Jud, I don’t know who you are, but when I read your comment on this blog I could not keep myself from saying, “Amen.” Thank you for your willingness to speak truth.
I’d love to give you more credit than just your name, so if you’re reading this, please let me know!
1) I’ve read and heard enough from Mclaren.
2) Most American Pastors now refer to themselves as “followers of Christ”. Mclaren considers himself a “follower of Christ”. Ghandi considered himself a “follower of Christ”. The Dali Lama considers himself a follower of Christ.None of the latter three speak as to the ATONEMENT and the BLOOD of Christ. Myself? I follow the Chicago Cubs.
2) It’s ridiculous for McLaren or anyone else to use “the American Church” as a political pawn the way he does. As much as 80% of American Christians are “people who said a prayer” not in fact Born Again Christians. So it’s pathetic to say that American Christianity represents Jesus in the first place. A LONG time ago evangelism became a NUMBERS game. We are a people who create “experiences ” and manipulate peoples emotions… they say a prayer before they even think about the COSTS… we chalk one more up and they walk away ever battling doubts confident in the prayer they said.
3) The Holy Spirit represents Jesus. MANY in the Church (Pastors included) are Lost as can be… their lives are not led by the Spirit. Look around… our worship services are about the FLESH. The senses MUST be addressed because an emotional experience has replaced solid Bible teaching and discipleship, Godly sorrow and Repentance. WORKS and Social Justice are the fillers for opiating the carnal conscience.
4) Our creativity, our innovations, our “vision casting” our egos and our cleverness have replaced the cornerstone. We’ve become a people of self promotion. We aren’t broken and humble, we are smooth, we are slick, we are successful, we are appealing to the flesh. We are approved by the World. The pale echoes of the martyrs haunt us.
-Jud
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Oklahoma girl through-and-through. Writer, aspiring domestic goddess and totalitarian dictator. Taking on the world one carb-induced coma at a time. Founder of GodlyGals, a ministry for women established in 2002. Co-host of Picture Shows & Petticoats. 
These comments are awesome. It’s arrogant for pastors, and Americans, to claim the biggest stake on representing Jesus and Christianity as a whole. First, like Jud said, it fails miserably at representing Jesus. Second, while our freedoms, government and privileges might be inspired by Biblical guidelines, the very fact that our nation enjoys such privileges and avoids oppression like that faced by people in Jesus’ time and place negates any claim we might have had. It might offend some loud and proud American “Christians”, but I’d say countries like China have the biggest stake to best representing Christianity. There, it grows and thrives in spite of great oppression.
Thanks for posting!