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Various
Quotes from Mark Driscoll,
President
of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network
The
following excerpts are taken from Driscoll’s Books: “Confession’s of a
Reformission Rev.” (Confessions) and “Radical Reformission” (Reformission)
(Bold
Print Emphasis Ours)
Driscoll: Writing for the
furtherance of the emerging church:
“Now that the time has come
to write, I am presenting this book as a contribution toward the
furtherance of the emerging church in the emerging culture.”
(Radical Reformission, p.17)
“I invite you to turn the
page and begin a radical journey with me as we explore what life in
Christ can mean in the context of an emerging church in a
changing world.” (Radical Reformission, p.23)
What kind of “gospel” does
the emerging church proclaim?
“The emerging church
proclaims a gospel of freedom.” (Confessions, p. 25)
Why did Driscoll start Mars
Hill Church?
“So I decided to start a
church, for three reasons. First, I hated going to church and wanted
one I liked, so I thought I would just start my own. Second, God had
spoken to me in one of those weird charismatic moments and told me to
start a church. Third, I am scared of God and try to do what he says.”
(Confessions, p.39)
Driscoll’s vision for his
Church:
“I envisioned a large
church that hosted concerts for non-Christian bands and fans on a
phat sound system, embraced the arts, trained young men to be godly
husbands and fathers, planted other churches, and led people to work
with Jesus Christ as missionaries to our city.” (Confessions, p.40)
Just a few minor problems in
the secular music ministry:
“In its first few years, the
Paradox [a secular music ministry of Driscoll’s church] hosted about 650
concerts for about 65,000 kids. We have had only a few minor problems,
like the Japanese punk band that got naked during their set for no
apparent reason and another band that set off fireworks during their
show.” (Confessions, p.127)
No position on stealing?
“Our church services started
to stink a whole lot less. We scraped together enough money to buy some
big honking speakers, and I stole an unused sound console from my old
church along with a projection screen, which were sins that Jesus
thankfully died to forgive.” (Confessions, p.62)
Stolen Electricity?
“We never paid for
electricity in our office apartment because the building was illegally
hooked up to the power grid and all our power was stolen.”
(Confessions, p.125)
Driscoll’s R-rated sermons on
sex:
“Some of the sermons on
sex were R-rated, and we gave warnings to parents and sometimes saw
whole visiting youth groups walk out blushing halfway through the
sermon. On other occasions, people walked out during the sermon and
flipped me off on their way out, a trend that has continued.”
(Confessions, p.134)
Just an occasional R-rated
movie at church:
“Pastor James continues to
lead our monthly film and theology class, at which attendance rises to
more than two hundred people depending on the film. He continues to
show an occasional unedited R-rated movie to train our people to
think critically about the themes preached through film, which is the
new cultural form of preaching.” (Confessions, p.157)
A passion for “cool?”
“I had grown facial hair,
started cussing again (I had stopped for about fifteen minutes after
I got saved), and briefly considered taking up smoking but had asthma,
which kept me from achieving my full cool potential.” (Confessions,
p.50)
Tithing and cussing issues?
“Apparently, the Ghost only
led people to give once every presidential election, and I hit rock
bottom one Sunday when our offering was $137. I stood alone in the
room, counting the money and cussing at the offering box for
being filled with one-dollar bills and the ominous smell of imminent
death.” (Confessions, p.47)
Gambling for God?
“I occasionally bought
lottery tickets and promised God I would tithe if he’d let me
win, but to no avail.” (Confessions, p.58)
Why does Driscoll continue to
be thought of as the “cussing pastor?”
“This season [at church] was
messy and I sinned and cussed a lot, but God somehow drew a
straight line with my crooked Philistine stick.” (Confessions, p.130)
Teaching the men of Mars Hill
the essentials of life:
“We also began a ‘boot camp’
for our young men, teaching them how to get a wife, have sex with that
wife, get a job, budget money, buy a house, father a child, study the
Bible, stop looking at porn, and brew decent beer.”
(Confessions, p.131)
Why the confusion in
Driscoll’s church?
“I also did not explain in
written form that we were theologically conservative and culturally
liberal, which caused great confusion because half of the church was
angry that the other half was smoking, while the other half was angry
that I taught from the Bible.” (Confessions, p.46)
(Driscoll also writes about
being “culturally liberal yet theologically conservative” in his
book, “Radical Reformission,” p.22)
Adam and Eve: “Happy,
horny [and] holy?”
“The Bible could end right
there [in Genesis], after only two chapters, with the man and woman
naked, eating fruit, and trying to fill the earth all by their happy,
horny, holy selves.” (Radical Reformission, p.28)
Abraham: “a cowardly old
man?”
“As time rolls along, God
also works through a cowardly old man named Abraham, who is happy to
whore out his loving and beautiful antique of a wife to avoid
conflict.” (Radical Reformission, p.28)
Driscoll speaks of Mary and
Joseph:
“And to top it all off, God
comes to earth. He has a mom whom everyone thinks is a slut, a
dad whom they think has the brilliance of a five-watt bulb for believing
the ‘virgin birth’ line, and brothers who likely pummel him frequently,
because even God would have to get at least one wedgie from his brothers
if he were to be fully human.” (Radical Reformission, p.29)
Jesus telling “knock-knock
jokes?”
“To the religious leaders,
Jesus is a scandal – his followers are felons – and every time they see
Jesus, it agitates them that he is always surrounded by a crowd,
telling knock-knock jokes to miscreants who love his sense of humor
(because his perfection had to have included comedic timing).” (Radical
Reformission, p.30)
Jesus kicks off His ministry
as a “bartender?”
“Anyway, Jesus shows up at
the wedding and begins his public ministry. God has come to earth, and
he kicks things off as a bartender.” (Radical Reformission,
p.30)
A steady diet of the things
of this world will make us better missionaries?
“I am encouraging Christians
on reformission to involve themselves in their local cultures not
merely for the purpose of entertainment but primarily for the
purpose of education. As a missionary, you will need to watch
television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse
magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and
befriend people that you might not like to better understand people that
Jesus loves.” (Radical Reformission, p.103)
Driscoll: Repenting of his
sin of abstinence from alcohol?
“After I entered the ministry
as a man of legal drinking age, the drum was again repeatedly beaten for
me by well-meaning older pastors. So I never drank alcohol until I was
thirty years of age. About that time, I was studying the Scriptures for
a sermon about Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine, as
reported in John’s gospel, a miracle that Jesus performed when he was
about my age. My Bible study convicted me of my sin of abstinence
from alcohol. So in repentance I drank a hard cider over lunch with
our worship pastor.” (Radical Reformission, p.146)
Driscoll is clear on
alcohol: If abstinence is a “sin,” then beer-brewing lessons at church
for the men of the church is a logical end result of such thinking. But
in light of Driscoll’s admitted problems with “cussing,” “anger,”
“stealing,” etc., is it logical to think that he and the men of his
church will be faithful in avoiding drunkenness by always drinking in
“moderation?” Below, Driscoll rightly identifies the problems
associated with drinking too much alcohol. However, because “self
control” will always be a serious problem for sinful humanity, why would
any responsible Christian pastor/leader entice the people of God toward
such destructive, addictive behavior as alcohol, especially with its
long, devastating history? One failure at “moderation,” and any of the
below Biblical examples of drunkenness (with the right circumstances)
can become an unwanted personal reality.
“Biblical Problems Caused by
Drunkenness
·
Incest (Gen.
19:32-35)
·
Violence (Prov.
4:17)
·
Adultery (Rev.
17:2)
·
Mockery and
brawling (Prov. 20:1)
·
Poverty (Prov.
21:17)
·
Late night and
early morning drinking (Isa. 5:11-12)
·
Hallucinations
(Isa. 28:7)
·
Legendary
antics (Isa. 5:22)
·
Murder (2 Sam.
11:13-15)
·
Gluttony and
poverty (Prov. 23:20-21)
·
Vomiting (Jer.
25:27; 48:26; Isa. 19:14)
·
Staggering (Jer.
25:27; Ps. 107:27; Job 12:25)
·
Madness (Jer.
51:7)
·
Loudness
combined with laughter and then prolonged sleep (Jer. 51:39)
·
Nakedness (Hab.
2:15; Lam. 4:21)
·
Sloth (Joel
1:5)
·
Escapism (Hos.
4:11)
·
Depression
(Luke 24:34)
·
Staying up to
party all night (1 Thess. 5:7)”
(Radical Reformission,
p.148. Reprinted as it appeared.)
From
Driscoll’s Book: “Vintage Jesus”
(first
printed 2008)
Driscoll’s
thoughts about Mary, the mother of Jesus:
“Jesus’ mom was a poor, unwed
teenage girl who was mocked for claiming she conceived via the Holy
Spirit. Most people thought she concocted a crazy story to cover the
‘fact’ she was knocking boots with some guy in the backseat of a car at
the prom.” (p.11)
Driscoll’s
view of Jesus according to the Gospel of Mark:
“The Gospel of Mark, for
example, revealed a Jesus who was antithetical to the ‘Gentle Jesus,
meek and mild’ sung about in Wesley’s famous hymn… In the first chapter
of Mark, Jesus starts off by yelling at complete strangers to repent of
their sin, like the wingnuts with billboards who occasionally show up at
shopping centers. Shortly thereafter, Jesus orders some guys to quit
their jobs and follow him, and before long Jesus is telling a demon to
shut up and healing a leper only to tell him to shut up too. In the
second chapter, Jesus picks a fight with some well-mannered religious
types and does the equivalent of breaking into a church on a Sunday
morning to make a sandwich with the communion bread because he was
hungry.
“In the third chapter, Jesus
gets angry and also grieves and apparently needs Praxil. Then he
ignores his own mom, which threw Focus on the Hebrew Family into a
tizzy, so they quickly issued a position paper renouncing his actions.
In the fourth chapter, Jesus rebukes the wind, which caused an uproar
with the local pantheists. In chapter 5, Jesus kills two thousand pigs,
sending the animal rights activist blogosphere into a panic and creating
a bacon famine only rivaled by the great Irish potato famine. In
chapter 6, Jesus offends some people and apparently needs sensitivity
training. In chapter 7, a few religious types have some questions
for Jesus, and he cruelly calls them ‘hypocrites’ and goes on a lengthy
tirade about them, which seemed very intolerant of their alternative
theological lifestyle.
“In chapter 8, Jesus sighs in
frustration, spits on a handicapped guy, and calls Peter ‘Satan,”
although thankfully no one sued for assault or slander. In chapter 9,
Jesus gets sick of folks and asks them, ‘How long do I have to put up
with you?’ That’s just before telling some other people to cut off
their hands and feet and to gouge out their eyes – a statement which led
to picketing from the local body dysmorphic disorder recovery group. In
chapter 10, Jesus tells a rich guy to sell all his stuff and give the
money to the poor, which put him in bad graces with the local
prosperity-theology luncheon for pastors who were hoping for Bling
Christ. In chapter 11, he has one of his guys take a donkey without
asking like some kleptomaniac donkeylifter, proceeds to curse and
kill a fig tree, which really upset the environmental activists who were
promoting justification by recycling, and goes on to loot some small
businesses and whip some small business leaders who were decent,
taxpaying Republicans.
“In chapter 12, Jesus tells
people they are wrong and don’t know their Bibles, which upset the
postmoderns because Jesus was clearly using a narrow modernist
epistemology. Jesus also tells some Sunday school teachers they are
going to hell, which made the universalistic Emergent folks immediately
engage in a conversation about the mythology of hell and fingerpaint
about the emotional wounds caused by his words. In chapter 13, Jesus
threatens to destroy the temple, which put the nation on heightened
security alert that included taking off one’s sandals before boarding a
camel. In the fourteenth chapter, Jesus actually yells at his friends
for taking a nap late at night after running them all over the place for
about three years as an obvious workaholic who needed to start
drinking decaf and listening to taped sounds of running water while
doing aromatherapy so he could learn to relax. In chapter 15, the
religious folk killed him for being like that, which seemed perfectly
fine to everyone except a few women. The story ends in chapter 16 with
him alive again and the trembling, astonished, and frightened disciples
getting it and heading out to handle snakes while they go to offend the
whole world with the gospel.
“In summary, the Jesus of
Mark’s gospel is not fitting for old ladies in hats and men in suits
like those we see at church.” (pgs. 43-44)
The
calling of Matthew:
“An example of Jesus’
priestly work in the life of one person is found in Matthew 9:9-13. We
meet a man named Matthew, a crooked thief and tax collector who is
despised by everyone. While sitting at his tax booth extorting people
one day, none other than Jesus walks by. Rather than confronting
Matthew as the prophet, Jesus surprisingly extends a hand of friendship
to him by inviting himself to Matthew’s house for dinner. Joining
them later at the party at Matthew’s house was nothing short of a very
bad hip-hop video, complete with women in clear heels, dudes with their
pants around their ankles and handguns in their underwear strap, lots of
gold teeth, bling, spinners on camels, cheap liquor, and grinding to
really loud music with a lot of bass. When word got out to the
religious folks, they were perplexed as to how Jesus could roll with
such a jacked-up posse. Jesus’ answer was purely priestly. Jesus said
that they were sick and needed mercy.” (p.77)
Other
Quotes from Mark Driscoll
From
Driscoll’s Resurgence Blog: “I will not be drinking [or] cussing…”
“Nonetheless,
the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest,
N.C., has extended to me a very kind hand of friendship for which I am
truly grateful and want to publicly declare my thanks. They have invited
me to join my dear friend Dr. Ed Stetzer along with others such as
Daniel Akin to speak at their upcoming Convergent Conference. The
details are
here
or below for anyone wanting to join us. For the record, I will not be
drinking, cussing, or sprinkling infants and calling it baptism but
do hope to honor Jesus with my message.”
http://www.theresurgence.com/md_blog_2007-08-10_convergent_conference
From the Mars Hill Church Website: “Beer-brewing lessons” at the
church?
“Some have
asked the question, ‘Does Mars Hill know how to rock the flock?’ That’s
been answered with a slew of talented musicians leading worship and the
volume turned up as loud as is legally possible.
“Others have
asked ‘Does Mars Hill know how to enjoy a good brew (coffee or
beer)?’ That has also been answered with extra-strength java generously
available at all church services and beer-brewing lessons whenever a
large group of MH men get together.
“But there is
one big question that has remained unanswered for years: ‘Does Mars Hill
know how to party?’ (sorry, swaying to the music during worship doesn’t
count as a sufficient answer). Well, folks, the results are in. Mars
Hill can indeed part-ay. This was emphatically confirmed by the
fabulous time that was had by over 700 partiers at the recent Red Hot
Bash on New Year’s Eve.”
http://voxpopnetwork.com/ballard/2007/01/05/mars-hill-sure-knows-how-to-party/
From an
interview with Mark Driscoll by Ed Stetzer:
Driscoll’s response to: “Mark the Cussing Pastor”
“This
infamous phrase is like the high school photo in the yearbook that you
hope no one sees. In 1997 as the church was just getting started, a man
came up from Oregon having heard what we were doing and was considering
moving to Seattle to be a part of Mars Hill Church. Donald Miller was
just getting started and had not published a book yet. At that point our
church was very small and visitors stuck out. I took Don out to dinner
to try to entice him to come back to our church. We went to a pizza
place afterward and talked about the church. He really wanted to stay in
Portland if a church like Mars Hill existed there. A friend of mine Rick
McKinley did start a church in Portland and Don became a member there.
For the first few years his book, Blue Like Jazz didn't sell many
copies. He didn't even talk to me about the book but I must have said
something over dinner that led him to label me as the cussing pastor. So
over a decade later at a casual dinner my brand was immovably affixed.
Don is a friend of mine but I just wish an off-comment at a meal isn't
my defining moment.
“What gets me into trouble is my humor.
It is what keeps me sane. I have a stressful life and I fear that I will
be the guy that shows up at work unknowingly with his underwear outside
of his pants. The pressure and stress is great. I receive death threats.
Our church has gone from 1,200 to 6,000 in four years. It is very
intense. I have had no one else to lean on. So for me, telling jokes and
being light hearted is my way of coping with stress. But sometimes when
I get overly stressed, my mouth and anger gets me into trouble. My tone,
my attitude and my mouth are indicators of how closely I walk with
Jesus. I have come to realize that I speak for more than just Mark
Driscoll. I speak for Jesus. I know I can't be this foul-mouthed,
gunslinger for Jesus. I still think strong language and a prophetic edge
is appropriate. But shock-jock language isn't.”
http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/interview-with-mark-driscoll-by-dr-ed-stetzer/
________________________________________________________________________________
Is Driscoll Really Distancing Himself from the Left-Wing of the
Emerging Church Movement – “Emergent”?
The Latest “Version of Liberalism” coming from within the Emerging
Church Movement:
“I had to distance myself,
however, from one of many streams in the emerging church because of
theological differences. Since the late 1990’s, this stream has become
known as Emergent. The emergent church is part of the Emerging Church
Movement but does not embrace the dominant ideology of the movement.
Rather, the emergent church is the latest version of liberalism. The
only difference is that the old liberalism accommodated modernity and
the new liberalism accommodates postmodernity.” (Confessions, p.21,
published 2006)
From Driscoll’s Resurgence Blog: January 13, 2006
“In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church
and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging
church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership
Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to
distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends
like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a
theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring
to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of
the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low
view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.”
http://www.theresurgence.com/?q=node/5
The
following is from the Christianity Today blog site where Driscoll
chastises Brian McLaren and his “Tonto,” Doug Pagitt, from Emergent
Village for their views on homosexuality.
For me, the concern started when McLaren in the February 7, 2005 issue
of Time Magazine said, “Asked at a conference last spring what he
thought about gay marriage, Brian McLaren replied, ‘You know what, the
thing that breaks my heart is that there's no way I can answer it
without hurting someone on either side.’” Sadly, by failing to answer,
McLaren was unwilling to say what the Bible says and in so doing really
hurt God’s feelings and broke his heart.
Then, Brian’s Tonto Doug Pagitt, an old acquaintance of mine,
wrote the following in a book he and I both contributed to called
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches edited by Robert
Webber and due out this spring:
“The question of humanity is inexorably link[ed] to sexuality and
gender. Issues of sexuality can be among the most complex and convoluted
we need to deal with. It seems to me that the theology of our history
does not deal sufficiently with these issues for our day. I do not mean
this a critique, but as an acknowledgement that our times are different.
I do not mean that we are a more or less sexual culture, but one that
knows more about the genetic, social and cultural issues surrounding
sexuality and gender than any previous culture. Christianity will be
impotent to lead a conversation on sexuality and gender if we do not
boldly integrate our current understandings of humanity with our
theology. This will require us to not only draw new conclusions about
sexuality but will force to consider new ways of being sexual.”
And on January 23rd McLaren wrote an article for Leadership that is
posted on this blog. In it he argues that because the religious right is
mean to gays we should not make any decision on the gay issue for 5-10
years.
As the pastor of a church of nearly 5000 in one of America’s least
churched cities filled with young horny people this really bummed me
out. Just this week a young man who claims to be a Christian and knows
his Bible pretty well asked if he could have anal sex with lots of young
men because he liked the orgasms. Had I known McLaren was issuing a
Brokeback injunction I would have scheduled an appointment with him
somewhere between 2011-2016.
Lastly, for the next 5-10 years you are hereby required to white out 1
Peter 3:15 which says “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give
the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and
respect” from your Bible until further notice from McLaren because the
religious right forget the gentleness and respect part and the religious
left forgot the answer the question part. Subsequently, a task force
will be commissioned to have a conversation about all of this at a
labyrinth to be named later. Once consensus is reached a finger painting
will be commissioned on the Emergent web site as the official doctrinal
position.
In conclusion, this is all just gay.
Pastor Mark Driscoll
This article can be accessed
here:
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2006/01/brian_mclaren_o_2.html
With all
this opposition to the “Emergent stream” of the emerging church
movement, Driscoll co-authors a book in 2007 with the very Emergent
leaders he claims to be distancing himself from. His church then hosted
a conference with these same Emergent leaders on June 1-2, 2007.
“My friends at Zondervan have recently begun shipping a book titled,
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, edited by Dr. Robert
Webber. Contributing to the book are five pastors (Karen Ward,
Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, John Burke, and myself) with varying
beliefs on the assigned issues of the Trinity, the atonement, and
Scripture. As is common in counterpoint books, we each wrote one
chapter, and then briefly responded to the chapters written by the other
contributors. We never did meet for the project, but over the years I
have had the pleasure of meeting each person in various contexts, so
that was helpful in allowing me to understand something of their
ministry and theological perspective. Anyone wanting to order the book
can do so
here. You
can also view and download a portion of my chapter that Zondervan has
made available
here.
“Also, beginning on February 6th at the National Pastors Convention in
San Diego, each of the contributors will be part of an extended
discussion (you can find more information about the conference here.
And, Friday June 1- Saturday June 2 we will have the authors in Seattle
for an event hosted at Mars Hill Church where we will
discuss/dialogue/debate various theological issues that are some of the
hot topics among varying streams of the emerging church.”
Note:
Karen Ward is a member of the Board of Emergent Village and Pagitt [McLaren’s
“Tonto”] is a Senior Fellow at Emergent Village. Brian McLaren is
chairman of the board.
http://theresurgence.com/mark_driscoll_2007-01-31_listening_to_the_beliefs_of_emerging_churches
Why
Does Driscoll continue to involve himself with those he claims to so
strongly disagree?
“But I assure you that I
speak as one within the Emerging Church Movement who has great love and
appreciation for Christian leaders with theological convictions much
different from my own.” Taken from: (Confessions, p.23)
Click here for Driscoll’s
historical account of his involvement with the emerging church
movement.
http://criswell.files.wordpress.com/2006/03/3,2%20APastoralPerspectiveontheEmergentChurch%5BDriscoll%5D.PDF
John MacArthur on “Mark Driscoll the
Cussing Pastor”
Below is an excerpt from an article written by John MacArthur, titled
“Grunge Christianity and Cussing Pastors? What Next?” The full text of
the article can be accessed here:
http://www.crosswalk.com/11530376/print/
Worldly preachers seem to go out of their
way to put their carnal expertise on display—even in their sermons. In
the name of connecting with “the culture” they want their people to know
they have seen all the latest programs on MTV; familiarized themselves
with all the key themes of “South Park”; learned the lyrics to countless
tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; and watched
who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to
bottom, back to front, and inside out. They’ve adopted both the style
and the language of the world—including lavish use of language that used
to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit.
They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making
themselves quite comfortable there.
Mark Driscoll is one of the best-known
representatives of that kind of thinking. He is a very effective
communicator—a bright, witty, clever, funny, insightful, crude, profane,
deliberately shocking, in-your-face kind of guy. His soteriology is
exactly right, but that only makes his infatuation with the vulgar
aspects of contemporary society more disturbing.
Driscoll ministers in Seattle, birthplace
of “grunge” music and heart of the ever-changing subculture associated
with that movement. Driscoll’s unique style and idiom might aptly be
labeled “post-grunge.” His language—even in his sermons—is deliberately
crude. He is so well known for using profane language that in Blue
Like Jazz (p. 133), Donald Miller (popular author and icon of the
“Emerging Church” movement, who speaks of Driscoll with the utmost
admiration) nicknamed him “Mark the Cussing Pastor.”
I don’t know what Driscoll’s language is
like in private conversation, but I listened to several of his sermons.
To be fair, he didn’t use the sort of four-letter expletives most people
think of as cuss words—nothing that might get bleeped on
broadcast television these days. Still, it would certainly be accurate
to describe both his vocabulary and his subject matter at times as
tasteless, indecent, crude, and utterly inappropriate for a minister of
Christ. In every message I listened to, at least once he veered into
territory that ought to be clearly marked off limits for the pulpit.
Some of the things Driscoll talks freely
and frequently about involve words and subject matter I would prefer not
even to mention in public, so I am not going to quote or describe the
objectionable parts. Besides, the issue has already been discussed and
dissected at several blogs. Earlier this year, Tim Challies cited one
typical example of Driscoll’s vulgar flippancy from Confessions of a
Reformission Rev. The sermons I listened to also included several
from Driscoll’s “Vintage Jesus” series, including the one Phil Johnson
critiqued in October.
The point I want to make is not about
Driscoll’s language per se, but about the underlying philosophy
that assumes following society down the Romans 1 path is a valid way to
“engage the culture.” It’s possible to be overexposed to our culture’s
dark side. I don’t think anyone can survive full immersion in today’s
entertainments and remain spiritually healthy.
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