Don Miller Interview

Donald Miller is interviewed at Out of Ur: "Donald Miller Isn't Hip."  A clip...

You've said that the church "uses love as a commodity." What do you mean?

Miller: We sometimes take a Darwinian approach with love—if we are against somebody's ideas, we starve them out. If we disagree with somebody's political ideas, or sexual identity, we just don't "pay" them. We refuse to "condone the behavior" by offering any love.

This approach has created a Christian culture that is completely unaware what the greater culture thinks of us. We don't interact with people who don't validate our ideas. There is nothing revolutionary here. This mindset is hardly a breath of fresh air to a world that uses the exact same kinds of techniques.

Comments

[Joe Kennedy]

I posted on this too (actually, not yet, it's waiting to be posted because I wanted more discussion on my previous post). He's dead on with the love as a commodity thing. But I think something just as or more relevant to what I see around me these days is the first part- the Christian subculture popularity contest.

He mentioned the love quote in Blue Like Jazz, didn't he? Or was it Searching for God Knows What?

[Keith Walters]

I completely agree. Part of the problem is that these nominal Christians are not prepared to "give an answer for the hope that they have" and to avoid being asked the question they avoid those who would ask it.

There is not supposed to be a Christian subculture, where everything thing the world offers is replicated. There is not even supposed to be a Christian counter-culture. Christians are supposed to engage and transform the surrounding secular culture.

Modern Christians look more and more like the Pharisees and less and less like Christ.

[Steve Dennie]

The commodity idea is fascinating. I love it when, despite a lifetimein the church, I encounter a completely new take on something very fundamental. This one makes me mentally review a whole lotta relationships.

Steve Dennie

[Brad Williams]

The first reaction I have to a comment like this is to agree, but after I analyze the comment I am unsure what he means. Does he mean that churches are hating sinful people? (Insert sin list here.) And what, exactly, does he mean by "love"?

How we define love is huge in a statement like this, isn't it? How does one rebuke sin and leave the other person with the feeling that they are loved? (It can be done, right?) Also, the problem may not be completely in the church, it could be in the person rebuked.

Also, this statement is interesting to me:

We don't interact with people who don't validate our ideas.

Are we pushing our ideas? What if people refuse to interact with us because they won't validate God's ideas? If our ideas are ungodly, then they ought not listen anyway.