Emergent - a white man movement?
I have read enough to realise that the Emer move is full of mainly middle-class white men. So much so that the Emer themselves are asking… why is this so?
However, what disturbed me about Catalyst (and conferences like it) is that the majority of the people who attend these conferences are all white males (goatees, glasses, and jeans). Catalyst had over 10,000 people there, and I would guess that 95% were white (Caucasians), and part of the so called, “EMERGING CHURCH” movement. I can only respond to this by asking, “WHY?” Is the “EMERGING CHURCH” movement a “WHITE THING.” @On the Way
I too have been puzzled by this and not because I am female.
The question why does the Emer movement appeal more to the white middle-class male seems a fair one and an honest one at that. A move of God should be unisex, super-cultural as well as breaking any social-economic barrier. A move of God should bring us to our knees, asking for forgiveness first off!
I came across something today that may shed a bit of light. Or it may be completely irrelevant, but I just wanted to blog my thoughts on it. It was a post about ‘The Kingdom of Emergent Theology’. It actually spoke about this particular theology having a predecessor called ‘liberal postmillennialism’…
It is helpful to know that the Christian community has been down this trail before. Emergent eschatology is by-and-large identical to liberal postmillennialism which flourished prior to the mid-twentieth century. In general postmillennialism is the view that Christ will return after the millennium, or the kingdom age, which is presently on earth.
Theological liberal postmillennialism shares some of the same optimism as its conservative counterparts but directs its attention to social enhancement of the planet.
Liberal postmillennialism focuses on societal transformation rather than personal conversion. Their “social gospel” sees the saving of society from social evil as the great purpose of the church. The mission of the church is not to preach the gospel to sinners in need of God’s great salvation, but rather, to liberate mankind from poverty, racism, disease, war and all kinds of injustice. @The Kingdom of Emergent Theology
What was also said was this…
Maybe the emergent leaders are right, maybe the world is getting better and better and, if we Christians would just get more involved, eventually earth will be like heaven.
Could it be that white men are so blinded by their own world construct - their being successful, and rulers of the free world etcetera - that they really do think that the world is getting better and better? Are they the ones wearing the rose coloured glasses while struggling to even think outside their own world construct? In effect saying… well, if it’s this good for me, then you can have it too, sounds a bit like the prosperity gospel to me, but with a lot of conversation thrown in. Are they just having a great conversation in the mirror to self? No offence guys!
Perhaps the reason that it is filled with white-middle class males is that it fails to attract those who haven’t got it so good. Is this why it is a white male dominated movement? I am using generalisations I know. But the Emer crowd has noticed this themselves. Should they look deeper than their own conversations and start looking towards their theology? Is ‘theology’ really such a dirty word? Surely they must see something doesn’t quite add up?
The kingdom, while already here, will progressively become like heaven as we attend to the social ills and needs around us. Tomorrow looks bright and the day after that looks brighter still.
I actually wonder if this move is so westernised that it will fail to move past the western borders in any great way. All this talk about being culturally relevant seems completely irrelevant to the persecuted church in China, Iran, India, Egypt, Ethiopia etc,. The only thing that the persecuted church covets is the need to be held up in prayer.
It is worth noting that the postmillennial system, which was nonexistent in the early days of church history, was originally systematized by liberal Unitarian minister Daniel Whitby (1638-1726). His system grew legs due partly to the optimism of the age, but lost steam when the two world wars of the twentieth century shattered dreams of the world progressively improving.
Since that time a more realistic understanding of human development has set in and most recognize that the earth is not only not moving toward utopia but is more likely closer to annihilation.
I wonder if this move will fizzle if things start to rock the boat. I wonder if this phenomenon will be examined more as time goes on? Time will tell I guess.
Emergent Eschatology
Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Where does the Emer camp sit with eschatology? Is it all about the NOW, and not so much about the near Future?
Well according to ‘The Big Event‘ the Kingdom of God goes something like this…
Imagine a world… A new vision for God’s Kingdom on earth
The kingdom of God is here and now
So what is their general understanding of the Kingdom of God?
[...]a consensus by both emerging and emergent leaders is expressed by Sherry and Geoff Maddock: “Our principle (sic) desire is to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We believe this happens when God’s people are renewed around God’s mission of love and justice in the world.”[1] The conversation apparently views the kingdom as being on earth now but progressively becoming like the kingdom in heaven as Christians live missionally on earth.
Such an understanding of the kingdom of God is obviously at odds with premillennialism,[...]
[1]Sherry Maddock and Geoff Maddock, “An Ever-Renewed Adventure of Faith, An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, p. 80.
@The Kingdom of Emergent Theology – Part 1 by Gary E Gilley
I venture to guess that those other Christians (you know who you are!!!) that dare think along the lines of dispensationalism and premillenialism will be criticised in one way or another.
In fact some may say that premillenialism is a theology that didn’t start until John Darby. But here is something of interest…
“One of [John] Bunyan’s contemporaries, Benjamin Keach, an illustrious predecessor of Spurgeon in the pastorate, has left a very full confession of his views on this point. He was brought to trial Oct. 8th, 1664, on two charges of Anabaptism and Millenarianism. As he stood before Lord Chief justice Hide, the representative of the [Church of England], he was summoned first to answer for his ‘damnable doctrine’ concerning baptism; which, being disposed of, the second article of indictment was taken up, viz., that he held ‘that the saints shall reign with Christ a thousand years.’ The judge pronounced this ‘an old heresy, which was cast out of the church a thousand years ago, and was likewise condemned by the Council of Constance five years afer, and hath lain dead ever since, till now this rascal hath revived it.’ He was condemned and sent to the pillory.” Taken from a review in The Sword and the Trowel (October, 1891, p. 581)
Hmmmm, perhaps premillenialism is not that new after all!
Related Articles
- History and Premillennialism Part I (The Early Church) Gary E Gilley
- Eschatology in Church History by Michael J. Vlach, Ph.D.
By the way… I have just added a website to my theology blogroll called ‘Theological Studies’, it looks pretty informative. And here is another one called ‘Think of These Things‘ by Gary E Gilley, not actually a blog but it has some interesting things on it.
God does send calamity!
Why do bad things happen???
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45;7 (for more on God creating Evil - remember it is said that “you get the government you deserve!”)
Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35
Psalm 73:18,19. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!”
Carla has written a really thought provoking post on the current disasters in California called ‘When things Burn‘.
Well now, what do you expect when the governor bans “mom” and “dad”, and signs your children over to be taught that homosexuality is normal? What do you expect, Hollywood, when you keep pumping out garbage that is offensive to a Holy God? What do you expect, America, when your leaders try to help divide up Israel, the only real estate on earth that God says is His? Or when your president says that all gods are the same, and even honors a Buddhist monk with a medal and calls him a great spiritual leader.
All in the same week…
Lest I sound judgemental from up here in the Great White North, watching things burn way down there, the even more amazing thing about this is that God, in His grace and mercy and forbearance, is allowing any of us to live under his protection. We are only safe under the shadow of His wings.
God’s judgement really doesn’t sit well for those who only understand that God is a God of Love and gives no further thought to the anger that He feels against sin in His Holy Righteousness - a Holy God could feel no other thing.
The church may be Luke warm, but God certainly isn’t!
Calamities are God’s previews of what sin deserves and will one day receive in judgement a thousand times worse. They are warnings. And that is true even when they sweep away Christ-followers and Christ-rejecters. John Piper
There is hope though…
My prayer is that some wake up from their decadent slumber and know that God is a God of action and does not allow sin to go unpunished. He has given us way out from our much deserved eternal punishment, and that is through His Son who Atones for our sin. I hope some question what this is all about and that they for the first time meet the forgiveness of God through Jesus His Son. I pray that there are those people who are ready with the gospel for a people who are in dire need of it.
Go to the link at the end of this post to read the most powerful sermon every spoken.
It speaks of the reasons why we actually deserve to be swept away and it is only by God’s providence that we are not. It was noted that this sermon had grown men crying out loud for Mercy while holding onto their seats for fear of Hell itself opening up its hungry mouth to devour them without a second notice. This was the start of ‘The Great Awakening‘.
I have read it, and my ears pricked and I was certainly stirred and my spirit did awake and I truly became aware of a Holy Righteous God. This certainly is a call to awake from our decadent lazy slumber!
