Which story?

:: RELEVANT magazine :: Interview with Brian McLaren:

So this is our challenge for today: How can we find value in the stories that exist and let them not just be wiped out by the biblical story, but redeemed by the biblical story? The word “redeem” is a beautiful word. It means to be given new value. Of course, people might reject it. Of course, then their problem is…which story are they going to choose instead? And, to me this is the great crisis that we face, because there are three or four alternative stories out there, and they’re pretty scary. One is the story of consumerism, and it says that the purpose of life is to own and consume more stuff. It’s not hard to see where that one will lead us. Another is militaristic U.S. or fundamentalist Islam. So which story are we going to choose, which context?