I lean conservative. Lean. I am not a crazy right winger. I've said it a million times. However, many of those "conservatives" who lean WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY past where I am scare the hell out of me sometimes. The liberals that go just as far the other way scare me too. The further you go in one direction, whether left or right, the greater the risk of turning into a mean and hateful person. Now, on to the article I link to in this post...
Background on the dude who is the subject of the article: Don Miller is one of my favorite writers. Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What made huge impacts on me. His style is perfect for my sarcastic and humorous side and his ideas and thoughtfulness add much to my own ideas of ministry and being missional.
I do not know who Mark Tooley is, but he writes for the Weekly Standard and slams Miller hard. See, Miller, who attends a conservative evangelical church, campaigned and voted for Barack Obama. Tooley does not like this, not one bit. He also throws up the "emergents" and "emerging church" people that Miller knows to prove his devilish cred. The thing is Miller has never claimed to be a part of the movement. While these emergent people are liberal and I can't agree with them on many things, they are not the epitome of evil.
The article is so full of untruth I could scream. He doesn't even get the city that Miller lives in and attends church in correct (he lives in Portland, not Seattle). He takes pieces and parts of what Miller has said and written and builds the biggest straw man I have seen recently. The fact he doesn't toe the conservative Christian line on abortion (he is pro-life actually) and gay marriage, he becomes the evil liberal evangelical poster boy. This is where I get in trouble myself with my conservative evangelical friends. My answers and the weight I give these issues is not up to snuff.
I am not going to get too far into a defense of Miller. That is not what this post is about. I have linked to his response and he does a fine job. No, this is about scary mean people. This kind of attack is why far right and far left people scare me so much. In order to push their agendas, they have to lie and distort the truth. They use quotes out of context. They seek to destroy people. And before you know it, those on their side are whipped up into a frenzy based on NOTHING! Both sides do it. Don't even try to tell me they do not.
Why can people who stand on principles not JUST stand on those principals? Why do they have to instead go on the attack and attempt to destroy the lives and reputations of those they disagree with? Why can't they be more like Donald Miller who says the following in the blog post answering this article:
I wish people could be more like that. Moreso, I wish I could be more like that.
Post-Modern Prophet
Miller's Response
Background on the dude who is the subject of the article: Don Miller is one of my favorite writers. Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What made huge impacts on me. His style is perfect for my sarcastic and humorous side and his ideas and thoughtfulness add much to my own ideas of ministry and being missional.
I do not know who Mark Tooley is, but he writes for the Weekly Standard and slams Miller hard. See, Miller, who attends a conservative evangelical church, campaigned and voted for Barack Obama. Tooley does not like this, not one bit. He also throws up the "emergents" and "emerging church" people that Miller knows to prove his devilish cred. The thing is Miller has never claimed to be a part of the movement. While these emergent people are liberal and I can't agree with them on many things, they are not the epitome of evil.
The article is so full of untruth I could scream. He doesn't even get the city that Miller lives in and attends church in correct (he lives in Portland, not Seattle). He takes pieces and parts of what Miller has said and written and builds the biggest straw man I have seen recently. The fact he doesn't toe the conservative Christian line on abortion (he is pro-life actually) and gay marriage, he becomes the evil liberal evangelical poster boy. This is where I get in trouble myself with my conservative evangelical friends. My answers and the weight I give these issues is not up to snuff.
I am not going to get too far into a defense of Miller. That is not what this post is about. I have linked to his response and he does a fine job. No, this is about scary mean people. This kind of attack is why far right and far left people scare me so much. In order to push their agendas, they have to lie and distort the truth. They use quotes out of context. They seek to destroy people. And before you know it, those on their side are whipped up into a frenzy based on NOTHING! Both sides do it. Don't even try to tell me they do not.
Why can people who stand on principles not JUST stand on those principals? Why do they have to instead go on the attack and attempt to destroy the lives and reputations of those they disagree with? Why can't they be more like Donald Miller who says the following in the blog post answering this article:
The one thing my very conservative friends and my liberal friends have
in common is that they are extremely kind. I think kind people are kind
and mean people are mean and it hardly matters whether they are
conservative or not. It has more to do with irritable bowels, I think,
or a persons controlling personality vs. their ability to trust Gods
grace and speak His truth without associating a persons response to
that truth with their own threatened identity. Regardless, I keep the
kind friends and slyly slip away from the mean ones. Life’s too short.
I wish people could be more like that. Moreso, I wish I could be more like that.
Post-Modern Prophet
Miller's Response
Loved the post Rich.
It angers me to read crap like the article written by Mr. Tooley (what an appropriate name!). I understand that Don Miller's views and associations are not right in-line with most evangelical Christians, but this is the very reason why he has made such a big impact in my faith.
People on the far left and the far right scare me as well; the common missing link for both sides is failure to listen and have a dialogue (not a heated debate) to discuss issues.
That bumper sticker is right; "Mean People Suck!".
Posted by: Clint | June 11, 2009 at 08:09 AM
This is kinda off-subject...but if you ever want to get a example of really mean people, just go read some of the comments on Times-News website. Great examples of far-left and far-right cutting each other down.
Posted by: Clint | June 11, 2009 at 08:20 AM