anti-emergent
I imagine that an anti-emergent would start out by picking up the bible. They would tell me to examine what the bible says; it will tell me what’s wrong in my parents’ household. They might pick a verse like the one in Galatians that tells us what the fruits of the spirit are. Obviously my parents’ household does not have God because it does not have peace, a key fruit. If there’s tension then there’s no love. Love is a fruit. If everyone is leery of each other because of the tension there’s no joy. Joy is a fruit.
Maybe they would commend me on not living there because the bible says that we sometimes have to give up our family to follow Christ. But be careful! I should also work to save them, so that they can go to heaven. Because they obviously don’t have God. Remember, they’re missing fruit. The bible states that non-fruit bearing things get thrown into the fire. Whatever the hell that means (pun intended).
The above may be a gross hyperbole. It may not. I don’t claim to be anti-emergent, so I can’t really say. The statements are fair though. Many anti-emergents do claim that the emergent movement has left the scriptures behind. When emergents have used it, it’s in a twisted and complicated way that includes words like ‘contextualization.’
Below is an imagined dialogue between an anti-emergent and myself.
Anti-Emergent (AE): Colby, there is something wrong with your family.
Colby Stream (CS): I guess so. I mean, that is why I came to you.
AE: You don’t understand. There is something really wrong with your family. God says that we should have peace in our lives. Tension is not a sign of peace.
CS: Then how do I fix it?
AE: Pray. Pray hard. The bible says to pray without ceasing. Only prayer can save them. There’s nothing you can do. But you should try to save them. If God’s not in their household they’ll all go to hell. You don’t want them to go there do you?
CS: No.
AE: Then you’ve got to save them!
CS: How? How do you save a person?
AE: You don’t. God does. All you can do is pray. Pray hard. Without ceasing.
CS: But what does that mean?
AE: What do you mean what does that mean? You’ve got to pray! It’s a basic principle, prayer, really.
CS: But what does it mean? To pray.
Is this an unfair depiction? No. Not really. Why would it be? Nothing I’ve written so far has disagreed with this point of view. I’m simply telling you how it is. An anti-emergent would simply tell me I need to pray, read my bible, let God save them.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that nothing on this page disagrees with the bible. Explicitly anyway.
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