Well, I don’t see the tone of the article going that far myself.
Granted he could has emphasized more about dealing with the doubt, but I simply don’t see that he was endorsing it, encouraging it, or anything.
What I see in the article is encouragement for people who are dealing with doubt to admit it, confess it to someone else, and deal with it to get rid of it.
People DO struggle with doubt and it consumes them.
As far as the Israelites, it was always my understanding that they wandered in the desert for 40 years because of rebellion, not doubt.
I have no use for the Emergent church movement. There’s plenty wrong with it, and I don’t need convincing about that.
However, I don’t see the article doing much more than encouraging people who struggle with doubt to not keep it inside, but to admit it to someone and get over it.
And no, I do not see Jesus upbraiding Thomas for his doubt. He met him where he was, provided something for him to over come his doubt, and Thomas did. If Thomas had persisted in it, that would be a different issue. But he didn’t.
Their rebellion began as doubt. Doubt was step one -- we don't know what happened to Moses and we need to do something for ourselves. Rebellion and idolatry were the actions they took because of their doubts.