was not the case by the Open theists with whom I spoke, but a lingering twinge of suspicion remained.

It was a great privilege to meet the conference organizers Karl Giberson and Thomas Jay Oord, and to witness the miracle of an evangelical denominational college that did not feel threatened by either dialog with science nor theological frameworks often maligned amidst groups like the ETS. I gained a great deal of respect for the Nazarenes as a results and retain it to this day.

Both the 2007 and 2008 Open Theology and Science seminars are what gave birth to this book and have sparked this important dialogue between the theological and scientific communities.

I encourage you to check out my review of this seminal work in this field at my independently-hosted blog (BeingTC.com): bit.ly/cmf-review

Crosswalk.com Apparently Allows Only Ignorant Comments

Dr. Soong-Chan Rah was recently interviewed about his book The Next Evangelicalism by Crosswalk.com. When I read the comments left by "readers," I was amazed by the level of ignorance they display. One commenter's remarks particularly caught my attention. He calls himself "metaphysicalmike," and this is the comment he left:

"This is like our Constitution is a living and breathing document - wrong. The Bible is not either. I have been a member of many churches and have yet to find one that is really directing itself to be a captive white church. Some of the churches have tried to attract non-whites to the church by offering alternative services and Sunday school classes, etc., but without a minority minister it doesn't seem to work. This article misses the mark. It is not the evangelism that misses the target, but the fact that the cultures are different and as in regular life society the two have not yet meshed into one society, but are made up of many small ones each with distinct differences. Further this article only seems to point out that there are differences, but not what can be done to change the system. Without the constructive part of the criticism showing what needs to be done and how it can be done does not offer much other than criticism which detracts further from bringing the groups together."

While the comment by "metaphysicalmike" has been allowed to remain visible for over a week, my comments posted last night were immediately removed.

"@metaphysicalmike: Your comment is alarmingly ignorant and defensive. Why Rah's thesis concerning the church evokes from you the need to share your political bent is beyond odd. And even though it is grossly off-topic, you are flatly wrong about the Bible. Hebrews tells us explicitly that the Scriptures are "living and active." However, what is worse is, when you arrive back at the relevant topic of Rah's book, you clearly demonstrate you are not a bit more informed. You assume you can judge Rah's thesis based on this single interview alone. You obviously have not touched the book, let alone read it, but yet you consider yourself qualified to condemn it. This is a sad mistake.

Moreover, you display a seriously unfortunate lack of understanding of the New Testament. There have been few cultures in recorded history with less in common than the Hebrews and the Hellenists, yet it is the overwhelming testimony of Scripture that God's mission was to unite the disparate peoples of the first-century in Christ. So much so that Paul's journeys and exploits to do this very thing make up the majority of the these 27 books.

Are we any different? Has the mission of God ceased since Acts? Is not God's redemptive purpose still to call out from among all the nations one bride of Christ? Or do you supposed that the scene in heaven which John describes omits the necessary segregating compartments of God's throne-room? Are American Christians exempt from the duty of all believers to reflect the heavenly worshipping reality that it is God's dream to manifest?

One third of _The Next Evangelicalism_ is devoted to strategies for combating the rift between American Christians of diverse ethnicity. Three chapters. Since you have not actually read the book, you wouldn't know that."

I have written to Crosswalk.com and will update this blog post if I get a response:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing regarding comments that have been removed and allowed to remain on a recent interview conducted by and posted on Crosswalk.com. The interview was with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, author of _The Next Evangelicalism_. Several comments left by readers are ignorant and unhelpful to anyone, yet they are allowed to remain. However, comments I posted addressing and correcting their ignorance were removed.

If Crosswalk.com desires to be a place where people are free to post ridiculous, and unhelpful comments, while also censoring those of us who actually have read Dr. Rah's book, then Crosswalk.com will not be a place that attracts and keeps an intelligent and helpful readership.

Please either remove the ignorance that is currently displayed or repost the comments I left addressing and correcting the ignorance.

T. C. Moore"

The "New Chosen" and Corruption: Calvinism, the C-Street House, and The Family

For 10 years now, I have challenged Calvinists on the unbiblical doctrines they espouse. Many, many times I have expressed my concerns about the psychological affect Calvinistic doctrine can have on a person's thinking and subsequently their choices. Despite all the evidence, Calvinists routinely deny the presence of any danger whatsoever. That is why I find this story coming out of Washington D. C. so incredible fascinating.

The American public at large is only just now becoming fully aware of the influence a small but incredibly powerful "Christian" Fundamentalist group has on conservative politicians in Washington. The group is called "The Family" and they are the group that runs the now-famous "C-Street House."

Author Jeff Sharlet, who is a contributing editor to both Harper's and Rolling Stone, is interviewed in this article for the Las Vegas Sun. The part that interests me the most, due to my habit of carefully examining theological claims, are the Calvinistic doctrines this group and it's members espouse. The Family, and subsequently dozens of powerful conservative politicians, hold Calvinistic "Christian" doctrines that are astonishingly offensive. And never before has the affect of this thinking been as clearly displayed as it has in the conduct of this group's adherents. Almost without exception, the "Christian," Fundamentalist, conservative politicians who have lived at this house, have all been involved in sex scandals recently. Senator John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford are just two names among a long list.

I pose the question to you readers, "Can Thinking You are Chosen by God Corrupt Your Mind?"

Here are some excerpts from the article:

"The Family began with this idea that God does not work through churches but rather through those whom The Family calls the “New Chosen.” They believe they’re chosen by God. They can’t be expected to pray with the rest of us. They need to pray in private with people of equal status."

"Doug Coe, David Coe’s father and leader of The Family fellowship going back to the mid ’60s, likes to call The Family 'The Christian Mafia.' I knew Coe when I was part of The Family. He explained what it means to be a chosen politician.

Talking to another man, he said, 'Let me explain to you the concept of ‘chosen.’ Suppose I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?'

The man says, 'You would think I was awful, a monster.'

And Doug Coe said, 'No, I would not, because you’re chosen, and when you’re chosen, the normal rules don’t apply.' "

"[The Family is] a group that regularly invokes as leadership models Hitler, Stalin and Mao, whom Doug Coe said are three men who understood the New Testament best in the 20th century.

[David Coe] means that they are evil men, but what they understood is that the New Testament is not about love, mercy, justice, forgiveness. It’s about power."

"Doug Coe in one presentation talked about Nazi Germany and the allegiance many Germans had to the Nazis. He said it was something of a role model for the approach that Family members need to have to their organization."

"The [Family] began during the Great Depression because the founder thought that God came to him and revealed a vision that the New Deal was satanically inspired and that Christianity was getting it wrong for 2000 years by focusing on the poor, the weak, the suffering.

He said God came one night in April 1935 and said, 'I want you to be a minister to not the down and out, but the up and out,' he called them, the powerful. And God’s going to choose a few powerful people, he’ll work through those people, and those people will distribute the blessings to the rest of us."

HERE is the link to the full article.

And please be sure to check out Jeff Sharlet's new book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power - HERE

The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity - Book Review

Author: Soong-Chan Rah

Paperback: 229 pages

Publisher: IVP Books (2009)

Language: English

ISBN: 9780830833603

Amazon

CBD

About the author:

Dr. Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Assistant Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Seminary in Chicago, IL. Rah also serves on the board of Sojourners and formerly taught at Gordon-Conwell's Center for Urban Ministerial Education in Roxbury, MA. Before moving to Chicago, Rah pastored Cambridge Christian Fellowship Church in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA for over a decade.

Although Rah is frequently a speaker at national conferences, has been published in several journals and magazines, and even contributed to Growing Healthy Asian American Churches (IVP, 2005), the book being reviewed here, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (hereafter "TNE"), is his first major, solo published work. Rah brings to TNE his experience as a life-long evangelical, an urban church-planter, pastor, seminary student, and seminary professor. Rah also draws on his experience living and serving in Boston, his academic and ministry mentoring relationships with such notable scholars and ministers as Rev. Dr. Eldin Villafañe and EGC founders Doug and Judy Hall.

Another stream of experience that greatly influences Rah is his involvement with the Evangelical Covenant Church. With a Swedish heritage, the ECC has become one of the most welcoming and affirming fellowships for young, nonwhite, urban ministers. Both authors of The Hip Hop Church (IVP, 2006), Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson are ECC ministers along with pastor Dave Gibbons of California's Newsong church. The ECC has shown Rah that unity among American evangelicals of diverse ethnic and ministry backgrounds is more than just possible but an increasingly frequent reality.

About the book:

Rah's reason for writing TNE

Soong-Chan Rah loves God's church passionately and writes this book to lift the veil exposing what prevents many from seeing what the church is called to be. Rah writes TNE because he has grown up in American evangelicalism and has experienced significant pain resulting from the church's failure to be what God intends it to be. He writes, "...as immersed as I am in evangelicalism, I am oftentimes still seen as an outsider." (p.16) Through research and experience, Rah has identified not only several root causes for the American church's missional drift, but also several strategic action steps needful for recapturing the essence of God's world-wide redemptive mission. Rah also writes TNE as a witness of what he sees God doing amidst the overlooked and undervalued congregations that are transforming communities in every corner of this nation. As the result of these factors, TNE is not primarily a foretelling of American evangelicalism's natural progress or inevitable evolution. Rather it is more accurately a forth-telling of what the American church must do to violently take hold of the Kingdom Scripture reveals is God's dream for it.

TNE's structure

The introduction of the book perfectly lays the ground work for what will follow. By citing not only the remarkable demographic trajectory this nation will travel in the coming years, but also current statistics that are all-to-often overlooked, Rah demonstrates that the future of evangelicalism is now. It gave me great joy to see used in support of Rah's thesis the research of the Emmanuel Gospel Center (EGC), a ministry I have been privileged to serve with several times and by which I have been strongly influenced. It is EGC that has charted Boston's "Quiet Revival" that exposes the general disregard even Christians show ethnic minority and immigrant churches when considering the vitality of American evangelicalism. While the mainstream media and even Christian groups mourn the decline of church-attendance and the closing of thousands of churches, EGC has been studying and proclaiming the explosion of life that is now present in myriad nonwhite, Boston churches.

The excellent introduction of this book is complemented by it's well-proportioned overall structure. The book is divided into three sections of near-equal length. The three sections are: (1) The Western, White Cultural Captivity of the Church; (2) The Pervasiveness of the Western, White Captivity of the Church; and (3) Freedom from the Western, White Captivity of the Church.

In the first section, Rah clarifies the problem he will address by identifying three of the most destructive aspects of Western, white culture: Individualism, Consumerism/Materialism, and Racism. By giving each it's own chapter, Rah is able to present arguments and examples of how these three aspects of Western, white culture are poisoning American evangelicalism and distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the second section, Rah zooms in on three examples of Western, white culture's pervasiveness by discussing: (1) The Church Growth Movement and Megachurches; (2) The Emerging Church; and (3) Cultural Imperialism. In particular, I was most impressed by Rah's engagement of the emerging church. While many evangelicals see this movement in America as the future, Rah shows that the emerging church is just as captive to the destructive aspects of Western, white culture as the form of evangelicalism from Modernity against which they are reacting. Rah writes, "...nonwhite Christians are not perceived as significant contributors to the evangelical postmodern dialogue." (p.118) Rah also writes, "...the emerging church has shut out nonwhite voices in their ability to engage on the issue of race." (p.119) But the quote that best encapsulates Rah's courageous and frank admonition of the emerging church has to be,

"I believe the real emerging church is the church in Africa, Asia and Latin America that continues to grow by leaps and bounds. I believe the real emerging church is the hip-hop church, the English-speaking Latino congregation, the second-generation Asian American church, the Haitian immigrant church, the Spanish-speaking store-front church and so forth. For a small group of white Americans to usurp the term 'emerging' reflects a significant arrogance." (p.124)

In the third and final section, using another three chapters, Rah confronts the issue of American Christianity's cultural captivity with four powerful lessons from four cultural communities: (1) Suffering and Celebration: Learning from the African American and Native American Communities; (2) Holistic Evangelism: Learning from the Immigrant Church; and (3) A Multicultural Worldview: Learning from the Second Generation.

In each of these three book sections, Rah keeps in clear perspective his experience of the evangelical church in America, his calling as an urban, multiethnic church-planter, and an evangelical theology that recaptures the biblical emphasis on social and racial justice.

TNE's thesis

If the American, evangelical church hopes to realize a shalom peace reflective of that which is spoke of in Micah 4, or if it hopes to become the multi-cultural, throne room worshipping assembly depicted in Revelation 21, it must break free of Western, white cultural captivity and embrace a vision of the Kingdom that celebrates and learns from every nation, tribe, and tongue as equally beautiful expressions of Christ's body.

This reviewer's impressions and recommendation:

When I first read the subtitle of this book, I immediately recalled a lecture Rah delivered in a course I took as his student. It was more simply called "The Western, White Captivity of the Church." Specifically I remembered that he mentioned his reluctance to include "white" in the title of the lecture, but he included it nevertheless. Therefore, the conspicuous absence of the word "white" from this book's subtitle stuck out to me right away. I can only conclude that Rah's publisher advised him against it. I was relieved, however, to see that he did not allow the word to be removed from the chapter titles in the first section of the book nor did he refrain from using the full phrase throughout the work. Rah's insistence on including "white" in the chapter titles is a microcosm of the pull-no-punches overall thrust of this book. In TNE, Rah speaks truth to power unrepentantly. It is my prayer that more authors with Rah's level of insight, from research and experience, will follow in his footsteps and produce more challenging works of this caliber.

Rah's discussion of mobility resonated particularly strongly with me due to my experience of living in New Orleans. Mobility was a major, differentiating factor between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' in that city. Even though every resident I knew was keenly aware of how devastating the 'Big One' would be to the city, being below sea level and shaped like a punch bowl, very few (if any) of our neighbors, in the community were we lived and served, had the financial means nor the out-of-state support network needed to take the 3 to 5-day, impromptu vacation a city-wide, mandatory evacuation requires. Only the upper-middle to upper class of New Orleans were ever truly prepared to leave any and every time the city was warned of an imminent, potentially-disastrous storm. In the case of New Orleans and hurricane Katrina, the power and privilege of mobility proved to be the difference between safety and peril for tens of thousands.

Perhaps it is merely coincidental, but so many of the streams from which Rah draws to fill this exciting work with experiential credence and field-tested wisdom coincide with sources to which I also look. With Rah, I share the experience of being a newcomer to New England from a Christian tradition that feared Boston as a spiritual wasteland. In particular, Rah and I both have experience with the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge where I also attend an evangelical congregation. In fact, Larry Kim, Rah's successor as pastor of CCFC, continues to be a mentor and friend from whom I have learned a great deal. With Rah, I share a common source of inspiration from the research and ministry of the Emmanuel Gospel Center. And with Rah, I too have witnessed first-hand the incredible ministry New Life Covenant Church is doing in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. I visited pastor Choco de Jesus' ministry over 5 years ago and was powerfully impacted by the transformation that community has underwent as a result of one church's commitment and faithful Kingdom witness. With so many common links it may come as no surprise that I felt a personal connection to TNE as I read it.

This reviewer highly recommends TNE. In this reviewer's opinion, TNE should be required reading in evangelical Bible colleges and seminaries where Rah's thesis is the subject matter for an on-going dialog wherein nonwhite voices are given a platform and priority. Like his mentor Eldin Villafañe's The Liberating Spirit, it is clear that TNE will come to be recognized as a seminal work in the field of Christian social ethics. TNE is a challenging, prophetic call to action the American, evangelical church must heed if it ever hopes to resemble the portraits of the Kingdom Scripture paints. White readers in particular are called to a radical divestment of power. For far too long white evangelicals have guarded the status quo as their inheritance. Rah exhorts all evangelicals to celebrate the manifold expression of God's grace in the beauty of diverse cultural and ethnic communities.

The Death of White American Christianity: Boyd recognizes Rah's New Book and Gives Me a Shout Out!

Greg Boyd is the senior pastor of Woodland Hills church in St. Paul MN, a prolific author, and noted contemporary theologian. Recently, on his popular blog, Boyd discussed a topic that has been widely publicized: the demise of American Christianity. Boyd encouraged Kingdom people not to mourn the decline of the American Christianity for at least 5 reasons: (1) America never has never been a "Christian nation" as too many presume; (2) there will be one less illusion to combat when inviting Americans to the Kingdom; (3) there will be one less distraction from doing the work of the Kingdom; (4) the Kingdom has always thrived when marginalized by mainstream society; (5) will expose the idol of American individualism.

I recommended to Boyd the book of my former professor at CUME and former CCFC pastor, Soong-Chan Rah, who now teaches at North Park Seminary in Chicago and just released The Next Evangelicalism (IVP, 2009; found here). I suggested there may be at least one more reason why Kingdom people should not mourn the demise of Americanized Christianity:

This "demise" seems to only be descriptive of white American Christianity.

While predominately white churches and denominations are shrinking and closing their doors, ethnic minority, immigrant, and multiethnic churches are expanding and thriving. For years (possibly over 20) the Emmanuel Gospel Center has been researching and charting the growth of churches in Boston and discovered that while the perception of the church in Boston was one of decline and stagnation, they found vitality all around them. It was true that white congregations were declining, but church-planting and church growth was exploding in Haitian, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, Brazilian, Korean, Chinesse congregations (to name a few). Boston's "Quiet Revival" has even been discussed in Christianity Today here.

In The Next Evangelicalism, Rah argues that the church in America more accurately reflects the values and characteristics of Western, white culture than those descriptive of the Kingdom of God from Scripture. I am 120 pages into Rah's book and hope to have it finished and a review written soon. Be on the look-out for that!

In Boyd's latest blog-post, he recognizes Dr. Rah's book and gives me a much-appreciated shout out for the suggestion: Only WHITE American Christianity is Dying!

I am excited that I was able to connect these two brilliant and prophetic scholar-pastors. I truly believe their research will be vital to Kingdom people in this century. Greg Boyd's ministry is exposing the theological and political captivity of the American church and Soong-Chan Rah's ministry is exposing it's cultural captivity. Both are advancing a radical return to a Jesus movement that more accurately reflects the Kingdom of God. That's the type of Jesus movement I want to be a part of!