Brian McLaren does a good job in "Is God Violent?" (January 2011), arguing for the urgent importance of all of us in the Abrahamic faith tradition to tackle our troubling sacred texts about exclusiveness and violence.
But his conclusion -- supporting an understanding that God is this, not that; with these people, not those -- seriously sells short the scandal of God's love and mercy for the world, and misses the confounding fullness of God's amazing grace, which we Christians witness in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
In my interfaith work for Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Parents Circle, composed of hundreds of Israeli Jews and Palestinians (religious and non-) who had children killed by the other side, but who work together for peace and reconciliation, most clearly reflects the radically inclusive nature of God and the power of a radically realistic human response to God's love.
Ron Young
Everett, Washington
Read the Full Article
