Julie McMahon, Tony Jones, and Submergent: My Update

To paraphrase a tagline from a certain Australian mega-church conference: “Keep speaking – we’re listening!” And being encouraged to add our voices, as well! ;)

Nailed it.

David Hayward: I watched that doc when I was sick recently and on a Netflix marathon. I love and want to be around only brave people who find the courage to stand up against the big voices and say, “No, it’s wrong.” I would say in an English accent, “For Narnia!” or in a raspy Katniss, “I’ll pay tribute!” but here I will just say, “for Virunga.” http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80009431 well worth the watch.

Well . . . these people probably are telling themselves that they did everything they could, and that they were as kind as they knew how to be, and that for them all this mess needs to be over. The problem they have is that what gets submerged generally comes to the surface again.

I honestly don’t care a straw hat about their theology or their blogs or their books. Go on and write, preach, speak, do interpretive dance, whatever. The population of “dones” is growing by the day, because it’s increasingly obvious that religious leader is an oxymoron. People are simply catching on to the obvious: we don’t need buildings, preachers, or theological treatises to live our lives with passion and hope and clarity and love. And situations like this one are just more evidence that it’s okay. The Submergents with their public cruelty and indifference have hastened the moment when they become completely irrelevant.

Brilliant statement, katewillette. Whoa.