Earlier today, I was directed to this article by the blog of Hemet Metah. The article describes a “hip” and rather militant Calvinist megachurch in Seattle. The article is really quite fascinating, and well worth a read.
Mark Driscoll, the pastor that the article focuses on, has been something of a lightning rod of praise and criticism both among the Evangelical community and among the non-evangelicals. On the one hand, the fact that he seems to focus on hyper-masculinity, a fear of femininity, and his own control of the church carries a clear authoritarian (and somewhat paranoid) message. On the other hand, the fact that he insists that Christians are both humans and citizens just like the rest of us, and should not separate themselves from the culture at large is, to my mind, a good thing, as I would hope it means that his flock is more likely to be realistic both in their views of other people and their approach to life and politics.
Also, by recognizing the inherent logical contradiction in trying to reconcile an omnipotent, pre-cognisant, and omniscient creator god with the idea of free will, the theology manages to be more internally consistent but also manages to make the question of morality even more irrelevant than the more mainstream notion of an all-forgiving savior that it criticizes. It’s an interesting thing, to try to solve one problem by ignoring another.
Anyway, give the article a read, and then do a little searching on Mark Driscoll. Whether you are enraged or inspired, I suspect that you’ll be interested.
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