Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed and the Disillusioned

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Through the years I have tried to rectify my ignorance about my own religion’s downsides and the upsides of other religions. But honestly, even after years of research, I can’t be certain how much I still don’t know simply because Christian institutions have so effectively denied, minimized, and rationalized our faults, recalling the old bromide about the victors writing history. As you may know, Brian once served as an evangelical preacher. So it’s only fitting that the final paragraphs of his book have the feel of a revival meeting altar call. He invites his readers “to become the most just, kind, and humble version of ourselves that we can, day by day . . . to practice a faith that expresses itself in love . . . to lean with others into a new kind of humanity, open to every good resource that can help us, explicitly Christian or not.” His closing words are, “A new humanity—humble, just and kind—can be born. Can you imagine that, fellow human?” McLaren also encourages readers to stay Christian because of our love for Jesus—and because all religions (like all humans) are imperfect. While he believes that traditional theism (“that old Big White Guy on a Throne in the Sky”) has to go, he is convinced that Christianity can evolve into something far more beautiful. If we stay, he says, we can participate in that evolutionary movement toward a more enlightened faith. He offers several other reasons to stay Christian, and even more could have been included—such as the deeply felt human need for the friendship, support, and belonging of Christian community.

Do I Stay Christian? by Brian D. McLaren | Waterstones

THIS is a book about conversion. Brian McLaren, an American pastor and writer, poses his title question to those who can’t quite accept a Christianity that they have outgrown. This is not Christianity in any sense. A Christian knows that Christ is real and trusts that what we hear about Christ in his word is true. We do not think that God lies, and we do not follow a "highly likely" person who is merely a human being. The Bible is read through the lens of McLaren's ideology and so, given that he does not accept that the Bible is the word of God, he feels free to ignore what he doesn't like, or to change the text to suit his own faith. In a world dominated by selfish patriarchal societies and cultures, it is essentially divine for devoted men to love and care for their wives and families. This truth applies to brothers regarding their sisters as well. And in the same way this old grandfather senses divine responsibility for his own daughter and her children. In a broader sense compassion and care for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC neighbors as modeled by the Christ of Divine LOVE in the one called Jesus of Nazareth. “Love God, love others.”Jonathan Merritt, Contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, author of Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World

Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the

Jana Riess, author of Flunking Sainthood and The Next Mormons; senior columnist for Religion News Service Many of the same concerns flow into his reasons for staying, which have a familiar ring to them: things are changing, love of Jesus, solidarity with the oppressed, and the climate crisis. There are lessons for Western democracies and the Church from Australia's contentious Voice referendum I didn’t know whether agreeing to speak under those conditions was an act of humility or folly on my part, but I did know that the term heretic was loaded. Historically, it empowers those who apply it and disempowers those to whom it is applied. I’ve lost touch with Chad in recent years. He was a likable leader of a Christian organization who read my books and sought me out privately for guidance on a few occasions. He once invited me to speak at a large conference he organized. When I arrived, he escorted me through the crowd and whispered in my ear, “We’re glad to have you speak to our conference. But we almost lost some of our major donors when they found out we invited you. That’s why we couldn’t have you give a lecture, but could only let you be interviewed onstage. We had to title your session ‘Interview with a Heretic.’ I hope you don’t mind us calling you a heretic. It’s the only way we can get you in front of our constituency.”The psychology of anti-Semitism is as complex and convoluted as its history. But one thing is clear: anti-Semitism is not like a freak accident that happens randomly to individuals. It’s more like a conspiracy theory that an unscrupulous cable news station spreads among susceptible groups, recruiting the naive as accomplices in ignorance, lies, and bigotry. For most of its history, the Christian religion has been this tawdry cable news station, hosting a wide array of dangerous anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, and in many places, it continues to do so. Brian's formula for the salvation of the Church is a million miles away from that which Christ offers us in his Word. But it is a revealing insight into the mentality of some who claim to still be Christian but have long since left the faith of Christ.

Do I Stay Christian? - Macmillan Do I Stay Christian? - Macmillan

Ironically the interview concluded with Jude 1:3, "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's holy people." Having grown up in an apocalyptic religion – obsessed with the rapture, the end times and heaven, and singing 'I'll Fly Away' – I suddenly find myself in an apocalyptic world from which I cannot fly away!" he says. The irony is so stark that it’s hard to process: a Jewish movement with a Jewish founder and all-Jewish original followers becomes, in the matter of a couple of decades, viciously anti-Jewish. From late in the first century onward, beginning with the author of the Fourth Gospel and later including Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine, many of Christianity’s most revered leaders vilified Jews, setting the stage for inhumane acts of persecution against Jewish people in the coming centuries, from ghettoization and banishments to forced conversions and mass executions.5 In Do I Stay Christian?, McLaren wrestles the scandalous theological questions and conscientiousness objections that keep so many of us awake at night—and he does so with the courage and grace that have become his trademark. If you're wondering whether it's time to shake off your sandals and walk away from Christianity, I beg you to read this book before making up your mind." The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian

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It's not just that McLaren places the "integrated reality" above God; he also feels to need to set God free – as he entitles chapter 19! But it is 'setting God free' to be an amorphous nothing. The personal, loving God of the Bible is changed into the pantheistic God who is 'all over the place'. There is a way to say both yes and no to the question of staying Christian, McLaren says, by shifting the focus from whether we stay Christian to how we stay human. If Do I Stay Christian? is the question you’re asking—or if it’s a question that someone you love is asking—this is the book you’ve been waiting for. As the author and “pastor” of DoubtersParish.com, I constantly interact with people who are asking big questions about faith. For example: Is God personal? Does God intervene in the world? Was Jesus divine? Do miracles occur? Is the Bible still relevant? And—more than any other question—Is it time to give up on institutional religion? I remember the first time I considered the possibility that I might not stay Christian. I was somewhere around twelve years old, and I realized that my church (which I had been taught was the best, most "biblical" version of Christianity on earth) did not accept the theory of evolution. Since evolution made obvious sense to me -- especially after reading several literal six-day creation books that my parents gave me -- I thought, "OK. A few more years and I'll turn 18 and I'll be done with this religion for good." Christ himself and the New Testament could not be clearer. Here's another example in Revelation 14:10, "They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb."