So I got an email today somewhat out of the blue from the local office of the Associated Press news wire service, asking for an interview about my views on Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill church. I think my views are pretty clear (!!!!) on the subject, and I spent about twenty minutes on the phone with the AP correspondent while driving back from Seattle this afternoon.
The conversation did focus a fair bit on the emerging church and what it is or purports to be (a subject I think we can all say is pretty up in the air still). I did direct the person at pomomusings.com as the hub of all things emergent, of course. I talked for a bit about how I see the relationship of the mainline churches to the emerging church phenomenon, which is to say, "interested but frustrated by the fixation on emerging from fundamentalism".
It will be interesting to see if a) an article actually gets published and b) how accurately I'm quoted, if I am at all...
For the record, the cliff notes of my remarks on Driscoll:
a) He's done pretty well for himself in the religious world without any actual formal education in the field - in many ways, his entrepreneurial spirit would be a nice addition to a lot of churches. He's got a nice little Barnum and Bailey thing going on at Mars Hill. But...
b) ...his fundamentalist beliefs (and his propensity for shouting them far and wide), especially his views on the role of women in the church and society, get him into trouble. From the Seattle Pacific University debates of a few years ago to his views on Ted Haggard's wife's performance, and the election of Katharine Jefferts-Schori as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Driscoll has demonstrated a remarkable propensity for foot-in-mouth disease - not something you really want in a church leader.
c) I thought he was an amusing sideshow until he started taking potshots at the Episcopal Church, in which case all bets are off. While religious leaders with some official capacity obviously see the need to be circumspect in their comments, I see no reason not to call it like I see it.
Interestingly, Driscoll's blogging has slowed down considerably of late, and he has chosen safer topics about which to write, including a new Zondervan book comparing the beliefs of various "Emerging" churches. Driscoll is one of five contributors, the others being Karen Ward, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt and John Burke. That should be interesting, if for no other reason to contrast and compare views.
So... we'll see how this all shakes out.
