{"id":893,"date":"2008-08-25T16:42:51","date_gmt":"2008-08-25T16:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t.php"},"modified":"2008-08-25T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2008-08-25T16:42:51","slug":"popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","title":{"rendered":"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kristina Riggle
\nReligion News Service<\/strong>
\nGRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Brian McLaren, a leader in the “emergent church” movement, says the three Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — are very dangerous.
\n“Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous because their fingers are closer to the most nuclear weapons,” he told an audience here at Baker Book House.
\nBut a new series of books on ancient religious traditions — including an introductory tome by McLaren — seeks to find unity in the ancient practices these religions share.
\n“If (Muslims, Christians and Jews) can find points of contact, maybe it will help us avoid pressing these buttons,” he said.
\nMcLaren, a pastor, speaker and activist, spoke last week about some of his books, including his latest, “Finding Our Way Again,” which explores a return to ancient practices held in common by these three religions, such as fixed hours for prayer and observance of the Sabbath.
\n“What did we know in church history that we’ve forgotten?” he said.
\nHis book is the first in a series that will feature seven books by other authors, each focusing on practices that were first Jewish, then adopted by Christians and Muslims.
\nMcLaren is a proponent of the emerging church movement, though he prefers to call it an “emerging conversation” in a changing world.
\n“The church as it’s existed, as it’s developed in modernity, is going to have to do some rethinking and retooling to remain faithful during these changes,” he said.
\nConservatives have criticized McLaren, and that likely will continue since he promoted Democratic presidential candidate Sen.Barack Obama in a commercial.
\nMcLaren said he never before involved himself in a political campaign, but he feels strongly that Obama is the best candidate to lead the U.S. The ad touched on families to reach out to evangelical viewers of the forum.
\nAs to whether religious voters will be shocked to hear an evangelical supporting a Democrat, McLaren replied, in part: “The Gospel can never be contained by one party.”
\nCopyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kristina Riggle Religion News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Brian McLaren, a leader in the “emergent church” movement, says the three Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — are very dangerous. “Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPopular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Kristina Riggle Religion News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Brian McLaren, a leader in the “emergent church” movement, says the three Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — are very dangerous. “Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-25T16:42:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths","og_description":"By Kristina Riggle Religion News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) Brian McLaren, a leader in the “emergent church” movement, says the three Abrahamic religions — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — are very dangerous. “Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-08-25T16:42:51+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t","name":"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-08-25T16:42:51+00:00","dateModified":"2008-08-25T16:42:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/08\/popular-pastor-mclaren-works-t#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Popular Pastor McLaren Works to Find Common Ground Between Abrahamic Faiths"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. 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