Heretic?

I recently watched the new Rob Bell documentary ‘The Heretic’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ3HYWFhoKg) and came away thinking – what was so heretical about that?!! But I guess that’s the point – he is primarily critiquing right-wing Evangelical theology which is pretty much the polar opposite of my own liberal, left-wing theological views. In the film, Rob argues for women’s rights, equality, LGBT, minorities, love of our Muslim neighbours – and I felt like saying “Yes, and?!!”. It left me wanting to find out more about his views – to dig deeper and find out why he’s seen as so controversial and provocative.

I’ve always been fond of Rob's approach and seen many of his NOOMA videos which offer a fresh perspective on many traditional Christian teachings on love, sex, relationships, justice and so on (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFBGdeXGtg).

So last weekend I watched his ‘Everything is Spiritual’ tour on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT09JbaEh_I) and I have to say, it was like a breath of fresh air! It felt like at last somebody had put into words how I felt about the universe, creation, identity, God, humanity, evolution, community, growth, unity…It was eloquent, expansive, witty, intelligent, philosophical, thought-provoking and most of all – just made so much sense. It related science and religion in new ways and looked at the bigger picture of who we are, where we came from, who God is, how we relate to each other, the world round us and to God, etc etc. It was nearly 2 hours long but it really whizzed by! If you get the chance, do watch it if you can, it might just blow your mind!!!

I have also just bought Rob Bell's latest book 'What is the Bible?' and again it's a really fresh way to read and think about the Bible, go deeper into the context in which it was written and understand what it really means for us today. It's a very light-hearted easy read (I'm at chapter 6 already) and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone!