A host of critics, including widely-read Christian blogger Justin Taylor and evangelical leader John Piper, have charged Bell with false doctrine and universalism — the belief that everyone goes to heaven. They argue he is subverting Christian orthodoxy by suggesting non-Christians may be saved and that people can still be saved after going to hell.

After three days in the wilderness of talking-head TV, Rob Bell seemed relieved to be back home at the coffeeshop where everybody knows his name.

He sank into a chair at The Sparrows cafe on Wealthy Street SE earlier this week and reflected on the media whirlwind engulfing his new book, “Love Wins.”

“I don’t think anybody saw that coming,” Bell said, as if describing a wind shear that had flattened his neighborhood.

But come it did, a hail of damning labels from Christian critics: Universalist. Heretic. Protestant liberal.

And, close behind, a tailwind of TV interviews: “Good Morning Ameriica,” “Morning Joe,” an hour-long webcast with Newsweek’s Lisa Miller and a “60 Minutes”-style grilling from MSNBC’s Martin Bashir.

Bell said he was a bit worn out by trying to reduce the complexities of his book and faith into tube-friendly sound bites.

“You can only do so many interviews with the word ‘controversial’ to where you just naturally become fairly weary,” Bell said, insisting he did not set out to create controversy.

But that’s just what he got with his book about “heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived,” released Tuesday by HarperOne.

His expansive view of heaven, and that it’s not just for select Christians while all others burn forever in hell, has brought forth a storm of conservative criticism — much of it before the book even came out.

Among the weightiest was that of Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In an extensive critique, Mohler charged Bell “uses his incredible power of literary skill and communication to unravel the Bible’s message and to cast doubt on its teachings. … Tragically, his message will confuse many believers as well as countless unbelievers.”

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