why I like post-conservatism and post-liberalism

A while back, Relevant Magazine had an interview with Tony Jones, the national coordinator of Emergent.

here is a question and answer that Ryan, a friend of mine, quoted on his blog a few weeks ago.

RM: You mentioned earlier that you have lesbian pastors and conservative absolutists. It seems that it would create a tension point when it comes to endorsing that person’s view or platform.

TJ: If you believe that Christianity is—at its very heart—a tension-filled, dialectical endeavor, you have less problems with these tension-filled relationships with believers. Christianity is paradoxical. Life comes out of death. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. We haven’t yet found that there’s anything that justifies us breaking fellowship with somebody else who loves and is trying to follow Jesus. Why would you break fellowship with someone because you have a different understanding of the atonement than they do? Or a different understanding of human sexuality than they do? It seems nonsensical that we’d give each other tests and try to hang it over someone else’s head and say, “Hey, dude. I’m going to break fellowship with you if we can’t come to agreement on this particular issue.” It just doesn’t seem to be the nature of human life. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it will get to a breaking point. People have left. Some people have been very forthright about why they’ve left. I certainly don’t think that the issue of absolute truth is a good reason to break fellowship with someone who’s trying to follow Jesus.

I like it a lot. It is worth reading the entire interview at the link in the first paragraph.