5 Comments

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  bigfootthechipmunk March 16, 2011 at 8:56 am

  Bashir for sure!
  Rob Bell answers questions like a politician equipped with hipster religionist buzz words. I know he means well, but he needs to speak in absolutes if he is absolutely sure of what he has written.

  Preach it Bashir!

  God can take even this and use it for good… many people will ask themselves what they believe and will dig in more that usual because of this…

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  Phil Tinker March 16, 2011 at 10:04 am

  Ouch. That made me squirm for Rob Bell, even though I am very much against the view he is arguing for.

  While Bell is hard to pin down exactly what he is saying (as usual), and Bashir get’s to the true heart of the issue which is refreshing, the interview would have been more effective if Bashir hadn’t been so pushy, and actually used some pretty cruel interview techniques that we would shout about were he interviewing someone we agreed with.

  If he had interviewed Tim Keller like that, I doubt we would call it a Bashir victory.

  His opening question was simplistic and he knew it. He made the right points after that, but only in a way that actually gives creedence to the emergent cause against shouty and un-gracious discussion.

  This could be done better, as in the DeYoung review.

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  Stephen Murray March 16, 2011 at 2:38 pm

  I agree that Bashir’s interviewing technique was a bit ‘cruel’ and ‘pushy’ but I wonder if he were interviewing someone like Tim Keller if he’d actually come out looking like he’d completely squashed his guest as he does here. I think part of the reason Bashir is able to jump down Bell’s throat is Bell’s inability to answer the questions with substantial answers.

  Consider Keller’s recent interview on MSNBC (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F3036789%2F%2341904205&h=3519e) I know the interviewers were not trying to lay into him like Brashir is here but Keller’s demeanor, tone and answering of questions is so persuasive that the interviewers aren’t really able to lay into him even if they wanted to.

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  James March 31, 2011 at 8:42 am

  I am almost done reading Robs book, and I was interested to watch this, this is a classic case of the “world” and “Christians” having dualistic thinking, its “either” “or” and therefore cannot be both. Im not a theologian but I was pleasantly suprised that Rob wisely stuck to scripture to evidence his veiws, but it seems the even Christians, let alone the world, cannot handle a God that is bigger than they can imagine, the clue was in Martins first question, it was an “either this ” “or that” is true question, when he asked about God caring about the suffering, and Gods power in the Japan earthquake. Many serious academic theologians and Christians would stumble at that question, God makes it clear in the bible that he is beyond our understanding, and that applies to Christians to. You only have to look at the Trinity to see this at work, God can be up above and on earth at the same time, Spirit and flesh, at the begining and at the end, at the same time ( God created time) For me Rob has put Jesus, rather than Christians back at the centre of the Christian faith, we need to remind ourselves it is God who has the final say, not Christians.

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  Meg April 30, 2011 at 12:23 pm

  First, let me qualify that I am a Christian living in Japan and have seen first hand, the suffering of the entire nation. I would like to ask Martin Bashir this: Are all the non-Christian victims of the March 11 tsunami in hell? Since most of them have “rejected Christ”, should our God care?
  Like Rob, I see God crying along side the orphaned child and the widowed mother.

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