Brian Mclaren Wants You To Buy His Book
November 23, 2007 Brian Mclaren's Christmas message begins with four bullet points, the first two of which are a pitch for his new book, and the CD that accompanies it with helpful links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the CD project website.
He then goes on to say this:
Consumerism is the notion that the more we consume the better off we will be. As I explain in the book..
In order to reach Brian's Christmas themed informercial, one must pass through the storefront for the book that is entitled, um... ah... oh yes - "Everything Must Change". On that page one can also access the site for the conference series (tickets $109 a pop) complete with links to the corporate sponsors.
When will we get it? When? And when we do, what will we have to do to get our integrity back? Or our dignity? Everything Jesus did had "self-sacrificial love" written all over it and, here we are, writing Christmas messages that are faintly disguised product pitches while bravely taking a stand against consumerism.
There's been a substantial exodus of people from the traditional evangelical church. I meet them everywhere I go, I meet them in the most surprising of places. To a one they are all struggling with church as we know it not because they are rebellious or lacking commitment or spiritually immature but because of they are the exact opposite. Largely, I believe, they've come to a place of maturity and depth in their relationship with Christ and the traditional evangelical church is no longer able to address their needs, to speak their language or to help them take the next steps in their journey. It was out of this profound hunger that the emerging church movement first came into being. This extended conversation of faith has helped some of us make tremendous strides in our journey. It has also helped create some egregious errors in doctrine and practice. Yet it has remained the first serious re-examination of the role of the evangelical church since the Social Gospel movement of 100 years ago. In other words, it brought some of us a great deal of hope. Brian Mclaren has been a prominent voice in that hopeful discussion.
It seems, however, that Mr. Mclaren has crossed a threshold. There's no going back now. In whatever way he sought to contextualize the gospel it's pretty clear now that he's selling stuff. Maybe he's selling ideas; it's more like he's selling himself as the bearer of those ideas. Whatever the case may be it's the absence of self-sacrificial love that is the tell-tale sign of the absence of Christ. Make of that what you will, but what Mclaren's selling this Christmas season I ain't buying. I've already had a stomach full of that tripe, thank you very much.
And yeah, it is just that - tripe.
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Reader Comments (27)
The mind reels.
Think we're off topic.
(PS thanks for stopping by ...)
As a number of you said, there's a fine line between legitimate communication and commerce on the one hand and shameless consumerism on the other. It appears to most if not all of you that I crossed that line ... and again, I'm sorry. I certainly will take what is written here to heart.
I hope people will remember that the exchange of goods and services is not automatically the same as consumerism. Most of us have something we do to put bread on the table, and usually that involves the exchange of money. But I can also see how people saw my posting as a cheap attempt at self-promotion and even worse, self-promotion on the back of Christmas, which is already pretty much buried under consumption.
Obviously, what I was aiming to do in the post was to help people who are going to be Christmas shopping anyway to know about some options that I care about and that they might not otherwise know about.
First, yes, I helped produce a CD and wrote a book ... and I wanted people to know they were available. Frankly, I hate being involved in marketing anything - especially my own work. Yet when one works hard on some creative projects and pours his heart into them, it's natural I think to want to get the word out somehow.
Second, I also wanted to provide links to some creative independent artist friends who are doing really wonderful work - all "off the grid" so to speak in terms of the mainstream music industry. I wanted people to know about their work because I've worked closely with them and love them and believe in what they're doing.
Third, some friends are involved in a beautiful project called Advent Conspiracy, and I wanted people to know about that.
And third - which took up the bulk of the post - I wanted people to know about a larger project called Trade As One, of which I'm a big fan. It's an attempt to turn more and more "trade" into "fair trade" and to infuse gift-buying and giving with a higher sense of purpose - as I explain at the end of the post.
I realize that there's a lot of cynicism out there - and believe me, I have my cynical streak too - because there's a lot to be cynical about. It sounds like my posting has added to the causes for cynicism for some folks, which I sincerely regret. I should have been more careful and clear. I've asked my daughter (who graciously oversees my website) to change the title of the post so it more accurately reflects what's inside. Hopefully she'll be able to do so in the next day or two.
Anyway, I'm especially sorry to discourage or frustrate someone like rwk who is doing good work among homeless people. So many good people do humble yet heroic, God-inspired things at the margins ... and their work is so often ignored in the day-to-day world of both legitimate commerce and consumerism ... I can see why my posting made rwk feel like howling into the wind. So, rwk, thanks for expressing your concerns, and please accept my apology, and keep me in your prayers.
It's a tough road we're all trying to walk, and I believe we're all generally doing the best we can. We always need to be careful of losing our way, which is terribly easy to do and which your postings here wisely warn about. As Nancy said, in the end we're all on the same side, and I think we're all in the same boat as RWK - figuring stuff out as we go along and asking, "Where do we go from here?" Figuring stuff out with you all ... Brian