From Religion Dispatches:
SHARING MANY OF THE SAME FLAWS AS ITS SUBJECT ‘THE RISE AND FALL OF MARS HILL’ PODCAST PUTS BLAME ANYWHERE BUT WHERE IT BELONGS
I listened to parts of Christianity Today's podcast series Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. It was what I expected to come from a source like Christianity Today. They were upfront about Driscoll's failings but eager to diffuse the blame. Some thoughts:
- I wish people would stop talking about how novel Driscoll was. He was just the latest branding of Muscular Christianity, a movement that has been with us since the Civil War. It seems like western men are constantly having a crisis of masculinity and we want someone to tell us that Christianity is compatible with being aggressive, drinking beer and swearing.
More than that, I guess. We want someone to tell us that being Christian and living a convential middle-class life is manly. The cowboys are gone and we're all beancounters and pencil pushers, please someone tell us how to still be men. We want someone to tell us to grow up and fulfill the role of the patriarch without, you know, doing anything extreme like joining the military. Sort of the Jordan Peterson effect.
- In the podcast, Ed Stetzer says, "There’s a body count of young pastors whose ability rose them to prominence before their character was ready for it."
Did they rise despite their lack of character, or because of it? Did the former US president arise despite the fact he talked about grabbing women by the pussy, or becuase he talked about it and did not apologise? Confidence and swagger are their own types of charisma. People like to live vicariously through the people who say extreme things.
- It always amazes me to see Reformed Christians act surprised when one of their leader goes bad. You start be aknowledging "total depravity." You know that people are corrupt and ocrruptible. You also know that nothing corrupts like power. But then the solution always seems to be creating heirarchies. Maybe it keeps the underlings in line, but what happens to the people at the top?
#MarsHill #Driscoll #religiondispatches #reformedchristianity
