Culture,  Music,  Theology/Bible

Emerging Irony

The cover story of the most recent issue of Touchstone magazine is about Johnny Cash, and it’s written by Russell Moore. This is an excellent piece, and I highly recommend your reading it.

Scot McKnight, however, does not share my enthusiasm about Moore’s article and has criticized it here. Moore has responded to McKnight’s response here. Now McKnight has responded to Moore’s response to McKnight’s response here.

If that all sounds confusing, then let me sum it up for you. McKnight thinks that people like Moore should have been more supportive of Cash’s Christian conversion about twenty or thirty years ago. For McKnight, supporting Cash now is too little too late.

In other words, the Emergent folks don’t seem to be very tolerant of Moore’s admiration for the sinner Johnny Cash.

How ironic is that?

6 Comments

  • Scot McKnight

    Well, since I’m 52 I don’t think your calculations are accurate — I was worried about getting into seminary and what to do with my calling at that time.

    And I’m asking Moore to take enough time to understand the emerging movement, and that the emerging movement does better with people like Johnny Cash … I fail to see the irony.

  • WLC

    Why is there a problem in standing with Cash now, as opposed to not standing with Brian McLaren?

    Cash never said you could follow Jesus and be a Muslim, Brian does.

    Let’s look at an interview with McLaren found in a Kentucky Baptists’ newspaper, The Western Recorder…(the reference to The Western Recorder article was found at http://www.stevekmccoy.com/reformissionary
    /2005/04/mclaren_and_rel.html in an article written by Steve McCoy)

    McLaren says,

    “I’m not saying I don’t care if people are Christians or not,” he said. “I’m saying I want people to be followers of Jesus, but to be a follower of Jesus in some situations may not require them to affiliate with the Christian religion.

    “This is a very well-known reality in missiology,” he added. “Many Southern Baptist missionaries are building disciples in communities of disciples … that are meeting in homes or other places, but they are not affiliating with the Christian religion and disaffiliating with their own religion.

    What might McLaren tell a Muslim, you can still worship Muhammad and follow Jesus at the same time? How can one be of another religion and follow Jesus. John 14:6 speaks to this. I thought Jesus was an all or nothing decision? Maybe I just need clarity on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I am wondering if I can be a discipel of Buddah and Jesus? Please notice my sarcasm.

    Wade+

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