Mark Driscoll - Why All The Attention?

A Seattle pastor who is being criticized for his comments regarding the Ted Haggard sex and drug allegations recently met with a group of these critics in an attempt to quiet some of the negative talk.  Mark Driscoll is the lead pastor of Mars Hill church and stirred up some controversy with his comments on the Haggard situation, specificially this statement:

“It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let
themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a
pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause
for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available
to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is
not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping
him either.”

I might add that was one small comment in the midst of a very large article admonishing the men to take precautions to avoid falling into sexual sin.  It was enough though, for a group of people who call themselves Christians to plan the very Christianlike activity (tongue firmly in cheek) of picketing the Mars Hill worship service tomorrow.  As a result of this threat, Driscoll agreed to meet with some of these folks and blogged about the meeting.  You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.

I might add that the blogosphere was replete with any number of opinions regarding Driscoll’s writing and many took to criticizing his physical appearance and called him a hypocrite.  Such is the age of the internet and the availability of on-line publishing for anyone, including myself.  However, having come from the professional world of journalism, I still adhere to all those many lessons that were constantly reinforced by my peers over the years.  One of those is the difference between opinion based commentary, which constitutes the majority of bloggers, and fact based journalism which is not nearly as prevalent in the blogosphere.  Many things I write about here are opinion and nothing more.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Consequently, Driscoll’s article was simply that, an opinion.  If read in its entirety, the article is not offensive, but rather quite refreshing given the landscape in which many of us pastor today.  When I first read it and considered the admontions given to young pastors who might be tempted, I was thinking “Right on Mark, good advice!”  Instead, a group of people who considered the remarks insensitive and sexist began doing the very thing they accussed Driscoll of doing, assailing another’s character.  Instead of engaging the argument put forth in the article, they chose to attack the writer and began combing through his blog looking for every other comment they could take out of context and accuse the man of crimes he wasn’t guilty of.  It kind of sounds like the type of actions the religious leaders took when they wanted Jesus crucified.  They took pieces of Jesus’ comments and then made it look like he was saying things he never said.  The agenda was already set and the outcome was planned, they just needed to find a neat little package in which to channel their anger to make it look like they took the high road in this exchange.

So why the uproar?  If you use the “Google” search engine long enough, it will point you to some legitimate cases of sexist attitudes, even within the church.  Why not take those people to task?  Is it because of Driscoll’s profile within the church community?  Is it because he is a successful author with a growing church that has taken a stand on some issues that others may not agree with?  What happened to “freedom of speech”?  Also, if this man is guilty of the crimes that so many accuse him of, let the situation take it’s course and allow his flock to leave the church and go elsewhere.  If he’s truly the unbiblical sexist that they claim him to be, people in the church will figure it out and his ministry will end.  I may not always agree with everything the man has written.  To be honest, I’ve not read one of his books nor do I regularly stop by “The Resurgence” blog that he posts to.  No offense Mark if you choose to read this, but I don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the “man” so much as I do the church.  There’s a tendency in the blogosphere to build up a list of straw men who lead successfully in the world’s eyes just so the people blogging can knock them down.

Here’s what I do see.  I see a man who’s built a unique church and has been criticized for taking a biblical stance in some politically incorrect areas.  This situation and the one involving his church’s concert venue that was recently panned in the Seattle press are just two of the inflammatory stories I’ve read of late.

A better idea would be for us to focus on getting someone saved this weekend and to proclaim the cross without shame to those God puts in our path.  Save the critical vitriol for Satan and his minions.