Outside the Pigeon Holes

You don't have to ask me twice to read a book that begins with an essay by Brian McLaren. If not for McLaren and his courageous steps to remain evangelical while embracing a generous orthodoxy (which is also the title of one of his best books!) I'd still be cowering in the theological corner.                                                                        (www.chalicepress.com)   A New Evangelical Manifesto begins with McLaren and moves onto writings by numerous other theologically-minded folks who see our role as Christ-followers a bit differently than the status quo. The essays cover a lot of ground and tackle tough topics like the death penalty, torture, abortion, Muslim-Christian relationships and human trafficking. Some of the essays were more interesting than others - I was very keen on the topic of Cheryl Bridges Johns's piece ("Where evangelicals went wrong with the Bible") but it was kind of a slow read. Not that it's a bad read, just

"As comforting as it may be to perceive ourselves as a nation set apart by God, a 'City on a Hill', a light that shines in the darkness, if it can be sufficiently proven that the Bible forbids such a mixture of religion and nationalism, the question that we in America are going to have to ask ourselves is, are we a strong enough people to abandon our myths and see truth or will we continue to perpetuate the myths in favor of cultural cohesion?" These are words from an American evangelical Christian who found himself face to face with a Radical Fundamentalist Muslim during the 2009 filming of a documentary entitled Holy Wars . In his book, Alone with a Jihadist - a biblical response to holy war,  Aaron D. Taylor discusses this encounter and the major overhaul of his own perceptions (from 'just war' to American Zionism) that resulted from it. Taylor set out to  re-examining Scripture and his home-grown ideal that the American system is the form of governm