Oprah the Pluralist
This is one of many reasons why in seminary I have devoted my studies to critiquing philosophical pluralism and soteriological inclusivism. Oprah’s pluralism is answered by the good intentions of inclusivism (which I disagree with as well), and while academia is responding to John Hick’s Copernican revolution and Clark Pinnock’s “faith principle,” the everyday person is responding to Oprah Winfrey and the neighbor next door.
Again, I don’t endorse the answer or the attitude in which the lady responds to Oprah, but this shows the need for Blue Collar Theology in defense of the faith once for all handed down to the saints.
Tags: Blue Collar Theology, Inclusivism, Pluralism, Oprah
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July 11, 2008 at 11:08 am
Don’t preach doctrine. Church members don’t want to hear about theology, they need to hear about how to raise good children, or how to have a better marriage, or how to better manage their finances. Don’t teach people apologetics because that’s divisive and we can’t afford any more division in our church. People just want to be loved on, not preached to.
Don’t put any books by Van Til, Bahnsen, Sproul or Schaeffer in our church library. Those books are too hard. Nobody will ever read them. Instead let’s give them the latest “The Case for” book so that they will be ready to defend Intelligent Design at their next school board meeting.
Look all we need to do is preach Jesus and stop talking about all these things nobody cares about like imputation, propitiation, justification, election, etc. All that just gives me a headache. That stuff may be appropriate for seminaries, but not for God’s people.
Check your brains and your Bibles at the churchhouse door.
July 11, 2008 at 12:36 pm
How ironic (or predictable) that she enters into a dialogue about God and multiple ways to God but when a person mentions Jesus and the Gospel, she can’t get into a “religous” dialogue with that person!
July 11, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Lucas,
You’re joking, right? (I just want to make sure.)
July 12, 2008 at 1:33 pm
[...] 12, 2008 by thomastwitchell That’s interesting. Saw it before. And I have heard the argument before. It was set forth by Billy Graham in fact on [...]
July 12, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I wish I was, Timmy. Sadly, these are all things I have been told in church, by fellow church members or staff members (except for the last line which is my own). And we wonder why evangelicals who can no longer defend their faith are resorting in mass to conservative politics as a way of achieving some sort of tanglible “victory” in this world!
July 12, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Ah, I see. I thought those comments were uncharacteristic of you, so I appreciate the clarification. Yeah, I received similar sentiments as well. What these people don’t realize is that they are doing theology whether they admit it or not. What matters is whether it is grounded in Scripture. “All we need to do is preach Jesus.” Okay, which Jesus? What did he teach? The Jesus of Nestorius? Arius? Apollinarius? The Jesus of Joel Osteen? Oprah Winfrey? Dan Brown?
The argumentation is really unfortunate, and more importantly, it is eternally perilous. But we must press on in declaring the whole counsel of God’s Word. Those will no appetite for the truth of God do not have the Spirit of God within them to appraise it (1 Cor. 2).