(no subject)
Huh. Apparently, Rob Bell - the guy with the camcorder and the artsy style in all those NOOMA videos? - has bad theology.*
... I feel like, having seen some of his videos, this is not actually much of a shock.
I mean, seriously. This is a guy who, in the first-numbered of his videos, talks about a time when he took a hike with his infant son in a carrier on his back. Unexpectedly, it began to storm, and his son began screaming in fright. Bell recounts how he cradled the child in his arms, whispering that everything would be all right, because his father had him. And hey, what a metaphor for God taking care of us!
So far, well and good.
Then he says, "Now, imagine it's, like, years later, and [my son] is in therapy, and he drags up this repressed memory... and he comes to me, and he's like... 'Dad, what'd you let me go through that for? I've got all this junk inside... Why didn't you protect me?' I would be crushed, because to me, that walk was one of my deepest, most intimate memories of my life with my son. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything."
This is a guy who would rather have a good memory to draw on than spare his child trauma. If he could go back, and change things so that his kid was never frightened and hurt, he wouldn't do it. Are we surprised that he does not have a proper view of the world? Was this ever in doubt?
* - More specifically, he appears to be a Universalist; that is, someone who believes that all roads lead to heaven
... I feel like, having seen some of his videos, this is not actually much of a shock.
I mean, seriously. This is a guy who, in the first-numbered of his videos, talks about a time when he took a hike with his infant son in a carrier on his back. Unexpectedly, it began to storm, and his son began screaming in fright. Bell recounts how he cradled the child in his arms, whispering that everything would be all right, because his father had him. And hey, what a metaphor for God taking care of us!
So far, well and good.
Then he says, "Now, imagine it's, like, years later, and [my son] is in therapy, and he drags up this repressed memory... and he comes to me, and he's like... 'Dad, what'd you let me go through that for? I've got all this junk inside... Why didn't you protect me?' I would be crushed, because to me, that walk was one of my deepest, most intimate memories of my life with my son. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything."
This is a guy who would rather have a good memory to draw on than spare his child trauma. If he could go back, and change things so that his kid was never frightened and hurt, he wouldn't do it. Are we surprised that he does not have a proper view of the world? Was this ever in doubt?
* - More specifically, he appears to be a Universalist; that is, someone who believes that all roads lead to heaven