24 July 2007

Some More

by Phil Johnson







Phil's signature

35 comments:

donsands said...

love those monkeys! Thanks for craking me up.

steve said...

Brilliant. What's scary is this sums up all too well what so many emergents say.

All that's missing in the Missional poster is the brew...

Marc R. Wragg said...

Well let's just say that is not water in his cup.

Matthew said...

Mr. Phil Johnson... you now owe me a new monitor, and possibly a new keyboard. ;)


Seriously. That's the last time I visit your site while drinking Earl Grey tea.

David Rudd said...
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David Rudd said...
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Phil Johnson said...

David Rudd:

These are deliberate and obvious caricatures. Calm down.

Click on them. They are linked to sites where you will find examples of the kind of Emerging rhetoric that inspired the caricatures.

Did I exaggerate? Yes. That's what a caricature is: an exaggeration for humorous effect.

Are they actually funny? I suppose that's a judgment call. If there's nothing humorous about them to you, you might want to stay away from the blog this week. I have more yet to post, and then I'm going to link to a site where interested parties can download hi-res versions for their own amusement. . .

. . .if (that is) anyone actually finds them funny enough to download. Who knows what strikes people as funny? I think Frank Turk is funny. Others find him merely noxious. Dan Phillips thinks Frank is funny in a noxious way.

It's all relative after all, isn't it?

DJP said...

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

David Rudd said...
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Phil Johnson said...

Rudd:

Longtime rule here:

You can criticize me or complain about what I have written all you want. You don't get to drag my pastor, my family members, my church, or my employer into it.

DJP said...

My first post after a week of Johnson/Turk bloghogging...

...and I get bumped!

(At least it was for something cool.)

(c;

David Rudd said...
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Matt Gumm said...

DJP: I'm sure it's because your rant was neither helpful nor exhorting.

Phil Johnson said...

Again: You don't get to drag my pastor, family, church, or place of work into a post that has nothing to do with them. I asked commenters to respect that line on day two of my original blog, and virtually all of them have.

It's a rule I'm not going to bend, either, no matter how passionately anyone protests. It became obvious on day one of my blog that if I did not establish that boundary, certain miscreants in the blogosphere were prepared to divert every comment-thread here into an attempt to embarass some individual or institution with whom I have a relationship.

So that's my last time asking you to stop it. If you want to discuss it with me further, do it by e-mail.

Phil Johnson said...

In case I've been unclear here, read this post for more detail.

DJP said...

Gummby—it's a failing. Pray for me.

David Rudd said...
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Matt Gumm said...

And only now do I realize there were links behind those pix. Brilliant!

Justin said...

lol

Phil Johnson said...

David Rudd: "so how are these 'signs' gracious?"

Think "common grace," rather than "special grace" and maybe you can figure it out, David.

"Grace" isn't usually the first thing most people notice in a caricature, is it? Does that mean all caricature is inherently ungracious? What about mockery? What about a stiff rebuke? What about a table overturned in indignation? Would you watch that and instantly and instinctively say, "Oh, how gracious!"?

But I'm prepared to argue that there were large measures of grace in Elijah's public mockery of the Baal-Priests, in Paul's sarcasm toward the Judaizers, and in Jesus' fury against the money-changers. Those events probably didn't feel like grace to the recipients of the derision but they were certainly instruments of grace to the people on the sidelines who were able to see the error in a clearer light.

Perhaps you just have a skewed view of grace.

Selah.

David Rudd said...
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Julo said...

Good grief. You guys need to chill out. This is meant to be funny! If you don't think it's funny, then click away and read something else. Welcome to America. We all need to be able to laugh at ourselves.

Phil Johnson said...

David Rudd: "are 'emerging' Christians really a parrallel worthy of 'mockery'? i just struggle to piece that together with 'Love one another... By this all men will know you are my disciples...If you love one another.'"

Really? How come the same question didn't occur to you five days ago when you made this post at your blog mocking youth pastors?

But anyway, yes, I do think there are people and ideas in the Emerging/Emergent movement who pose a deadly spiritual danger, and I really do think a little mockery might actually be helpful in exposing why some of their ideas and jargon are foolish. That's kind of the whole point of the posters. As I said: if it troubles you, it shouldn't; but you're welcome to layoff reading the blog for the next few days.

Either way, as long as it's clear that you don't mind making posts that are devoid of grace by any measure—and since you clearly have no problem mocking what you think is foolish—you really ought to stop and think before you pursue this supersanctimonious line of commenting.

David Rudd said...
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Phil Johnson said...

David Rudd: "how are these signs gracious?"

Count back about four comments, and you'll see that I already answered that question, and I did so without "attacking the messenger." I realize you didn't like the answer, but that is still my answer.

steve said...

Please point me to the places where the "emergents" are saying the things on these pictures(i'm looking for actual quotes, not a quote of someone along with a "what they mean is" or "in other words")

This is part of the problem with dialoguing with emergents. No matter how a nonemergent attempts to summarize emergent perspectives, emergents say, "That's not what was meant."

As Phil said, these are obvious caricatures. However, they are based on definite perspectives and characteristics among emergents. That's what makes them so powerful.

Habitans in Sicco said...

Dude, the signs are funny. Really funny. There's plenty of grace in that, Proverbs 15:13-15.

Face it: the Emerging Church is crying to be lampooned.

Hey: the Emerging Church Movement is the illegitimate offspring of The Wittenburg Door and its long-term love affair with bad doctrine. "Youth Specialties" (the company that produced all those Zondervan books which made the emerging movement so popular in the dorm rooms of Middle America's backslidden Bible Colleges) ate its way out of the torso of The Door like an ugly Alien.

How come the Friends of Emergent like to hang around their critics' blogs posting sniveling complaints about cosmetics like the "tone" an the images and the cruelty of occasional parodies? You don't see TRs and Fundies hanging around TheOoze, picking fights in their comment threads. If people like Rudd represent the "good" Emergers, how come they spend so much energy and emotions nitpicking blogs like this one? How come THEY aren't hanging out at "Emergent Village," complaining about the heresies within their own movement that give them such a bad reputation?

BTW, I have never seen such a graceless appeal for "grace."

threegirldad said...

david rudd wrote:
"Steve,

What's scary is this sums up all too well what so many emergents say.

Really? Please point me to the places where the 'emergents' are saying the things on these pictures(i'm looking for actual quotes, not a quote of someone along with a 'what they mean is' or 'in other words')"

When someone uses the phrase "sums up", it makes no sense to demand "actual quotes" that contain the words being used to do the "summing up".

Matt Gumm said...

I nominate threegirldad for the funniest, true statement about English language usage.

Oh, BTW: in case anyone is keeping score, I would characterize that as universal truth, not local truth.

DJP said...

RuddPerhaps i just have a skewed view of love?

Good insight, given that the words you cite were spoken by the same person who spoke Matthew 23:3-36 and Revelation 3:19.

I think you're on to something. Go with that.

Jim Bublitz said...

I wonder if any of the Emerging folks who are upset by these incredibly funny pictures were also upset by Dan Kimball's recent post comparing his most vocal critics to poodles.
http://www.dankimball.com/vintage_faith/2007/07/people-outside-.html

Ever since Dan posted that, along with all of those poodle pictures, I've noticed one Emerging blog has been calling every noteworthy Christian who they disagree with "poodles" of course. Must be catching on. So I suppose the same question applies: "where is the grace" in that? Dunno.

Let's not get all bent out of shape; kick back, and enjoy this wonderful artwork. Are we taking votes for the best one? I like the one with monkey's Phil!

www.maxgrace.com said...

I love the posters! Motivational. Inspirational. Emergent. You've captured the essence of that which cannot be captured.
Nice. Look for them to be plagiarized by me soon.
Bill

Keith said...

Hilarious!

Jay said...

These remind of the demotivational posters at http://despair.com

TrothKeepr said...

eOh, bah humbug to dourpusses, Mr. Johnson. Your posters are superb! Even hillbillies appreciate their pertinence (check out crabbycrone.blogspot.com for her re-working of the monkeys, LOL!) Here's hoping you'll post more of them.