Update to Associated Press Story on Brian McLaren

UPDATE: On Monday 11 June, I posted questioning the accuracy of a story claiming to be from the Associated Press quoting Brian McLaren. In that post, I also published Brian's response to the story.

An emergesque reader, Scott B, seems to have identified the source of the story and brought it to our attention in comments to that post.

The source appears to be a Wed 4 June 2007 podcast by Steve Coleman, an Associated Press Religion Editor, where he makes comments over audio Brian McLaren quotes.

The podcast is only about 1 minute long and I've transcribed the complete text below:

Steve Coleman:

Thy Kingdom Come

I’m Steve Coleman, with A Closer Look.

The Chairman of the liberal Christian group Sojourners says he believes that

Brian McLaren:

“Jesus coming was not primarily about getting people into heaven versus hell. I think he was actually coming to proclaim the Kingdom of God, which is God’s will being done on Earth.”

Steve Coleman:

The Rev. Brian McLaren says that’s why congregations in the emergent church movement focus more on social action than trying to convert people to Christianity.

Brian McLaren:

“We want to share our faith with other people, but people who don’t want to accept our faith - they’ve very happy being Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish or atheist or whatever - we have to say: well you know what, our faith drives us to want to be good neighbors to them and care about them whether or not they ever accept our faith."

Steve Coleman:

Does he want them to become Christians?

Brian McLaren:

“I wish that everybody would find all the great things I’ve found through Christ, there’s no question about it. But that’s not the same as wanting to shoehorn them out of their religion and push them into mine.”

Steve Coleman:

The Rev. Brian McLaren.

I’m Steve Coleman.

This original podcast is more nuanced than the derivative text article we cited and Brian's explanatory response makes his position more clear.