Review: Nooma "Name" by Rob Bell a Disappointing Release

I've long been a fan of Rob Bell. Billy and I played his video, "Flame," at our wedding, and Velvet Elvis was a great read.

But last night, we watched his new video "Name," and not only was I less than impressed, I was beyond disappointed in the psychobabble that Bell felt is necessary for spiritual direction from a Christian perspective (a position the Nooma website totes as its own purpose).

1. "Name" begins with Bell talking about a meeting with his counselor, and the relativistic question that his counselor poses to him.

"Don't worry if it's normal for people. Is it normal for you?"

Well, folks...hearing the "voice of God" through his neighbor's dog seemed to be normal for David Berkowitz. Somehow, I don't think that's quite right, regardless of how normal it is.

True, Bell discusses a verse in which Jesus tells Peter not to worry about whether the other guy is following, but this doesn't quite make the leap to "is it normal for me?" If anything, it asks the question, "Is this healthy?" After all, if Peter had asked the question, "Is this normal for me?" he would've come up with the answer,

"Wanting fairness and flying off the handle over it is normal for me."

But of course we know that Peter wasn't healthy in this particular emotional element of himself.

Jesus was drawing him out of what was normal for him and into what was healthy for everyone.

2. Bell also talks in depth about the story of Jacob becoming Israel.

Here, his point is that we must come to terms with all the things about ourselves that we hate before we can move forward and be used by God. Sure, that's my paraphrase, but that's the message that comes out.

Bells says, "You don't have to like your past, but you have to claim it." He also says this about our body shape.

And while I agree that we need to come to terms with "who we are," I feel like a more productive idea (and a more "Christian perspective" since that's what we're presenting in these Noomas) would be to focus on who we are in Christ.

There is room for "coming to terms" kind of stuff. But I feel like this is not about claiming our past so much as accepting Christ's love and forgiveness and believing that that love and forgiveness is truly sufficient.

After all, doesn't God (through Paul - who by the way didn't change his name, but simply started going by his Greek name since he was a missionary to the Gentiles) tell us to forget the past?

See the story of Jacob isn't about claiming your past (there's more I could say here), but it's about God giving a new identity. This true story is a symbol of the internal, spiritual workings of who we become in Christ. We have a new birth, don't we?

3. Bell discusses loving your neighbor as yourself.

While talking about this concept, Bell commits the ultimate annoyance.

He says something along the lines of, "You can't love your neighbor until you learn to love yourself." I think we've all heard this before.

I understand the sentiment, but the issue I have with this reasoning is that it's focused on the self and not on God. (Well, actually, so was the whole "Name" video.)

The message was not, "God's love makes you worth-while. So take that love, claim it, embrace it, cherish it."

The message that Bell is sending is the same mumbo-jumbo as Oprah's universe-worshiping guests.

"Love yourself. Accept yourself. Don't apologize any longer. Oh yeah, and maybe God might do something, but mainly it's up to you.

If you'd like to watch "Name" for free. It is available until noon on Friday on Nooma's MySpace.