The latest issue of Relevant magazine features a profile of Millennial author Donald Miller, titled "Donald Miller is Growing Up." The piece, by Tyler Huckabee, is a remarkably fawning example of what old-time journalists called "glow-jobs."
Witness the lead: "For Christians of a certain age, Donald Miller is a household name. He's an A-list celebrity, one of the three people, dead or alive, you'd want to have a cup of coffee with."
Really? I guess the caveat is, "Christians of a certain age." Perhaps that's true. Donald Miller would be on that list, for 18-to-35-year-olds.
Normally, these lists are glittery: Jesus. Barack Obama. Maybe Amy Poehler. (These are people I think Relevant would include on such a list. One would hope Churchill would make some of these lists.)
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But Donald Miller?
The "Blue Like Jazz" writing star, who has moved from evangelical writer to secular businessman, is close to Millennial media, such as Relevant publisher Cameron Strang. They scratch each other's business backs; Miller grants interviews and treks to "Palestine" with Strang, while Relevant promotes Miller's new venture: StoryBrand.
Let me be clear, though: Huckabee's interview with Miller and his wife is nothing more than impressionistic musings. It's designed to portray Miller as a virtue of truth seeking and enlightenment.
In truth, however, Donald Miller is not all that. In fact, Miller appears to be a delusional narcissist who likes to play at "changing the world," but in reality doesn't at all. In fact, one of his statements deep into the interview reveals a self-absorbed gadfly in love with his own "deep" thoughts: "Ten years from now, if I can't point to a statistical change in our culture that I'm responsible for, that would break my heart."
My goodness, that is certainly ambitious.
And painfully arrogant. If I didn't think Miller possessed a fair amount of mendacity, I'd almost feel sorry for him. More on that later.
Each generation of young people throughout history goes through this self-absorbed phase, when they put faith in their own brains and enlightenment over and above that of older, genuinely wiser generations. Then after a few years, reality sets in and they see they won't so smart after all.
My real problem with Donald Miller, though, is his masking of contempt under a veneer of "truth-seeking."
Earlier, I said I believe Donald Miller has a fair amount of mendacity to him, under the boyish grin (reserved for friends, but most assuredly not for "critics"). A telling example is his infamous Nov. 19, 2012 blog post: "The Painful Truth About the Situation in Israel." In that piece, Miller recounts his version of reality after returning from what he calls Israel/"Palestine."
(No one can ever tell me where Palestine is.)
There, incredibly, Miller accused Israel of the most heinous war crimes: shooting a woman for placing a rose on a tank; shooting a 12-year-old girl at a checkpoint; rationing each Gazan's food intake each day. The list goes on.
At first glance, Miller seemed to be just another Western dupe: taking a quick trip to a volatile area, and then believing everything told by propagandist hosts. Remember, Miller was in part hosted by the PLO. Does anyone see a problem with that? Has Miller ever heard of the Muslim concept of taqiya, the license to lie in order to advance an agenda?
He has now.
The mendacity I referred to earlier involves the Jew-hatred that spews forth, in its worst form, from "enlightened" Westerners who can claim their real beef is with "Zionism," not with Jews themselves.
False. Miller by now no doubt is aware that his accusations against Israel are not true. Yet he remains silent, and the blog post from 2012 remains intact online. He even used an image crafted by Palestinian propagandists.
For all his glory, as bestowed by his business partners and fans, Donald Miller is nothing more than a garden-variety hack. He is a liar.
The difference is, the advantage that he enjoys, is that his "critics" – like me – are tagged as haters and grouchy "discernment types." All the while, the points we are making go unanswered.
The critic is mean. The subject is misunderstood. Things were taken out of context (hey, Andy Stanley?).
Perhaps even more grievous than the nonsense spouted by the likes of Miller is the utter silence from evangelical leaders around the country, many of whom share cross-promotion techniques with him. There's dough to be made by ignoring his foibles. That's why you don't hear any of the majors challenging the nonsense Miller often writes, especially the stuff about the Jewish state.
So when I read glowing remarks about Donald Miller, I do lament the lies he and his ilk foist on those they claim to care about: the young people who look to them with unquestioning eyes and hearts.
Has Donald Miller grown up? He hasn't even started the process. That is the painful truth about the situation in Donald Miller's heart.