Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Things I Thought I'd Never See (#1920)

I don't know exactly how to describe the Resurgence so I'll let it's website speak for itself:
The Resurgence is a movement that resources multiple generations to live for Jesus so that they can effectively reach their cities with the Gospel by staying culturally accessible and Biblically faithful.
I don't know much about the history either, but I think it's fair to say that Mark Driscoll is the driving force behind it. Recently, the Resurgence blog has been running a series by Colin Hansen on the Reformed Resurgence, with installments so far on John Piper, Al Moher, C.J. Mahaney, Tim Keller and "Reformed Rap." (Hansen is the author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.)

Well, in predictable Resurgence humor, Hansen follows his installment on Reformed Rap with one on . . . you guessed it, Fundamentalists [ok, no you didn't guess it].

But that's not all.

Read the whole thing
for special hat tips to Danny Sweatt and Kevin Bauder.

6 comments:

Don Johnson said...

For one thing, he doesn't get the Graham controversy right. He belittles the difference over the New York campaign as nothing more than a "snub" of fundamentalists who couldn't quite get over it. It was much more than a snub, it was a deliberate change of strategy, as Graham says himself in his book, Just as I Am. So Hansen is at least a little disingenuous there. I suspect he is putting his own spin on it in the rest of the article as well.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Don Johnson said...

PS, please see Doran's excellent and much more thorough demolishing of Hansen's article over at Glory and Grace.

Way to go, Dave!

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Ben said...

Don,

I haven't read Dave yet, though I can guess what he said from his title and the first sentence.

Concerning Hansen's perspective on the Graham issue, I posed a question that parallels your point to a friend in an e-mail conversation this morning, shortly after I posted. I don't know personally whether Hansen fully grasps the issue or not. But I do agree with you that his use of "snub" belittles the issue.

On the other hand, I think it's worth noting that Hansen describes the situation as Graham delivering "the decisive break" by turning down invitations from fundamentalists.

So he doesn't tell the whole story, but he does get it right that Graham changed, not the fundamentalists.

Ben said...

Don,

Forgot something. Do you think people should be expelled from a Christian educational institution for embracing Calvinism? Just curious. I assume no but thought I'd ask.

Don Johnson said...

Hi Ben,

Can I "nuance" that one?

First answer would be "no", unless maybe it was a Wesleyan college.

Second answer would be "yes", IF he was going around being divisive about it and trying to convert people to his new found position. If he wouldn't tone it down and let others alone about it, it might become grounds for expulsion. But I guess answer two is expulsion for divisiveness, not for Calvinism.

I think that part of Hansen's article is somewhat suspect. That is to say, I am sure it may have happened in some cases, but not in what we would call the mainstream fundamentalist schools. It might be more likely at a KJO school. But it sounds more like a case of hearing a few anecdotes and extrapolating that to a whole movement. I guess we are all good at that.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Ben said...

Don, I don't think we'd have any quarrel on divisiveness.

I'm sure that not all fundamentalist schools would expel a student for embracing Calvinism. I suspect a 5-pointer would draw some attention from some elements at just about any fundamentalist school. And from what I've heard from various people, the climate is friendlier in some schools now than it was 15+ years ago.

Finally, I'm not sure anyone really knows what the "mainstream" is. My sense is that just about everyone thinks they're in it. Even KJVOs.