The influx of the influence of Emergent teaching and teachers has been dramatic–the actual coming in has been gradual, but the spread of their influence seems to be connected to a full and open throttle. I saw this article by W.F Buckley, whose memorial is today, and it appeared to me to be analogical (in some ways and not others), to how someone within the realm of Christian orthodoxy might view many of the events, teachings, and ministries related to Bell, Wright and other emergent-types–including a connectivity to some of the people we have met who left orthodox Christianity for this stuff. It connected with me not so much about how the person changes, but the ideas.

A partial quote from the article:

“If I ever heard a song played by the Grateful Dead I wasn’t aware of it. If I had been, I’d have pricked up my ears and listened real hard because I have a memory. It is of a young man who came to work at my shop. He had just graduated from Harvard, wanted to do some opinion journalism, and qualified for a summer internship that stretched into two or three years. It was toward the end of the decade of the Sixties that he drew me aside one day, after we had gone to press. He said that he had been to a concert by the Grateful Dead and that it was a wonderful experience, and that he would go again whenever the group was in reach, and he invited me to join him at one of the concerts, which I wish I had done….” Read all of it here.