Rob Bell Still Foremost Advocate for Rob-Bell-ism

Rob Bell is still full of... opinions about what the church should be. (He's apparently full of some other things, too. Starting to look a little jowly there, Roberto.)

Bell recently gave a lengthy interview concerning the Bible and homosexuality. You can guess which one he supports more.

Brian Mattson analyzes the interview and dismembers Bell's arguments like the giant loaf of monkey bread that Bell had for breakfast that morning. (Did I mention that he seems to be putting on a couple pounds?)

False teachers have a playbook. I'm not sure who prints and distributes it. Okay, it doesn't need to be distributed; it lies lurking in every heart of every son of Adam and daughter of Eve. It all begins with the original temptation: "Did God really say?" Quite amazing, really, when you stop to think about it, how that exact question is the one at issue right in front of us in the here-and-now of 2013. Embracing that original doubt, which we might call (to keep up with the times) hermeneutical "suspicion," leads directly to a number of things.

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There is another glaring omission: The Bible. The thing that I find scary is that I don't believe that Rob Bell neglected mentioning the Bible intentionally. It is, rather, part of his DNA. The Bible was left out so casually, so naturally. I noticed this early on in the work of Brian McLaren: they want to have a "conversation" about a variety of issues. The only person who doesn't get a voice in the "conversation" is God himself. So McLaren and Bell run around pretending they're prophets of open-mindedness and tolerance, but they exclude every saint who ever lived before the late 20th century, every scholar who ever disagreed with them, and, indeed, the Bible itself. 

It is rhetoric chock full of disingenuity. 

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And there's more. Andrew Wilson puts his finger on the precise question: Rob, are you saying that Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles thought homosexuality was just fine and the church has been wrong? Or are you saying that Jesus, Paul, and the Apostles thought homosexuality was sinful and we know better now? That's your choice. His answer? 

"That’s a great, deep, thick question I’d have to think about more." 

That, my friends, is the real bulls***. Rob Bell has certainly thought of that question, but he really doesn't want to say his answer out loud and in public. His discomfort at the question is palpable, and he simply refuses to answer it. Twice. Hint: The Bible says it's wrong, but we know better now.