Martin Bashir on his interview of Rob Bell

Earlier this week, I posted a video interview of Rob Bell, conducted by Martin Bashir from MSNBC.  Apparently some have complained that Bashir’s interview tactics were in some way unfair.  I have not heard or read those complaints, but it does not take much imagination to figure out who might be levelling them.

In any case, Bashir agreed to be interviewed by a Detroit radio host yesterday, I believe.  In that interview, Bashir gives some excellent background on how and why he conducted the interview as he did.

Hear it in his own voice.  A little long, but enlightening nevertheless.

Some lessons are never learned.

Malcolm McGregor III, a candidate for city council in El Paso, TX, is apparently not familiar with the hard-learned lessons of Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell with respect to drawing hard and fast moral conclusions about natural disasters, assigning them to God, and then proclaiming them.  Robertson and Falwell both developed the fine art of opening their mouths just long enough to remove one foot and replace it with the other when it came to such pronouncements. One only need to research their comments on the terrorist attacks of 9-11 for examples, or more recently, Robertson’s foolish comments about the earthquake in Haiti, a couple of years ago.  McGregor appears to be following their lead now with respect to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Here is Mr. McGregor doing his thing.

Witness, the art of asking, and not answering questions.

Martin Bashir has scored some big interviews in the course of his career. His interview of the stranger-than-strange late Michael Jackson around the time of the investigations of Jackson’s perverted relationships with young boys, is a case in point. Among Bashir’s interviews I have seen, he seems to NOT shy away from tough questions that really demand honest answers, and attempts to evade become extraordinarily obvious.

Such is the case in this interview that Bashir conducts with Rob Bell about his new book Love Wins.

Wondering where all the “waiting and see” Bell defenders are now.

The big day for the general release of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins (not linked on purpose) is tomorrow(3/15/2011).  However, a number of respected pastors, authors and bloggers have been reviewing advanced reader copies over the last couple of weeks.  The reviews generally support the concerns and cautions that exploded on the scene a few weeks back when Bell released a promotion video in support of the new book.  And those concerns dealt with the suspicion that Bell is a universalist.  Well, it seems that those suspicions were well founded.  There are a  number of reviews out now, and I readily acknowledge that I have read but a very few.  Still this ONE is the most comprehensive that I have seen. And it is comprehensive. 21 pdf pages, comprehensive.

What I am now waiting for are the voices of those who demanded that it would be the prudent and charitable thing to do, to wait until the book was available to suggest that Bell’s theology is WAY outside the bounds of historic Christianity. 

Would love to hear how they defend against his unorthodoxy now that the book has been reviewed and we have gone beyond mere speculation from a promo video.