If You Don't Agree with Al Mohler You Aren't a Christian

[Tim Bonney]

Al Mohler, the pontiff of Louisville, is now declaring that if you aren't a Christian the way he is a Christian than you aren't a Christian.

http://baptistnews.com/faith/theology/i ... ominations

[Dave Roberts]

Every time I read about one of Mohler's pontifications, I am all the more thankful to no longer be a Southern Baptist who has to explain such things to his congregation when their best friends are Episcopalians and Presbyterians. His certainty about everything is downright scary.

[Stephen Fox]

Don't have a link, but sure some of you have seen it

[Sandy]

You have assumed that Mohler is saying if you don't agree with his brand of faith, you're not a Christian. Perhaps that's implied, perhaps not, but it's not what he's stated. What he's said is that there is a very sharp distinction between Evangelical Christianity and Liberal Protestantism, to the point where the two do not draw the same conclusions, and are, in essence, different "religions." Given the sharp distinction, especially on moral issues related to the application of Christian principles to the Christian life, and the essence of what each group believes that is, he's correct. You can simplify it by saying that one group believes in moral absolutes, discerned from scripture that is directly inspired by God, and one group believes all of that is open to individual interpretation. Those are opposing, not complimentary or similar, views. Methods of interpretation and application of the Bible's teachings are different, and lead to different, sometimes diametrically opposed, conclusions.

That view is not unique to Mohler or to conservative Evangelicals. Many liberal, mainline Protestants are just as dismissive, and exclusisve, and just as adamant in the superiority of their own beliefs over conservative, Evangelical views.

[Haruo]

Thank God for God, who will in the fullness of time correct all the popes.

[Dave Roberts]

[KeithE]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Imagine how moderate let alone liberal Muslims feel.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-b- ... 58094.html

[Shawn Koester]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

Shawn,

Nice to see you posting. I'm always happy to see another theological moderate.

I'd suggest you want to use something other than "fundamentalism" to describe the extremism on the far left though I think I know what you mean.

The history and definition of "fundamentalism" means it is an extreme of the far right, first theologically and then politically. In politics the far left is "Communist" and the far right is "Fascist." So you can't have a fascist communist, (that is a right wing left winger.) Basically that's what fundamentalist liberal would mean, a right wing liberal.

I think "liberal extremist" makes more sense.

I consider myself a slightly left of center Methodist.