Apparently the International Day of Women was four days ago on March 8th. Rachelle got a grid blog going and quite a few people took part. I wasn't particularly moved to participate, but it did make for interesting reading. Rachelle's own post was interesting, in that it obsesses a bit about Marc Driscoll, founding pastor of the in/famous Mars Hill church here in Seattle. I quote:
"I’ll admit, I’ve been afraid. I’ve been afraid to say anything contrary
about Mark Driscoll and his institution. I’ve been afraid of his column
in the Seattle Times, his titles, his affluence, the power of his
charisma and his money and the shear(sic) numbers of followers."
"Mark Driscoll is a very powerful man in Seattle. He was listed as one of the 25 most influential people in Seattle magazine. In an era where religion reporting is rare, he has the powerful position of being a religion columnist for the Seattle Times."
From these and other quotes, you might think that Seattle was about to be named DriscollTown any minute. Which is pretty laughable if you know Seattle. The success of Mars Hill is pretty much a weird anomaly in the city famed for grunge music, a laid back, laissez-faire lifestyle (we might have even invented it if the French hadn't beat us to the punch by a few centuries), Microsoft, Boeing and which is sometimes known as San Francisco North. This is the city where the Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral is a highly regarded gay man who was a protege of Desmond Tutu and who is now a candidate for Bishop of California. This is the least churched state in the country. What fundamentalist religious leanings there are in Seattle have almost all been imported via those who migrated here from the South and Midwest.
And really, the position of "religion columnist in the Seattle Times" is maybe a smidge above that of cat-catcher in the average one horse farming town, but honestly I'm not even sure about that. Not only that, Driscoll shares the one weekly religion column (Saturdays) with The Rev. Patrick J. Howell, a Jesuit priest and dean of Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry, Aziz Junejo, host of "Focus on Islam," a weekly cable-television show and a frequent speaker on Islam, The Rev. Patricia L. Hunter, an associate in ministry at Mount Zion Baptist Church (yes, a *gasp* female pastor - that must gall Driscoll no end) and Rabbi Mark S. Glickman who leads Congregation Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island. Now, that's Seattle diversity for you.
So Driscoll only gets a column about every five weeks. And Driscoll is not a particularly good writer. Whether it's the toning down of the message that he must do for a mainstream audience, or the sheer inability to project his alleged personal charisma via the written word, it's just not that good. Check for yourself with March 11's column. It's not even Chicken Soup for the Soul material. Sample dreck:
"According to the Bible, God made the world and all the people in the
world in a perfect state of goodness to operate together in flawless
harmony. But because of human rebellion against God, everything and
everyone in the world is now infected with imperfection, like a virus
corrupting every file on a computer. Subsequently, God spends each day
frustrated with the state of people and the world."
Driscoll sure knows his computer-savvy audience, and I just love the way he knows what God feels.
I make this point for a reason. As Rachelle points out in her post, Marc Driscoll and his misogynistic theology harms women. No question. Not only that, he's training other men to do the same. The strongest reaction I had to any of posts linked on Rachelle's blog was that of Renee (aka iphy) which harked back to a brutal incident back in 2003. Here's one of Driscoll's Acts 29 (church planting organization) proteges displaying a complete and utter lack of pastoral care by attacking a first-time visitor to his church on her own blog. Unbelievable.
Still, I believe the likes of Driscoll are better off left to condemn themselves with their own words and actions. Driscoll's public screw-ups are pretty well documented. He has been drubbed on a regular basis by the theology faculty at Seattle Pacific University (which is still a pretty conservative school with strong Methodist roots.)
And I guess my final point here is that people like Driscoll only have power if you let them take it. I still see way too many emergent folks (almost exclusively those who are emerging from fundamentalist evangelicalism) far too concerned about what the culture they are leaving behind thinks. For those of us who don't share that background it's (still) just really annoying.
I can even work this around finally to the New Testament reading from the lectionary today:
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Oh yeah.
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