The Emergent Church Movement

I'm not sure why so many Christians are so opposed to the emergent church. In just about every critique that I've read or heard, critics take a small passage from authors such as Rob Bell or Brian McLaren, and base their accusations of heresy on these small sections of writing. And because I've read most of the books by these authors, I immediately can't help but be angered at how the critics take things horribly out of context. If you were to read the thoughts of these authors in context, the "incriminating" passages would surely make much more sense. I guess it's no surprise though, considering many of the people who take these authors out of context also seem to be the religious leaders who take things in the Bible out of context as well, and try to apply universal truth to a single verse removed from its original context.
So before you disregard authors like Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, and others in the emergent church movement, please consider reading their entire books before passing judgment on their thoughts that are plastered all over the internet just because they come off as controversial.

And for the record, Brian McLaren has never said that he denies substitutionary or penal atonement theories, but rather makes a point that Christianity has made this the centerpiece and main point of the gospel. He would argue that perhaps while this is certainly an incredibly important facet of the gospel, it isn't necessarily the main point. Rather, the kingdom of God should be a key aspect of the gospel that we should be paying much more attention to, for the church as a whole has lost sight of it as it was originally intended to be.