You Better Be Nice

I have been watching this controversy over Rob Bell, the preacher and founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, Nooma guy, and now freshly thrown under the evangelical bus, “heretic” guy. The controversy is that several evangelicals (one began the firestorm and others tweeted the Amen) have come out and called Bell a heretic because of his book that is coming out next Tuesday–next Tuesday no less. In this world of 24/7 news cycle, Twitter, blogs, etc.; we can form our opinion now BEFORE the evidence is fully on the table, I guess! Well, SOME of the evidence was on the table. This video is the cause of the firestorm–Bell, in very Nooma-esk form, asks a lot of questions without really answering them.  What is interesting to me is how self righteous people can become when a guy writes a book about something that has already been covered and debated for centuries (check out a very good post by Rachel Held Evans with a list of great resources on the theological debate surrounding universalism). Honestly, some of the shots fired from believers toward another believer aren’t very nice…many are downright mean spirited and ugly. This is round two of this whole debate…N.T.Wright had round one with his book, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.

This reminds me of a time while I was umpiring baseball and my partner was leading myself and the two coaches in the pregame meeting at home plate. The usual talk of lineups, ground rules, special considerations of the field, etc. took place. Then my partner put in his own spin on his philosophy of debate over a blown call by the umpire. He said, “now listen fellas, we may have a call that you feel we need to ‘discuss further,’ (he even did the “air quotes” with his fingers! sweetness!) and that is fine…but if you come out here, you better BE NICE!” Isn’t that great!? In essence, I am more than willing to hear your side of the story…if, and only if, you are nice about the whole ordeal!

Maybe we all need to go back to a high school baseball pregame and learn how to simply “Be nice.”