…There are around a billion people in the world who don’t have clean drinking water, and 46 million Americans don’t have health care. That means if they get sick, they don’t have anywhere to go. Half of the world, 3 billion people, live on less than two American dollars a day, so the world is an emergency. It’s on fire. It’s drowning. It’s an absolute crisis, and when followers of Jesus can think of nothing better to do with their time than to pick apart and shred to pieces the work of other followers of Jesus who are trying to do something about the world, that’s tragic, and I don’t owe these people anything. The would is desperately in need of people who will break themselves open and pour themselves out for the reconciliation of all things. When a Christian can find nothing better to do with their time in the face of this much pain and heartbreak, you start realizing that some Christians need to be saved. How a person would have energy to take shots at other Christians is just mind-boggling. You have to be totally disconnected from the pain of the world to think that blogging is somehow redemptive use of your time. I guess I have some strong thoughts on that.-Rob Bell quoted in the latest issue of Relevant.
You present a false dichotomy here Rob, (that you can't blog a critique of a person and care about the state of the world at the same time) but point well taken. Certainly this critique needs to be the on radar for bloggers.
(HT: Los)
2 comments:
z-
now, i do believe that you don't actually take rob's response to the question of 'by being innovative, you face critics. how do you deal with this?' personally. rob himself encourages people to challenge things, not to simply accept what is being said but to mull over it, to test it, to prod it.
i believe the point he was trying to make was that too often, we as christians, focus so much time, energy, and even money on certain issues that in all reality aren't essential. when people are hurting. when people are dying from preventable things, and these many would argue, myself included, that those are the things that Christ would want us to spend our time and energy with and not fighting amongst ourselves.
i heard a talk a few weeks ago by ed dobson... in which he points out an interesting few verses from ephesians... 4:1-3.
'as a prisoner for the Lord, then, i urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.'
critique is good. but too often, many are wasting time and energy going after not only men like rob bell but many others when in all actuality we are on the same side. and often the real question is how can we make peace, so that we can then extent this peace to the world?
i'm with rob on this one sorry z.
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