Category: Series: Must Everything Change?
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MEC: The Law of Satisfaction Through Love and Sharing
Today we look at the response to the second law of theocapitalism as presented in Everything Must Change. Theocapitalism Law #2: The Law of Serenity Through Possession and Consumption: "I believe in happiness through owning and using more." Jesus' Law #2: The Law of Satisfaction Through Gratitude and Sharing. McLaren opens this section by reflecting…
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MEC: The Law of Good Deeds for the Common Good
Brian McLaren identifies four laws of theocapitalism in Chapter 23 of Everything Must Change. We reviewed these in an earlier post. In chapters 25 and 26, he offers what he believes is Jesus' challenge to each of theocapitalism's four laws. We will take this one at a time. Theocapitalism Law #1: The Law of Progress…
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MEC: Theocapitalism
We now jump several chapters ahead in Everything Must Change to Part 6 of the book on “The Prosperity System.” Up to this point in the book, there have been some polemic passages, many of which I found distasteful. This section of the book spins into a whole new level. McLaren introduces his notion of…
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MEC: By What Measure?
Last November, I returned home to Kansas City on a United Airlines flight from Chicago. As I placed my bag in the overhead compartment, I noticed the guy in the window seat. I knew him. In fact, I had known of him since I was in junior high school. This guy was a real loser.…
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MEC: Enlightenment Economics?
One of the pervasive themes of Everything Must Change is that economic systems that emerged during the time of the Enlightenment, and subsequent eras, are a marked departure from (if not anathema to) Kingdom visions for humanity. …Interestingly, one of the characteristics of the Enlightenment was to distance humanity from creation, or in Lenardo Boff’s…
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MEC: Emerging (Evangelical?) Christians
At the beginning of Part 3 (Chapter 10) in Everything Must Change, on "Reframing Jesus," McLaren offers the emerging view of the gospel contrasted with what he considers the conventional view. At the end of this section, McLaren will write that his conventional view articulated here "…can be modified with an almost infinite number of…
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MEC: Recap of My Concerns
We are about to turn specific passages from Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren, but before we go there, I want to recap my central observations and clarify my perception of some key issues. My primary concern over the last eight posts has been McLaren’s claim that we live with a “suicide machine.” He generally…
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MEC: Addressing Global Warming
Today's hot environmental topic (pun intended) is anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. The leading theory is that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing a greenhouse gas effect that is causing global warming. McLaren seems to take this as indisputable fact. I don't. However, I'm not interested in debating that point here. We will assume…