Foxes Book of Emergents With Hurt Feelings - Donald Miller (Part 1)

Emergent Don Miller delivered the closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention. Yes he is another of these emergents who supports the pro murder candidate and now president elect Barack Obama. Axctually, if you listen, it wasn't really a prayer, it was more of a lecture in his liberal social agenda. Interesting how Miller fails to mention the unborn among "the least of these" and ascribes Jesus death as against the forces of injustice rather than as an atonement for sin. Emergents generally hate the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement and it always oozes out one way or another . . .



Richard Nathan holds a Master of Arts in Religion in Church History and has been a Bible and church history teacher for over twenty years. Over the coming days I will be posting his review of Miller's best selling book "Blue Like Jazz". Here is the first installment.

A phenomenon in evangelical circles, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller has sold over 800,000 copies and made the New York Times bestseller list since its publication by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 2003,and its popularity continues to grow. An icon in the burgeoning Emergent Church movement, it attracts countless youth in contemporary Christian culture. Seminarians nationwide are reading it avidly, and some Christian ministries and pastors are even using it to evangelize.

Why? And what does that popularity reveal about evangelicalism today?

Pagan Envy

I first read Blue Like Jazz because Christians I knew were whispering about what a wonderful book it is. I had no idea what it was about, but I figured with a name like that it could be about anything. Now, after reading it, a better title has occurred to me: Green Like Envy. I chose this title because it refers to my overwhelming impression that Don Miller envies the non-Christian or pagan life but feels confined by Christian roots. Instead, he hangs around the outskirts of paganism, hoping that something will rub off on him that he thinks Christians don’t have and pagans do.

A big focus of Miller’s book is his attraction to Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where, although he doesn’t attend, he spends a lot of time. He reports getting involved with the few Christians on campus and mingling with the students. The book’s high point is his description of an annual festival he thinks is cool.

“Each year at Reed they have a festival called Ren Fayre. They shut down the campus so students can party. Security keeps the authorities away, and everybody gets pretty drunk and high, and some people get naked. Friday night is mostly about getting drunk, and Saturday night is about getting high. The school brings in White Bird, a medical unit that specializes in treating bad drug trips. The students create special lounges with black lights and television screens to enhance kids’ mushroom trips.” [Author’s note: Hallucinogenic mushrooms are also called “magic” mushrooms.]

“Saturday evening at Ren Fayre is alive and fun. The sun goes down over the campus, and shortly after dark they shoot fireworks over the tennis courts. Students lay out on a hill and laugh and point in blurry-eyed fascination. The highlight of the evening is a glow opera that packs the amphitheater with students and friends. The opera is designed to enhance mushroom trips.”

Now why would a “Christian” call an immoral festival where people run around nude high on drugs “alive and fun”? Why does he think of this as hip and cool?