I spent many long days in the rodent-housing floor of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center trying to figure out the best way to tuck my earbuds through the protective scrubs so I could be entertained by Mark Driscoll. Here was a Pastor that I could listen to all day -- smart, charismatic as any other modern-day Pastor, and man, funny. Really funny. At 43, Mark built a church from 30 to over 6,000 with over 15 campuses. The dude could preach.
But, there was a reputation there. He clearly though the Church was emasculated. Referring to the Jesus of the modern Church as "a neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture" whom turned Jesus into "a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ." One he couldn't worship at all. He clearly has some issues with the Feminist movement as well. He went as far to defend Ted Haggard (well, not so much defend him as blame his wife) for his affair(s?). If he worked for ESPN, he would have been suspended. Instead, Mars Hill, which should be a little more in tune with moral precepts, looked the other way. Heck, I looked the other way. You kidding? Do church-going men need to be a little tougher, a little more Joey Porter and less Cole Porter? I mean, probably, right? And what great followers of Christ weren't mired in controversy? I mean, a lot of them were killed because they were different and offensive. As one Priest once told me, if you are popular you better be worried about whom you are actually following.
But then there were things like this from Driscoll: "Proverbs talks about certain women—they're like a dripping faucet. You ever tried to sleep with a dripping faucet? Plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk. It's what we use to torture people who are prisoners of war. A wife is like that."
Then there was this: First, masturbation can be a form of homosexuality because it is a sexual act that does not involve a woman. If a man were to masturbate while engaged in other forms of sexual intimacy with his wife then he would not be doing so in a homosexual way. However, any man who does so without his wife in the room is bordering on homosexuality activity, particularly if he's watching himself in a mirror and being turned on by his own male body.
Ok. um. ok.
So this guy is pretty rough around the edges. So am I. He makes a living of talking, so, sometimes, says things that he probably regrets nor believes. But, all that hand-waving came crashing down when some comments he made on a Mars Hill related blog (using a pseudo name) recently came to life.... I read the whole thing. Two comments: 1) It definitely sounds like him and 2) he needs to go. I'm not gonna put the quote on this site. But, honestly, it's pretty disgusting and ignorant. And seems strangely really, really angry.
This isn't about forgiveness or casting the first stone. It's about a guy who is 43, has one of the larger churches in America, and, even more so, has a significant young following. You can't come across (or worse) as a chauvinist as a Pastor. And that is exactly what he comes across as. It, for me, is as simple as that. And, also, its the grace thing. My ears perk up whenever I see someone supposedly touched by the grace of Jesus, yet not dishing it out, wholly and exhaustively. As converted, we should know better than anyone how much of a walking, sleeping, xxxing disasters we all are. Mired in mediocrity, unyielding selfishness and desperate affronts. We should know we aren't better than anyone. In fact, we should wholeheartedly believe we are worse.
So, the dude has to go. I hope Mars Hill figures that out. Dude has to go.
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