In connection with some of the issues I addressed in my earlier post on “Underground Universalism” …

A student was nice enough to alert me to an hour-long episode of This American Life (on public radio) called “Heretics,” which the TAL web site describes as follows:

The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson (pictured), an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the Reverend, he was denounced by almost all his former supporters, and today his congregation is just a few hundred people. He didn’t have an affair. He didn’t embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse … he stopped believing in hell.

The episode is available on-line in streaming audio.  Go to the TAL web site here, click on 2005 in the episodes-by-year section on the left of the screen, and scroll down just a bit to the program called “Heretics.”  It looks like the episode is also being re-broadcast on the radio this weekend (11/17 – 11/19).  To see airtimes in your area, just go to the TAL web site and click on “Where to listen” on the left.

I’ve now heard the show.  It is extremely interesting.  And it’s a good lesson in the kind of trouble one can get into for being a universalist.

Rev. Pearson seems to accept “exclusivism” — the position that nobody could be saved without Christ (at least as I use the term).*  But he seems to deny what I call “strong exclusivism” — that to be saved, one must somehow explicitly accept Christ.  Universalists can — and many of us do — accept even strong exclusivism.  (See my on-line discussion of universalism.)  From the radio report, it’s hard to tell how much of Rev. Pearson’s trouble came just from his universalism, and how much of it came from his denial of what I call “strong exclusivism.”  It seems that it was his denials of strong exclusivism that most bothered at least some people, but perhaps they would have been just about as bothered by his universalism itself, even without the denial of strong exclusivism.

Those who might prefer a shorter version of Pearson’s story can instead try an 18-minute Dateline NBC video piece available here (this brings you to the first page; click to launch the video; then go to the next page and launch the second part of the video).

*Rev. Pearson calls his position “inclusivism,” which sounds like it should be opposed to “exclusivism.”  But this is just a matter of terminology. What I call “exclusivism” doesn’t necessarily exclude anyone: That nobody can be saved without Christ does not by itself imply that some will not be saved, for there is the (very Biblical!) possibility that in Christ, all shall be made alive.  Well, then, if my “exclusivism” doesn’t necessarily exclude anyone, why call it “exclusivism”?  Because, it does exclude any other way to salvation.

Posted by: Johnny | November 17, 2006 at 05:52 PM

Posted by: Buck Eschaton | November 19, 2006 at 08:13 AM

Posted by: jordan fowler | November 20, 2006 at 11:06 PM