Saturday, March 10, 2007

Oh! Please make him stop!

I picked up a book at the library for my husband today that he had requested. He's now reading "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell--please, someone make him stop!

Seriously, I treasure our time in the evenings when it's just the two of us sitting quietly in the living room reading. Over the years we've developed a habit of sharing little "nuggets" of wisdom, humor, or even disgust, from what we are reading. He's only about 20 pages into this book and I can't believe some of the things he's sharing!

Here are just a few of the little "nuggets" from Rob Bell that my husband graciously shared with me this evening; "We sponsored a Doubt Night at our church awhile back...Most of my responses were about how we need others to carry our burdens and how our real needs in life are not for more information but for loving community with other people on the journey.", "One of the great "theologians" of our time, Sean Penn, put it this way: "When everything gets answered, it's fake. The mystery is the truth."

What? Does Rob Bell seriously think that "a loving community" is the answer to people's doubts/questions about God, Jesus, etc.? And, since when did Sean Penn become a "great theologian"?

I've only recently begun to dig deeper into the "emerging church" issue (as I've already mentioned on my blog, I've been a bit preoccupied for the past 4+ years), but I'm rapidly gaining a better understanding as to why this movement is an attack on Biblical Christianity.

Assuming that my husband doesn't read the whole book out loud to me--there's probably LOTS more he'll be sharing with me--I plan to read "Velvet Elvis" for myself. But I may need to turn my internal "alarm" down a notch or two just so I can complete it.

(Oh yea, for the record my husband is not reading the book because he agrees with Rob Bell or the emerging church movement--quite the contrary.)

2 comments:

sabrina said...

I came across your post because I am actually reading Velvet Elvis and had to google this "theologian" Sean Penn thinking it was someone I had never heard of. I am reading it not because I believe in any of it, I'm reading it to see why people love this book and to see how bad it really is. I've been told that the first chapter (the one you are talking about) is not even the bad part.


did you end up reading it all?

Connie said...

sabrina: My husband finished it, but I have not started (he borrowed it from the library). I do intend/hope to read it, but have way too many other books that are 'must' reads right now. I'm sure I'll post about it when I do read it! Thanks for dropping by--let me know when/if you finish reading it.