well, yes, he SAYS, but...

If you want to see a good example of "do as I say, not as I do", check out these two statements, made by McLaren in "Everything Must Change", and are not even many pages apart

Jesus' disciples must work to dehabitualize and delegitimize even small expressions of aggression like name-calling.
p. 179

And then...

No wonder Catholic thoelogian Tom Beaudoin offers the term 'theocapitalism' to describe the contemporary prosperity system of the global suicide machine.
p. 190

One could point out that McLaren isn't calling any person theocapitalism, but only an economic system. But let's not kid ourselves--it is as much as swipe at those who think capitalism is good because it works as it is at the economic philosophy and practice itself.

I could as well point out that the last statement is made in a chapter called "capitalism as god". And that the chapter also contains what he calls the "Four Spiritual Laws of Theocapitalism", a further swipe not only at conservative capitalists but also that the Campus Crusade's idea of the Four Spiritual Laws.

Yep, McLaren's throwing punches left and right. Well, centrist and right may be more accurate.

But let's look at reality, and see if "theocapitalism" is even a reality. I would content that it's not.

First, he says it's a way to "describe the contemporary prospertiy system of the global suicide machine". The problem is, how many nations have a capitalist system? Especially, how many have that compared to the various socialist and communist countries out there? Or other forms of economic or social structure that limit personal freedoms and opportunities to succeed?

China and much of Southeast Asia have forms of communism, though China is at least learning that such a system doesn't work. Many countries in South and Central America either have or are struggling with communists. Much of Europe has some serious socialist leanings. The Middle East has it's own issues concerning personal freedoms. And even in the US, the present president has stated the goal of "spreading the wealth".

It gets even more interesting when considering the places that are wealthy, compared with the places that aren't. Outside of maybe China (who has been let capitalism in bit by bit over a number of years, though there are still no small issues of human rights with them, especially in regards to religious beliefs and children), I can't think of a socialist or communist country that is economically healthy, and most would likely be among the poorest nations. Even the economic problems in the US can be traced to socialistic practices, such as the numerous attempts by the government to provide economic bailouts to some banks and companies, which has been nothing short of a abysmal failure and wasted of billions, perhaps trillions, of dollars.

Only a fool would want to escape from boat that is seaworthy to get into one that's proven to be unreliable and is even then sinking. But McLaren and crew would have us do do, by abandoning an economic system that works for one that has proven time and again to be woefully inadequate.