Rob Bell recently appeared on Oprah’s “Super Soul Sunday”. Before I continue, let me note that I like Oprah. In a world of increasingly nasty, polarized people, she appears to be a genuinely kind person who has done a lot of good in the world. My biggest problem with Oprah is that her view of […]
Rob Bell
Changing Christian attitudes about atheism
These past few weeks I’ve been working to complete my book Is the Atheist My Neighbor? Rethinking Christian Attitudes toward Atheism. This is a book that I believe should be read by every Christian and every atheist. Of course you’d say that, Rauser. Heck, why not just say that it should just be read by everybody? […]
As long as you teach the Bible, I have no problem with you.
An observation from Rob Bell: Somebody recently told me, ‘As long as you teach the Bible, I have no problem with you.’ Think about that for a moment. What that person was really saying is, ‘As long as you teach my version of the Bible, I’ll have no problem with you.‘ (Velvet Elvis, 44). Sigh. […]
The very worst reason to reject universalism
While at “The Christian Post” I came across a blog article by an apparently popular Christian author / speaker named “Ray Comfort” who claims to have written more than seventy books and who apparently hosts a TV show with Kirk Cameron, the one-time child sitcom star who grew up to become the protagonist in low-budget […]
Must a Christian believe God exists?
In the recent hullabaloo created by the slick marketing arm of HarperOne in which Rob Bell and Justin Taylor were played off against one another like a rousing rendition of “Dueling Banjos” down on the bayou, a number of questions have bubbled to the surface. But be careful, crocodiles lurk in those waters. Some of […]
How to declare Rob Bell not an evangelical theologian (if you must)
Alex Jordan responded to my critique of the Rob Bell Affair (or what I call “RobBellGate”; Geez, it has the same number of syllables as “Watergate”, so why is it so unwieldy?) as follows: You put a really bad spin on what Justin Taylor and others were doing. You claim they act within of a […]
Rob Bell, the heresy hunters, and the evangelical culture of fear
Apparently there was quite a kerfuffle this week when word got around that Rob Bell’s new (and as yet still unreleased) book Love Wins is, or probably does, or might, support universalism in some way. Apparently it all started when influential blogger Justin Taylor concluded after viewing a two minute promotional video that Bell is a […]