Cedarville University’s claims of being a “conservative Christian” institution should come complete with a laugh track these days. Take a look at what they’re up to now. Here’s a bio on the keynote speaker for this deeply biblical U2 Conference they’re hosting.

Anthony DeCurtis is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where his work has appeared for more than twenty-five years, and occasionally writes for The New York Times and many other publications. He is the author of In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life and Work, as well as Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music and Other Matters. He is also the editor of Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture, and co-editor of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll and The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd edition).  His essay accompanying the Eric Clapton box set “Crossroads” won a Grammy Award in the “Best Album Notes” category, and he wrote the liner notes for U2’s recent release of the remastered live album Under a Blood Red Sky, and for the DVD release of their historic Live at Red Rocks concert.  He has written about U2 since 1984, and his most recent interview with Bono was for Rolling Stone’s 40th anniversary issue. He holds a Ph.D. in American literature, and teaches in the writing program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Here are a few more bio sketches of other speakers:

Neil McCormick is one of the UK’s best known music critics. His weekly column in the Daily Telegraph is syndicated around the world and he is a regular guest on BBC Television and radio. He started working for Hot Press music magazine in Dublin as a 17-year-old punk rock art school drop out in 1978.

Steve Turner has written about music for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, NME and Paste. His books include A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles’ Song, The Man Called Cash (the authorized biography of Johnny Cash) and Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye. He first met U2 in the early 1980s. He co-authored Rattle & Hum, the book-of-the-film, and Bono wrote the introduction to his poetry book The King of Twist. His proudest U2 moments include supplying the book that inspired “Red Hill Mining Town” and personally introducing Bono to Roy Orbison.

Jim Henke is Vice President of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the first American journalist to interview U2. Henke began his career at Rolling Stone magazine in 1977 and served as the magazine’s music editor for nearly a decade. While at Rolling Stone, Henke co-edited The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll and The Rolling Stone Album Guide.

A die-hard, rabid and unapologetic U2 fan since the autumn of 1982 when she heard the first chords of “Gloria,” Cathleen Falsani is also the religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, where, since 2000, she has covered her diverse “God beat” from locations as far a field as Vatican City, Vedic City, Ireland, Germany, the Caribbean, the West Wing, and the dugout at Wrigley Field.

Matt McGee is the founder and editor of @U2 (www.atu2.com), the oldest independent site for U2 fans on the Internet. Founded in 1995, the site has received numerous awards and accolades from the likes of Entertainment Weekly (#1 music fan site on the Internet), Rolling Stone (#1 independent U2 site), Hot Press (“arguably better than the official band site”), and other media and web sites around the world. Matt is also the author of U2 – A Diary, a new book that chronicles U2’s history in a timeline format, out now from Omnibus Press.

And this is being sponsored by a conservative Christian university? I’d hate to see what a liberal one looks like.

The event is reportedly aided and abetted by Cedarville Associate English Professor, Scott Calhoun, and vice-president, Carl Ruby. You will remember Ruby as the one who mockingly dressed up in a Shane Claiborne outfit to thumb his nose at those concerned with Cedarville’s spiritual drift. Additionally, the website for the U2 event is designed by Cedarville grad, Ben Kouba.

To slightly tweak a U2 line: Achtung Check Writing Alumni! Cedarville was not being straight with you when they claimed the following on their website:

The faculty, staff, administration, and trustees want you to know that Cedarville is unwavering in its stand for the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. True to our mission, Cedarville University is equipping students for lifelong leadership and service through an education marked by excellence and grounded in biblical truth.”

Question for Carl Ruby and colleagues: If you’re giving students an education grounded in biblical truth, why are you having them sit and listen to the wisdom of someone from Rolling Stone and treating U2’s music as though it were part of the canon of Scripture? Just asking.

Raymond Bartholomew of CedarvilleSituation.com created this video that documents the spiritual slide at Cedarville. Those who are considering the school for their young person need to realize just what is going on there. Finally, compromised leadership at Cedarville should take notice of the cautionary tale of Richard Cizik at the NAE. His resignation should serve as a warning to those who want to claim the Christian label while they deny biblical truth in practice. Cizik was outed and is now looking for employment. There are many Cedarville faculty, former faculty, students and alumni who are not fooled and they are not staying quiet about this.

(Click on the video below to see it in full screen mode.)

Truth of the Matter: The Lethal Condition of Cedarville University from CU Truth on Vimeo.

This article by John Hendryx and Nathan Pitchford is helpful in understanding the certainty debate currently going on. This is the debate at Cedarville University that has caused so much turmoil. The debate began when the influence of postmodern, emerging church authors and leaders began to be felt on campus. It’s the sheer certainty against certainty expressed by these postmoderns that renders their ideas absurd. If we can’t be certain about anything, how can we be certain that certainty is wrong? It’s also interesting that those emerging church authors who rail against believing in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God would be indignant if someone treated their own texts with the same dismissive attitude towards the authors’ intent and meaning. “Everything must change,” says Brian McLaren in his recent book. But did he really say that? Maybe what he really meant was, “everything must NOT change.” We can’t be certain about what he really meant. It’s all contextual. The truth? Millions of of these emerging church books are sold every year with the explicit intent of changing everything, including cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. The authors are certain that they are correct and everyone else is wrong, and they have a specific, certain program they want us to follow. So much for the certainty debate.

Apparently Cedarville University’s doctrinal battles that included the firing of two tenured professors and some less than flattering national attention from the nation’s best read scholarly journal (the Chronicle of Higher Education) haven’t dampened spirits at the school. Here is a student-taken snapshot of Vice-President for Student Life, Dr. Carl Ruby, in costume as controversial, neo-monastic youth celebrity and political leftist, Shane Claiborne. Ruby’s surprising costume choice came at the annual campus event known as Elliv (that’s ville spelled backwards for you non-academic types) last Saturday. According to students attending, the college revels included Dr. Ruby playing Claiborne in a skit where he was silenced and not allowed to speak. In real life, Claiborne was recently dis-invited to the university much to the chagrin of Ruby and his academic cohorts on campus after concerns were raised from those inside and outside of Cedarville. Contrary to the disinformation that the only concerns were raised by “angry bloggers”, students, parents and alumni were concerned after Shane’s upcoming appearance was publicized online by a variety of sources.

While Ruby in his Claiborne rig-out may view all of this as material for cheap laughs, the real issues remain both for the institution and for those outside who are concerned about the influence of postmodernism on Cedarville faculty and administration. On the school’s website they have made a point to billboard their biblically conservative image with the words:

In a culture where truth is questioned, Cedarville is unwavering in its commitment to the inerrancy and authority of Scripture.

If the school is that zealous for truth, than Dr. Ruby should not be making excuses for Claiborne regarding this interview of Tony Campolo as Ruby did in this letter to the faculty where he lashed out at those concerned by Claiborne’s teachings. The interview simply speaks for itself, yet those who quoted from it in order to demonstrate the unbiblical nature of Campolo’s and Shane’s remarks were accused with that old canard, “They took it out of context”. (It’s frankly even worse in context.) Shane Claiborne just spoke along with Brian there-is-no-substitutionary-atonement McLaren two weeks ago at McLaren’s Shift conference at Willow Creek, and he met up with Brian there-is-no-hell McLaren again to speak at the Justice Revival in Columbus, Ohio this last weekend with Jim Wallis and the usual suspects from the Religious Left. Why is Shane not troubled that McLaren is actively attacking core Christian doctrine? Why is Shane willing to partner publicly at conferences with a man who rejects the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ? (See the Baptist Press report I posted earlier today on McLaren’s teachings at Willow Creek.) To deny the atonement of Christ on the cross for our sins is blasphemous. To deny the atonement is to spit on the face of Christ who died in agony in our place. This attack by McLaren on the Scriptures apparently bothers Mr. Claiborne, and his acolyte, Dr. Ruby, not at all. It’s all about social justice, you see. Who cares about what McLaren believes about eternity, hell, the cause for Christ’s death on the cross? Everything must change! We need a shift. It’s Kingdom Now, people. It’s only the temporal concerns that matter. Eternity is for loser, pie-in-the-sky fundamentalists, not cool “red-letter” Christians with organic hemp clothing made by hand.

Claiborne is also a friend and co-laborer with Dr. Tony Campolo who hails from Claiborne’s alma mater, Eastern College. Their new DVD, Simply Enough, has them working, shoulder to shoulder. Campolo, you will remember, is the one who suggested that Muslims and Christians may find common ground through mysticism in his book, Speaking My Mind.

“Beyond these models of reconciliation, a theology of mysticism provides some hope for common ground between Christianity and Islam. Both religions have within their histories examples of ecstatic union with God … I do not know what to make of the Muslim mystics, especially those who have come to be known as the Sufis. What do they experience in their mystical experiences? Could they have encountered the same God we do in our Christian mysticism?”

–P. 149-150, Speaking My Mind

This quote is the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to the theological problems of Dr. Campolo, including Campolo’s citing of sources like New Ager Teilhard de Chardin, for example. (See my earlier post on Campolo and Doublespeak.)

Shane Claiborne consistently keeps some very strange spiritual company. Cedarville’s Dr. Ruby isn’t concerned in the least. It’s all good.

Cedarville’s claim of staunch support for Scriptural authority and inerrancy rings hollow. If Scripture was authoritative at Cedarville, the leadership would keep postmodernism’s cheerleaders out of their school realizing the spiritual error they represent. As it stands, it appears the school’s leadership wants to have things both ways. They seem to want to appease those on the faculty and in their administration who are enamored with postmodernism while keeping the conservative alumni money and children flowing into their institution. They are on the very sharp horns of a dilemma.

The Dayton Daily News is now covering the Cedarville University issue between those who hold to a “certainty” view of Scripture versus those who hold the emerging/postmodern view which is anything but certain. I received an email a few months ago from an irate faculty member who was upset that I was covering the matter at all. This was before the story broke in one of the most prestigious academic journals on higher education and before the rest of the news media picked up on it. Everything that was stated here on Slice—that it is a battle between the emerging proponents and those who are being faithful to Scripture, has been borne out since by the secular media. It’s a battle for the university, and I thank God for the “stalwart, old iconoclasts”, as one poem puts it, who refuse to be carried away by the tide of postmodernism. Those faculty at Cedarville University who hold fast to God’s Word have not changed. The rest of those faculty who are enamored with the postmodern love for fog and the emerging confusion are the ones who are leaving the reservation. Let them go and start their own university where they can walk around in mystery and uncertainty all they want. In fact, there are many evangelical institutions that are already filled with postmodern fog that would be very glad, I am sure, to have more fog-blowing postmodern faculty members…

The Chronicle of Higher Education carries further details of the emerging mess at Cedarville University.

A conversation between a student and a senior administrator at Cedarville University, which the student secretly recorded, suggests that the university’s termination of two tenured professors was timed to avoid marring the Ohio Baptist institution’s accreditation process last year.

In the recording, Robert W. Milliman, Cedarville’s academic vice president, says that last spring’s review by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Higher Learning Commission was a factor in the university’s decision to issue contracts to David Hoffeditz and David Mappes, two tenured professors in the biblical-studies department, for the 2007-8 academic year. The professors were subsequently given notice of termination by the university in early July, after the accreditation was completed.

The ongoing problems at Cedarville University have been covered by the Chronicle of Higher Edcation. The publication is the largest and most respected digest covering academic issues in America. The firing of two tenured Bible professors who had just been given contracts a few months earlier has also now resulted in an investigation by the American Association of University Professors.

The article points out that a theological debate going on at Cedarville University has played a role in the controversy.

“A theological impasse dividing Cedarville’s campus has also played a role in the controversy. Known as the “truth and certainty debate,” the dispute involves a somewhat rarefied but hotly contested question of faith: Can Christians enjoy certainty of Biblical truth, or do they merely have the assurance of their faith that the Bible is factual?

It is a question that folds into a still larger debate over how much Christianity should reconcile with the intellectual context of postmodernity. Those who hold to a belief in certainty, Mr. Hoffeditz and Mr. Mappes among them, tend to consider themselves more theologically conservative. “

It’s the same battle going on everywhere today, but Cedarville is a particularly sad place in which to see the war against certainty. It was once a strong biblical institution.

“Shane is one of the best representatives of an emerging Christianity that could change the face of American religion and politics.”

–Jim Wallis, from the forward of Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistible Revolution

“Claiborne, who has not self-identified as part of the Emergent movement, is best known for launching a monastic community in Philadelphia, and for his 2006 book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. His lecture was sponsored by Cedarville’s Student Life Division.”

–Christianity Today article, “Braking for Bloggers”, 2-11-08

If Shane hasn’t “self-identified” as part of the emergent movement, why does Jim Wallis call him “one of the best representatives of an emerging Christianity that could change the face of American religion and politics” in Shane’s own book forward? Either Christianity Today’s statement is bogus or Jim Wallis’ forward in Shane’s own book is. I should think that Shane would know best what he wants said about him in his own book, wouldn’t you? Thanks, Mr. Wallis, for clarifying things. (The book is also endorsed by the unholy trinity of Campolo, McLaren and Sider.)

So why should anyone care about what this author wearing a bandana and funky glasses says or writes? Does it matter? Let’s revisit that quote again by Jim Wallis, for therein lies the answer. Shane is one of the “best representatives of an emerging Christianity that could change the face of American religion and politics”, says Wallis. Well, friends that would affect you and me, wouldn’t it? Should we not have a voice in what goes on in the name of American religion and politics? Or is it our place to sit quietly by while men like Shane reshape and redefine the Christian faith and our American political landscape to fit their leftist beliefs? This is why Slice and other outlets exist—we aren’t going along with the Shane Claibornes and the Brian McLarens, and the Tony Campolos and we’re letting the world know why.

Throughout church history we have examples of Christians who could not silently sit by and let the heresy du jour change the face of Christianity. Athanasius, who lived in the fourth century, was one of those who stood up against a tidal wave of heresy in his time. He stood against the Arians who denied essential doctrines of the Christian faith, much as Brian McLaren et al deny basic doctrines. (Hell, penal substitutionary atonement) It was said of this great man that it was Athanasius contra mundo—Athanasius against the world. But God used his faithfulness to preserve the faith in his day. In our day, it is the job of every faithful believer to be watchful. If the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, is the price of sound doctrine any less?

A faculty member at Cedarville University emailed in indignation regarding my recent coverage of the Shane Claiborne cancellation. The faculty member was particularly irate because of my mention of Dr. Brad Kallenberg, the postmodern theologian endorsed by Brian McLaren who spoke yesterday, today, and who will speak tomorrow at Cedarville’s chapel services. Here is the man Kallenberg had endorse his work, Brian McLaren. Listen to the heresy spewing out of McLaren’s mouth in this YouTube clip. Hear the hiss, folks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SOUfsX2fbk[/youtube]

When Christianity Today reporter Katelyn Beaty contacted me to ask about my blog and the Shane Claiborne controversy at Cedarville, I nearly turned her down. Having spent 20 years doing the kind of research I do in Christian radio and television and now the blog world, I have seen how media outlets like CT can distort an issue and make serious Christians appear to be malicious and ill-informed. I talked with Katelyn anyway, knowing full well the spin that CT intended to give the story. Well, once again, I was correct. Rather than have their headline read like the subheader which more accurately portrays the news value of the situation, they went for the typically sensational headline, Braking for Bloggers. It’s only in the subheader that you read about the real issue at Cedarville:

Cedarville’s decision to cancel Shane Claiborne lecture highlights turmoil over the school’s doctrinal identity.

Well, yes, now there’s the real issue. Why didn’t that make the headline? The fact that concerned Christians with news blogs write about the mess at Cedarville, shouldn’t be a surprise. Yet somehow they want that to be the story. I personally gave Katelyn the name and website of Dr. Bartholomew, formerly a professor at Cedarville, now retired. The man has testified as an expert witness in a case that went to the Supreme Court and has enormous credibility. Dr. Bartholomew would have been a rich and primary source of information about the doctrinal battles going on at Cedarville. Instead, the reporter chose to stay on the side of sensation by once again, say it with me, blaming the bloggers.

If the controversy over Shane Claiborne’s event at Cedarville was all from outside bloggers with nothing better to do with their time, than why were students, parents and alumni calling and emailing me in alarm? Was the reporter unable to locate anyone on campus who objects to Cedarville’s growing taste for the emerging kool-aid? It wouldn’t take a Bob Woodward to find someone, I know that much.

I can also respond to the downright dishonest assertion by Shane Claiborne that he wants to talk with his critics. If the CT reporter found my email on my site, I’m sure that Shane Claiborne could. I am not difficult to locate, and I repeat my earlier invitation to Mr. Claiborne to appear on my radio show for an interview. The idea that I would refuse to talk to him is patently false. I have engaged guests over the years who are a lot more radical than Mr. Claiborne including Dr. Benjamin Creme, Neale Donald Walsch, Dr. John Hagelin, and Dave Fleming, to name a few.

In addition, I could have personally put Katelyn Beaty in touch with articulate and concerned alumni (those are the ones that write the donor checks and send their children) who are very much opposed to the drift at Cedarville. Instead, CT chose to make Christians concerned about Cedarville look as though they are limited to outside blogger hacks doing a drive-by to an innocent college speaker. I report and commentate on the news. I don’t make it. The depth of this story has been missed in the CT article, and considering what is at stake spiritually, that’s a shame.

**Clarification regarding earlier Cedarville post: Cedarville’s chapel speaker this week in chapel, postmodern theologian Brad Kallenberg has a doctorate in Philosophical Theology and Ethics, not what was originally stated. You can read about his new concept of conversion here in this review from Open Source Theology. This is why men like Brian McLaren endorse Dr. Kallenberg’s work, and this is why we’re raising the issue.**

Shane Claiborne has learned well from his fellow emergent leaders that the fastest way to discredit opposition is to call them, “angry bloggers”. Rick Warren has also been doing that for years. When Warren wandered into a diplomatic mine field with his trip to terror-sponsoring Syria, he blamed the justified outcry on those nasty bloggers. It’s the last refuge of a theological scoundrel these days—blame the bloggers. You can read Shane Claiborne’s angry response to the cancellation of his Cedarville University event here on the BLOG of political and spiritual left-winger, Jim Wallis. (Wallis is fond of saying that God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. Yeah, Jim, but you know for sure that He is a liberal, right?) If bloggers are so bad, Shane, I’m not sure why you decided to utilize one to respond to your critics.

Shane claims that he wants to go one on one with his critics. I haven’t gotten a phone call yet. Shane surely knows I host a syndicated radio show on 87 Christian outlets around the country and have interviewed men like Doug Pagitt and Dave Fleming in the past. I’d like to ask him some serious theological questions myself, particularly regarding his upcoming gig at Willow Creek with Brian there-is-no-hell McLaren. Lots and lots of questions, Shane.

Shane claims that fortunately, we angry bloggers don’t represent the majority of Christians. I would remind Shane that by his own claims he is in the midst of a revolution to change the majority of Christians and their thinking to his own brand of Christianity. The hearts and minds of the majority of evangelicals are up for grabs due to generations who grew up without being taught the basic doctrines of the Christian faith. Shane and company are vying for the hearts of the masses with their repackaged theological liberalism. We are contending for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we hold up Holy Scripture and warn of the false gospel that is making its way onto college campuses and into the evangelical mainstream. We stand by our positions in upholding the unfailing and inerrant Word, and by God’s grace, will continue to warn of the “shift” that Shane and McLaren and all the rest are so excited about.

Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries has posted on Shane’s comments here with the post, Shane Claiborne, Meet the Facts.

Fresh on the heels of canceling emerging author Shane Claiborne’s appearance, the leaders at Cedarville University have decided that someone even more controversial is just the ticket. This school just can’t seem to stay away from the emerging Kool-Aid, and this time, it’s a big gulp.

The chapel speaker at Cedarville on February 11, 12, and 13 is Brad Kallenberg. Brad Kallenberg is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, a Catholic university. His doctorate was in Philosophical Theology and Ethics. He has written a book titled, Live to Tell: Evangelism in a Postmodern Age, published by Brazos Press. On the publisher’s website, we find this page containing endorsements from none other than “there is no hell and the cross is false advertising for God” Brian McLaren himself:

“Brad Kallenberg is a pioneer in engaging the postmodern world with the Christian gospel. I respect him, listen to him, and learn from him, and I hope many others will do the same. Live to Tell will be the first of many important works by this important theologian of the emerging church.”

–Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian

Cedarville’s chapel speaker, Brad Kallenberg, is called “…this important theologian of the emerging church,” by the First Grand Cyclops of the emerging church. That’s some speaker to bring to speak to impressionable young students. Most interesting is a piece Dr. Kallenberg wrote, The Gospel Truth of Relativism published in The Scottish Journal of Theology 53, no.2, (2000):177-211. Here’s what a colleague at the same University of Dayton writes about Kallenberg’s book.

“Who would ever have thought that postmodern philosophy could help us think about what what it means to become Christian? Brad Kallenberg, steeped in both philosophy and evangelism, sees the connections and offers a radically different and compelling account of conversion. With unequalled clarity and engaging humor, Kallenberg makes key philosophical concepts understandable for any reader and weaves them with real stories of witness and communal evangelizing. In so doing, he provides a model for how to do theology and a highly readable gift for Christians who seek to live the Good News to the world.”

–M. Therese Lysaught, University of Dayton

Who would have thought, indeed? A “radically different and compelling account of conversion”? Hmmm. That sounds almost as interesting as The Gospel Truth of Relativism. So what does Kallenberg believe about conversion? Read this review of book and his new concept of conversion at Open Source Theology.

Three days. They’re giving this postmodern theologian three days to teach young people in chapel at Cedarville University. Something is rotten in Denmark, friends. Make that Ohio. That spinning sound you are hearing is the sound of Cedarville’s founders in their graves.

**Updated**

The suggested reading list posted by the President of Cedarville University has been changed and no longer features Soul Tsunami by New Spirituality/Emergent guru, Leonard Sweet. You can see here that the book was on the list as it is still in the google cache. I was alerted to this after a Cedarville professor wrote asking why I was reporting the presence of this book on the President’s list when it wasn’t there. It was there. It is no longer. You can see the new version of the list here.

You can read here how Leonard Sweet thanks occult New Agers Willis Harmon and Matthew Fox, promotes “Christ-consciousness” and other doctrines of the emerging New Spirituality. Any Christian who has done even a modicum of research on Leonard Sweet can see the unbiblical nature of his teachings. Christian scholarship should be the hallmark of a Christian university. Sadly today, it is not always so.

**I had an email exchange today with a professor from Cedarville. He asked me if I didn’t think it was right to include books like Soul Tsunami on the President’s reading list. After all, the books were only intended to provoke thought, and it is a university. I have no objection to universities requiring or suggesting reading on a given subject for the purpose of education about the emerging church, that is, provided that adequate spiritual warnings are handed out with the book lists. I and others who stay on top of the emerging authors today read many of these books, but to quote Robert Murray M’Cheyne, we do so as a chemist who handles poison in order to understand its properties.

College students are singularly vulnerable, particularly those who have just left home and who are trying to come into their own as to what they believe. As fewer and fewer homes and churches are giving young people a grounding in the doctrines of the Christian faith, college students are more vulnerable to spiritual deception than ever. These books deserve a warning tag and biblical critiques from teachers who can show the students the dangers of departing from Scripture alone, Faith alone, Christ alone, Grace alone, and the Glory of God alone. To my knowledge, no such warnings were put on the President’s suggested list. To compound matters, the school has allowed emerging authors like Donald Miller on campus to spread their postmodern views. The invitation and then cancellation of Shane Claiborne is only adding to the growing confusion at Cedarville University. This is a dangerous dance this school has engaged in. They need to either admit they have gone the postmodern route and publicize themselves as such, or return to the old paths that once made Cedarville synonymous with biblical integrity.**

Jonathan Purple, Director of Student Life programs for Cedarville University, responded to my query this morning about the disappearance of the Shane Claiborne event from their school calendar. He writes:

“Thanks for you contact, but I regret to have to tell you that we are in
the process of canceling this event.”

Cedarville University has not gone down the emerging church/contemplative path without comment from those who keep it in business. The school has taken flak from parents and alumni check-writers who are greatly concerned at their direction. Perhaps this had something to do with the cancellation.

See a previous post regarding Shane’s scheduled appearance for February.

One of emerging spirituality’s pied pipers, Shane Claiborne, is scheduled to speak at Cedarville University. The present leadership of that institution is apparently failing to hold the line on contemplative and emerging influences. Lighthouse Trails Research is reporting the following:

On February 11th, Cedarville University will be hosting an evening with emerging church activist Shane Claiborne. The evening is titled after Claiborne’s book, The Irresistible Revolution. Lighthouse Trails spoke with John Purple (Cedarville’s Dean for Student Life), who said the event was open to both students and the public.

Lighthouse Trails told Purple that in the back of Claiborne’s book he lists a number of “Local Revolutionaries and Ordinary Radicals” to which proceeds of the book go. One of those is the church Brian McLaren founded – Cedar Ridge Community Church 1 Another is Rob Bell’s church, Mars Hill Bible Church2. Bell is a New Age sympathizer who tells readers in his book, Velvet Elvis that they should study the teachings of mysticism and tantric sex promoter Ken Wilber (p. 192) (see Wilber’s website with discretion). Bell also resonates with a Dominican sister (whom he invited to his church) who is from a spiritual center that promotes the occultic healing technique called Reiki (see March 29, 2006 teaching at Mars Hill).

Claiborne’s book has a foreword by liberal political activist, Jim Wallis. While Cedarville’s Dean of Student Life (Purple) told Lighthouse Trails that Cedarville is “very conservative,” pointing students to a book that is partially written by Wallis seems to give a different message. Wallis is the founder and director of Sojourners magazine, a widely read publication that gives a voice to mystics, emerging leaders, and New Age proponents. Sojourners would not represent the views of a “conservative” Christian college by any means, and it is a dichotomy for Cedarville to call itself conservative Christian then introduce students to a book written by Wallis and Claiborne in a favorable light, which CU is doing when it says that Claiborne is “rooted in the values of the Christian faith.” Source here.

Lighthouse Trails further reports that proceeds from Claiborne’s book go to the following, among others: Rob Bell and Brian McLaren’s home church, Tony Campolo, and Mark Scandrette from the the ReImagine organization. I’m not sure what’s going on in the theology department at Cedarville these days, but if someone friendly to Brian McLaren is being promoted to Cedarville students, it can’t be good. (McLaren denies the doctrine of the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ and the doctrine of a literal hell.)

Cedarville University continues to market itself as a “conservative” Baptist institution. In light of their apparent acceptance of emerging and contemplative spirituality (the university president’s book list includes Leonard Sweet’s Soul Tsunami) and the promotion of these leaders to impressionable young students, the real issue is whether they are biblical. Parents beware.