Mars Hill pastor Rob Bell drew significant attention on Twitter and blogs today after Justin Taylor penned a blog post titled "Rob Bell: Universalist?" on Bell's upcoming book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

Taylor, vice president of editorial at Crossway, has not seen Bell's book (though he read some chapters that were sent to him), but he expressed concern with a video. "[T]his video from Bell himself shows that he is moving farther and farther away from anything resembling biblical Christianity," Taylor wrote.

Taylor pointed to the publishers' description of the book, which does not come out until March 29 from HarperOne. "With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins," part of the description states.

Bethlehem Baptist Church pastor John Piper tweeted, "Farewell Rob Bell. http://dsr.gd/fZqmd8" linking to Taylor's post. Here's the video in question:

"Rob Bell" was in the top 10 trending topics on Twitter Saturday. As of Saturday evening, about 12,000 people had recommended Taylor's blog post on Facebook, which posts the article on readers' personal pages. The article had about 650 comments.

"I've never seen anything like this. The traffic explosion testifies to the power of blogs for hosting theological debate today," said Collin Hansen, editorial director for the Gospel Coalition. "But the tremendous interest also reminds us that we're dealing with life-and-death issues of eternal importance."

Taylor updated his post, changing some wording and deleting a reference to Cor. 11:14-15: “Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” Instead, Taylor ended the post with the following paragraph:

Let’s remember to pray. Rob Bell needs to know and teach the liberating gospel of grace—including that Christ absorbed the Father’s wrath on behalf of those who trust in him and repent of their sins. And there are tens of thousands of folks who look to Rob Bell as a biblical teacher and leader. May God give much mercy.

Several other bloggers have also taken on Bell's book, including Denny Burk, Alex Chediak, and Kevin DeYoung.

I asked North Park University professor Scot McKnight if he had seen an evangelical book get so much attention before its released, and he e-mailed me the following response:

I've not seen anything like it. And, yes, the quickness of social media have made this such a big issue ... today ... and in a week it will all be gone. Justin Taylor once generated almost 100 comments by quoting a blurb of mine that was on the back of IVP's book by Tom Wright on Justification.

Justin may be right about what Rob believes, but if he is wrong then he owes Rob Bell a huge apology. I want to wait to see what Rob Bell says, read it for myself, and see what I think of it. Rob is tapping into what I think is the biggest issue facing evangelicalism today, and this fury shows that it just might be that big of an issue.

The publicity approach of HarperOne worked perfectly. They got huge publicity for a book. They intended to provoke -- and they did it well. I think it is wiser to wait to see the real thing than to rely on publicity's provocations. Justin bit, and so did many of his readers.

Frankly, John Piper's flippant dismissal of Rob Bell is unworthy of someone of Piper's stature. The way to disagree with someone of Rob Bell's influence is not a tweet of dismissal but a private letter or a phone call. Flippancy should have no part in judging a Christian leader's theology, character or status.

Here are a few other responses on Twitter that were listed higher as "Rob Bell" became a trending topic.

Covenant Life Church pastor Josh Harris tweeted, "There's nothing loving about preaching a false gospel. This breaks my heart. Praying for Rob Bell. http://bit.ly/gsE4Gl" Update: Harris has explained his tweet on his blog.

Jody Howard, an episcopal priest tweeted, "After hearing @donmilleris talk about power & control at the C3 conference, it's ironic & sad to see so many slam @realrobbell today." Author Donald Miller replied, "@adamantius satan's at work for sure."

Blogger Matthew Paul Turner tweeted, "For a moment I was afraid Rob Bell had died. But then I realized that it was just a few Calvinists hating him into a trending topic."

HarperCollins offers the following description for Bell's book:

Fans flock to his Facebook page, his NOOMA videos have been viewed by millions, and his Sunday sermons are attended by 10,000 parishioners—with a downloadable podcast reaching 50,000 more. An electrifying, unconventional pastor whom Time magazine calls “a singular rock star in the church world,” Rob Bell is the most vibrant, central religious leader of the millennial generation. Now, in Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Bell addresses one of the most controversial issues of faith—the afterlife—arguing that a loving God would never sentence human souls to eternal suffering. With searing insight, Bell puts hell on trial, and his message is decidedly optimistic—eternal life doesn’t start when we die; it starts right now. And ultimately, Love Wins.

It appears that several people on Twitter are mixing up the Twitter username robbell with @realrobbell. Robbell is a web designer based in West Yorkshire (U.K.). Some of his reactions to the publicity include the following tweets:

Dear Christians, I am not @realrobbell although I hear he does really great things. Please at least look before you 'quote' me as him

oh dear, my namesake is now a Trending Topic worldwide on Twitter, best get ready for fresh lunacy! What else is gonna go mad today?!?

@bethbeutler lol thanks Beth. Not as bad or as many as I expected when other Rob trended. I don't mind, I hear he's a thoroughly good bloke

@reverendjohnson do they? Why would an entire religion want to bash a simple Englishman like myself? I'm quite concerned...

@theonetruemyles who is this @johnpiper and why is he denouncing me? Did he not like a website I designed?

Update (2/28):

Several pastors and authors have weighed in further, including Trevin Wax, Zach Nielsen, Jason Boyett, Roger Olson, Eugene Cho, John Dyer, and Rachel Held Evans. JR Woodward says that Eugene Peterson and Greg Boyd have endorsed the book.

Tim Challies writes, "I am not going to comment on whether or not Bell is a universalist. To be honest, at this point I think it is a little bit too early to make that determination." Challies, who is promoting his own upcoming book, looks at how technology formed the discussion.

My guess is that in the end Bell will take a vague universalist position—not outright universalism but still something that is still clearly unorthodox (as Brian McLaren did in his earlier days before he got into the kind of outright denial that has been the core of his more recent books).

My interest at this point is less in what Bell believes and what his book is going to say—that will be clear in March when the book begins to hit store shelves—but in the speed at which information and opinions have been disseminated. As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about digital technologies, about how our lives have changed because of them, I see here a clear example of the ever-growing importance we place on speed, on immediacy.

Tony Jones describes Bell as the "Jason Bourne of Christianity."

In fact, I don’t know Rob Bell. I’ve spoken to him only once, briefly, in a hotel lobby at the National Youth Workers Convention. It was probably in about 2002, and we spoke for about five minutes. Rob never joined up with Emergent Village — in fact, he has publicly disavowed the term “emerging church” in various interviews. But neither has he joined any other posse (Ecclesia, Origins, etc.). He’s not, as far as I know, an adjunct prof at any seminary or on the editorial board of any magazine. In other words, I don’t think he’s a “joiner” — I think he’s a lone ranger.

Last night, Saddleback pastor Rick Warren tweeted, "I believe in hell because Jesus says it's real & he knows more about it than anyone."

Of his 2,000+ tweets, Warren has tweeted about hell about 30 times. Coincidental timing?

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 26, 2011 9:53PM | Comments (198)

Tensions between Coptic monks who dwell in remote monasteries in Egypt and the Egyptian military flared this week as the nation struggles to find its way forward after President Mubarak's resignation. The place of religious minorities, such as Christians, in the new Egypt is still a key (and not fully resolved) question.

According to reliable reports, several monks and monastery workers have been injured in recent days. The AINA news agency reports:

Egyptian armed forces this week demolished fences surrounding ancient Coptic monasteries, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by armed Arabs, robbers and escaped prisoners, who have seized the opportunity of the state of diminished protection by the authorities in Egypt to carry out assaults and thefts. "Three monasteries have been attacked by outlaws and have asked for protection from the armed forces, but were told to defend themselves." said activist Mark Ebeid. "When the terrified monks built fences to protect themselves, armed forces appeared only then with bulldozers to demolish the fences. It is worth noting that these monasteries are among the most ancient in Egypt, with valuable Coptic icons and manuscripts among others, which are of tremendous value to collectors." On Sunday February 20, armed forced stormed the 4th century old monastery of St. Boula in the Red Sea area, assaulted three monks and then demolished a small fence supporting a gate leading to the fenceless monastery. "The idea of the erection of the gate was prompted after being attacked at midnight on February 13 by five prisoners who broke out from their prisons," said Father Botros Anba Boula, "and were armed with a pistol and batons. The monks ran after them but they fled to the surrounding mountains except for one who stumbled and was apprehended and held by the monks until the police picked him up three days later."

Meanwhile, the Arab-West Report provides more perspective and an eyewitness account:

Copts tell us that it is not uncommon in Egypt that Copts have made use of moments of unrest to quickly realize structures for which otherwise permissions would have had to be requested. In the past they were often able to get away with this. The army is, however, not willing to let this go and showed willingness to destroy newly erected buildings.

To read the monk's full, eyewitness account, click here.

If you are in Egypt and have more light to shed on this situation, email me.

Posted by Tim Morgan at February 25, 2011 5:36PM | Comments (1)

Scott and Jean Adam, a retired couple who spent most of the last decade sailing the world on a "Bible Mission," were killed by Somali pirates early this morning along with two passengers on their boat, the Quest.

CT will have more information as it becomes available.

Update: CT has posted a full story with an interview with Scott Adam's Fuller Seminary classmate.

Posted by Trevor Persaud at February 22, 2011 9:12AM

The US military is tracking a 58-foot yacht, which Somali pirates reportedly hijacked three days ago, whose owners have spent the better part of a decade sailing the world on a mission to distribute Bibles.

The Quest, launched in December 2001 under the command of Scott and Jean Adam, had just sailed west from Mumbai, India with an ocean-borne support community called the Blue Water Rally before they broke off early last week en route to Salalah, Oman. Another couple participating in the Rally, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were also aboard for that leg of the trip.

The Adams have spent the past nine years distributing copies of Scripture, including both “Catholic Bibles” from the American Bible Society and NIV Bibles from the International Bible Society, to spots across the world as far-flung as New Zealand, El Salvador, the Cook Islands, British Columbia, and Fiji.

“We seek fertile ground for the Word and homes for our Bibles,” the Adams wrote on their website. “Often, the ultimate homes are best found by people who are already living locally and seeking and cultivating that fertile ground. AND even more extraordinary are the times when people have been praying for Bibles for their group or their schools and when we arrive we are often greeted by the attitude of, ‘We were expecting you.’”

Scott Adam is a Master of Divinity graduate from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. He also received a Master of Theology from the school in 2010, says Fred Messick, Fuller’s Associate Vice President of Public Affairs.

"The Fuller community is urgently praying for Scott and his wife and their friends, and we obviously encourage others to keep them in their thoughts and prayers," Messick told Christianity Today.

Reports from Somali officials suggest that the yacht is now headed toward Puntland, a well-known pirate haven. The US military is monitoring the situation and is prepared to intercept the ship before it makes landfall—at which time, prospects for a simple resolution would grow much smaller.

Posted by Trevor Persaud at February 21, 2011 1:25PM | Comments (2)

Televangelist Benny Hinn is being sued by Strang Communications, a publishing company that alleges that Hinn violated a morality clause in their contract when he began an "inappropriate relationship" with Without Walls pastor Paula White.

In August, The National Enquirer published photos of Hinn and White holding hands in Rome. Hinn was married to Suzanne Hinn at the time. His wife had filed for divorce in February 2010.

"I will not deny that the friendship has strengthened, and, while it has remained morally pure at all times, I have enjoyed the company of someone who has also gone through the trauma of a painful and public divorce," Hinn said in a statement at the time.

Hinn acknowledged to his publisher "his inappropriate relationship" with White in August, the suit, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, says. Strang Co. (now known as Charisma Media) says that it should receive $250,000 of unrecouped royalties but Hinn has refused to pay the amount.

Hinn had signed a three-book deal and was paid a $300,000 advance for Blood in the Sand (2009). The suit includes a letter where Strang said Hinn violated the contract by failing to work hard enough to market the book, according to the Sentinel.

He failed to make television appearances to promote it, including several on 700 Club, the television show that Pat Robertson founded.

Paula White and her husband divorced in 2007, and she left Without Walls, returning in 2009 after her husband announced his departure due to poor health. White also described the National Enquirer piece as false.

"We were never alone and were in the constant company of staff and other associates, " she said in a statement at the time. "I value my friendship with Pastor Benny and remain supportive with a deep respect of him, his family and his ministry. My relationship with Pastor Benny is genuine and pure and should not be taken out of context."

Hinn and White were cited in Sen. Chuck Grassley's investigation of televangelists, which recently concluded.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 21, 2011 8:49AM | Comments (44)

Catherine Clark Kroeger, who founded the egalitarian group Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) in 1988, died Monday. President of CBE Mimi Haddad said in a statement that Kroeger contracted pneumonia and died suddenly.

Among other issues, CBE advocates that women may serve as pastors, teachers, and leaders of churches. Kroeger's books included No Place for Abuse, I Suffer Not a Woman, and The IVP Women's Bible Commentary.

Kroeger also spoke out against domestic abuse as president of Peace and Safety in the Christian Home, according to her obituary in the Boston Globe. She served in leadership roles in many other organizations, and served on the Board of Trustees at Whitworth College and was included in Helen Kooiman Hosier's 100 Christian Women Who Changed the 20th Century.

She taught at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary from 1990 until her death. The seminary has posted links to interviews with Kroeger.

(h/t Denny Burk)

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 17, 2011 11:33PM | Comments (5)

Zondervan's CEO Moe Girkins will leave the company on March 11 when her contract is not renewed, a spokesperson for the company said today.

Scott Macdonald, acting general manager at Zondervan's web-based software called The City and former president of Lemstone, will be her interim replacement. A search for a new CEO will begin immediately. The company declined to comment further on Girkins' departure.

CT previously spoke with Girkins about her move to Zondervan and about the company's decision to purchase BibleGateway.com, a searchable Bible site. Under her leadership, the company also decided to revise the New International Version, "correcting the mistakes in the past," Girkins said after acknowledging that Today's New International Version "divided the evangelical Christian community." The company also issued an apology for publishing Deadly Viper, a book that used Chinese characters and images for illustrations.

Zondervan, a Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, is owned by HarperCollins.

Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey at February 17, 2011 2:23PM | Comments (22)

President Obama today awarded the United States' highest civilian honor to Dr. Tom Little, a Christian worker for the International Assistance Mission (IAM) who was murdered in Afghanistan last August.

"Tom Little could have pursued a lucrative career," President Obama said during the ceremony for Little and 14 other recipients. "Instead, he was guided by his faith, and he set out to heal the poorest of the poor in Afghanistan. For 30 years, amid invasion and civil war, the terror of the Taliban, the spread of insurgency, he and his wife Libby helped bring Afghans—literally—the miracle of sight."

Little, an optometrist, was leading an eye care team in the remote northeastern region of Badakhshan when he and nine others were found dead last summer. According to Compass Direct news service, the attack's motive is still unclear. Though the Taliban, who claimed responsibility, alleged that the group had been proselytizing and carrying Bibles in the Dari language, the IAM insisted that neither was true.

Christian workers Glenn D. Lapp, of the Mennonite Central Committee, and 32-year-old Cheryl Beckett, a pastor’s daughter from Tennessee and a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University, also died in the attack.

Little's widow Libby Little accepted the award on her husband's behalf. Last year, shortly before his death, Libby Little wrote an essay for Christianity Today's Global Conversation project. In her essay, she suggested that mission agencies were sometimes too quick to evacuate when a mission field grew dangerous, and missed "the fruitful door of opportunity to embrace suffering in service." She related two stories of times when she and Tom reaped benefits from sticking around in a troubled spot.

"God blessed those occasions and visited us with his power," she wrote. "His amateur followers, stricken with stage fright, forgetting their lines, were acting out in miniature something of his own Grand Narrative—Immanuel, God with us—in the miserable mess. The scenes set the stage for the Holy Spirit to work in a mighty way."

In his remarks, President Obama characterized Little as "a humanitarian in the truest sense of the word: a man who not only dedicated his life to others, but who lived that lesson of Scripture: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' "

Little's was the only posthumous Medal of Freedom awarded this year.

Posted by Trevor Persaud at February 15, 2011 3:52PM | Comments (9)

The leaders of Egypt’s Christian minority increasingly are joining the calls for historic change and reform as protests in Cairo and other major cities this week demand the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak.

Until recently, many Christian leaders were guarded in their comments if not supportive of Mubarak. But in the past three days with Internet and mobile phone service restored, more are speaking out against injustice in Egypt and demanding political reform, though few are openly calling for Mubarak to resign right away.

Today by email, one prominent Protestant pastor said to his overseas supporters, “We stand united with our courageous young people who broke the barrier of fear and started to demand their basic human rights for a dignified life, freedom and social justice.”

Continued...

Posted by Ted Olsen at February 4, 2011 5:15PM | Comments (4)

Video clips from recent undercover visits to Planned Parenthood clinics by a pro-life group called Live Action have stunned people on both sides of the debate and prompted the clinic to fire the employee caught on tape.

Planned Parenthood says they are "profoundly shocked" by the YouTube clips showing Central Jersey Planned Parenthood manager Amy Woodruff offering advice to Live Action operatives--posing as a pimp and his prostitute--on how to get medical care for underage sex workers without disrupting his business. The organization fired Woodruff for behavior which they say was a "very isolated" response to a "highly unusual" pair of inquirers.

Woodruff was "behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our standards of care and is completely unacceptable," said a Planned Parenthood official. Lila Rose, president of Live Action, says the New Jersey video "proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Planned Parenthood intentionally breaks state and federal laws and covers up the abuse of the young girls it claims to serve."

A few weeks ago Planned Parenthood noticed a number of similar visits at clinics in several states and contacted the authorities about what they thought could be either a "multistate sex trafficking operation" or a " 'dirty tricks' campaign." They pointed to evidence that Live Action (with whom they had prior encounters) could be involved.

"These people have recorded 'undercover' videos of their conversations with our clinic staff and then selectively and maliciously edited the videos," wrote Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards in a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder at the time.

Yesterday, Live Action uploaded a second video of an undercover visit to a Virginia clinic, which Rose said demonstrates that "Planned Parenthood’s problems go far beyond New Jersey." Planned Parenthood says the staffer in the Virginia video acted "professionally" and notified her supervisor immediately afterward.

Rose and Live Action are hardly new to YouTube activism. Rose, who says she draws inspiration from 1960s activist Saul Alinsky, has organized similar operations against Planned Parenthood before. Critics call Rose a "propagandist" who "has a history of smearing the subjects of her videos," comparing Live Action's tactics to the misleadingly-edited clip that tarred Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod in 2010.

But Live Action has managed to put Planned Parenthood in the hot seat before. The organization apologized in 2008 after Live Action recorded a Planned Parenthood staffer appearing to sympathize with a potential benefactor who claimed he wanted to donate because "the less black kids out there, the better." In 2010, the state of Alabama put a Planned Parenthood clinic on probation after Rose, posing as a 14-year-old, caught a clinic employee willing to violate parental consent laws. The state later found that the clinic had given abortions to nine minors without properly verifying parental consent.

As reporters and commentators weigh the import of the videos and of Woodruff's actions, New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow plans to look into Live Action's "very disturbing" allegations.

Posted by Trevor Persaud at February 3, 2011 4:24PM | Comments (3)