In this week’s email from Relevant Magazine (850 Words of Relevant), they featured an interview with the well-known, controversial author and emergent church leader Brian McLaren.

Regardless of personal opinions of Brian’s teachings, he has some profound insights on the church. Relevant Magazine contributor Phil White asked Brian a few questions about his new (and not surprisingly, controversial) book, Everything Must Change.

**As a side note… I would link to the interview itself, but Relevant hasn’t made it available online… sorry for breaking copyright laws by posting an excerpt here.**

When was the seed planted for Everything Must Change?

When I was in my twenties, I asked high school kids at a youth conference to name the top five problems in the world and also the top five discussion topics at their churches. The lists they gave me were completely different and that birthed my desire to explore the disconnect between global crises and the inaction of Christians. I’m 51 now, so this idea has been growing for almost 30 years.

What would Jesus think of the state of the world today?

I think Jesus would have a tense relationship with modern religious leaders now, as He did in his day, because so many of them have used Jesus’ name to work against Him and what He stood for. For example, for about 80 years before the Civil War, a lot of American preachers misused the Bible to defend slavery. It was the same when I was a boy, when some Christians misquoted scriptures to advocate racism and to attack the work of Dr. King. I think there are similar things going on today, but our children and grandchildren will see it better than we do, unless we really want to see the truth.

Can you expand on how business can help bring about change?

As individual consumers we can help build justice for underprivileged peoples by changing our buying habits. One example is by buying through fair trade organizations such as TradeAsOne.com, and by deliberately avoiding purchasing goods we know were created in unethical conditions. When you go shopping without a conscience, you feel happy whenever you get a bargain. But when you are concerned about ethical buying, you aren’t happy at all if your bargain was purchased at the expense of a young woman working for thirty cents an hour, ten hours a day, or a child being exploited in an unsafe factory that pollutes the air he breathes and the water he drinks. You’d feel a lot happier to spend a little more money if you knew that your purchase strengthened an ethical business in an ethical economy.

Government policies must change if we’re to truly bring justice to impoverished nations. For example, U.S. Government subsidization of the cotton industry allows American producers to sell cotton so inexpensively that African producers can’t compete. Our tax dollars are upholding this kind of injustice, and most of us are completely unaware of it.

Now I feel pretty lousy about buying my new pair of jeans on sale.

How about you?