Some people are now wondering if the emergent church is dead. I'm prepared to go only so far as to say it is brain dead; I'm keeping the toe tag in my pocket for now.

If I were an emergent, I'd certainly resent the sorry leadership we witnessed, but the rabble that didn't get a book deal doesn't know how to fix anything: they speak of their efforts as iterations because they don't want to call them failed attempts or gimmicks soon abandoned. Certain people used EV as a step-ladder to celebrity and have left everyone else listening to The Crickets' Abendlied.

Sad for them; possible career advancement for the crickets.

But we cannot forget that bad ideas tend to linger. Recall the early, hopeful days of Modernism? I don't, but my grandfather did, and I've read about them. If Modernist leaders had had any intellectual integrity, they would have called Modernism an iteration and they would have abandoned it after November 18, 1916. They didn't; they actually defended it!

Lined up here—like in a museum display case—are 17 flaky fossils telling a camera what is wrong with "Progressive Theology". I think you will enjoy watching this. If you know anything about the history of the Western Church, I know you will. I'm going to watch it again with a big bowl of popcorn.

Donna Bowman thinks the problem is a surfeit of knowledge. Gary Dorrien thinks progressive theology lacks spiritual conviction and is full of "innocuous church talk". John Thatamanil thinks their theologians "confused ethics and politics with the sum and substance of Christian life".

I wonder what Emergents will make of that observation.

Ignacio Castuera admits they don't have final answers and invites us to write our own creed. Dawn DeVries supposes that the message of progressive theology "doesn't point to anything important". (Now there is one sharp theologienne!)

But I won't ruin it for you.

And as you watch it, reflect on how different things would be if there had been a church that for the last century had not tinkered and diddled and doodled with the old kind of Christianity. And wonder about what sort of faith will be left after this wave of innovators gets tenure.