One Punk Under God

I was recently introduced to Jay Bakker and his show on the Sundance channel, One Punk Under God. Jay would be, though I am not sure if he would use this title of himself, part of the Emergent Church. I recently heard an interview with Bakker on Larry King Live in which he listed Brian McLaren as someone he think is on the right track and this is clearly seen in his views and opinions.

For starters, Bakker's church, Revolution, meets in a bar and he encourages his members (as he says, anyone who walks in the door is a member) to buy drinks during the church service. I can only assume that meeting in a bar is an attempt to be "relevant." The strange thing is, I do not see the Bible holding up "relevance" as a virtue.

Another issue that puts Bakker in the Emergent camp and that has put him in the hot seat are his views on homosexuality. Bakker is pro-homosexual. He thinks that it is not a sin to be gay and on top of that, he is pushing for "gay rights" on marriage (is marriage a right???). The way to solve the problem, according to Bakker, is to read the text on homosexuality "in their historical context." As if that solves everything. It is not like those who view this act as sinful do not read the relevant passages in their historical context, but I digress.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I think we should not be irrelevant, but the problem, that can be seen in Bakker, is relevance is elevated to an unbiblical level. When truth is sacrificed on the altar of relevance you have neither relevance nor truth. There is nothing that is more relevant to a sinner, dead in his sin's, than the truth of the Gospel. The truth that Jesus Christ can bring their dead heart back to life. The truth that God, because of his Son, can look at you in all your guilt and blame and declare, based on another's right standing, you are right with me. This verdict is truth. When truth is sacrificed, you lose any and all ways of being relevant to a dying and broken world. Now, do not misunderstand me; I am not saying that Bakker would disagree with this (I have no idea what his views on justification are), but I am saying that truth is at the heart of Christianity. If we give up truth (in any area) for relevance, we are headed in a direction that the Bible warns us not to.