Mark Driscoll apologizes to Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt
Since leaving that team I have been increasingly concerned about some of the theological conversations that are taking place, which has led to frustration and anger on my part. The result was an email I fired off in angry haste to the “Out of Ur” blog in response to a piece by Brian Mclaren in Leadership journal on his pastoral response to the homosexual issue. In short, I took some cheap shots at Brian and Doug.
... I have come to see that my comments were sinful and in poor taste. Therefore, I am publicly asking for forgiveness from both Brian and Doug because I was wrong for attacking them personally and I was wrong for the way in which I confronted positions with which I still disagree. I also ask forgiveness from those who were justifiably offended at the way I chose to address the disagreement. I pray that you will accept this posting as a genuine act of repentance for my sin.
the whole postht to jordon
5 comments:
I glad he did that.
I am not sure Marc D is an "emerging" Christian. He is extremely calvinistic in his treaching and theology. Having visited Mars Hill I was shaken by his fundamentalism. Great band, great preaching-- terrible (IMO) theology. I would also wonder how many people in the "culture" in Seattle are being "converted". I suspect that most who attend his church are already in some form a Christian.
He talks about numbers constantly. He did the day that I was there as well. My expereince of him was that he was bragging.
He's not postmodern or emerging or even "catholic".
Did I say, great band?
I think Mark would still self-identify as emerging but not as emergent. Emergent is just a part (though certainly a very big part and the largest institutional presence) of the emerging church sea. I'm not sure if you're equating Calvinism with Fundamentalism, but there are a number of Calvinist Emerging Church folks. See
http://faithmaps.blogspot.com/2004/11/nexus-of-emerging-church-and.html
though Rob has left the scene.
Thank you. I am not sure what MD is emerging from. Honestly, I listened to his one hour sermon and it was very, very fundamentalist in nature. He took potshots at all those he disagreed with and he came across as arrogant and sarcastic. If I were 20 and raised in an evangelcal church and taught that pastors were "mature" Christians and to blindly follow them, I may think he was cool. But that's not the case.
His church is very beautiful but the "sanctuary" is very traditional in terms of its layout. By that I mean, chairs in a straight rows pointing forward toward the "stage". It was showbiz... big stage, great band, dynamic preaching... terrible theology... calvinistic at its core. There was nothing being said that day that had not been said by followers of Jonathan Edwards. For me, it was bad.
Most of the kids there, and there were a lot of them, sat in a straight line and looked forward and were entertained. ALL of the people I spoke to were from evangelical backgrounds.
I know he boasts of his numbers but the Moonies and Mormons have big numbers. There is nothing about numbers that relates to transformation and the gospel. We can all draw a crowd with decent music and dymanic speaking. ANYONE can do it. Yes, I said ANYONE.
The message was very moral-- no sex before marriage and so on. I'm not sure what this has to do with the proclamation of the nearing Kingdom of God.
He did not stimualte the hearts and minds of his listeners by encouraging them to think, rather he told them what to think.
From a theological perspective, there is nothing I have heard in the emerging church or from emergent for that matter, that isn't something many mainline theologies have been preaching for years.
It upsets those who call themselves emerging but only because they come mostly from evangelical backgrounds, that is, an evangelcal culture and understanding of the gospel.
This was and has been my experience.
Thanks for the post.
When a man makes a mistake and truly asks for forgiveness, that should be applauded. Driscoll is prone to sin just like any of us. That is entirely one of the points that I believe Brian McLaren was trying to make. We as the body of Christ are still struggling on the whole hating sin and loving the sinner thing.
Driscoll's preaching can be quite revolutionary to established "Christian" thought at times. For example, consider some of his stances on drinking. And he can also be very traditional and dogmatic too. His sharp tongue is part of what gets people's attention. It can also be his downfall too.
Why do we have to get worked up about the "emerging" label anyway? Once we start to label things, we can sometimes dilute what made it powerful in the first place.
I am glad that Driscoll is one of the voice out there. We need a lot of different perspectives to see clearly sometimes.
Let's have an extra round of grace for everyone. Jesus said that He's picking up the tab.
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