Sexpert Pastor Mark Driscoll is Told, 'Enough is Enough'

For years, Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle has styled himself as hip and relevant and gritty. He's made a name for himself with his irreverence, his ultra-cool persona and most of all, for his crass discussion of sexual matters. It is this discussion of sexual matters that is increasingly removing Mr. Driscoll from the company of Christians who believe he long ago crossed a line of acceptable conduct for an evangelical pastor.

Pastor Driscoll, in a recent blog post, promotes a website called ChristianNymphos.org which features articles on how a Christian wife can turn herself into a dominatrix. the glories of An-l and or-l sex, and the use of sex toys. Driscoll also sees himself as a sex advice counselor on his Mars Hill Blog, dispensing his recommendations for things like sex during menstruation and marital masturbation. In short, he makes Planned Parenthood instructional videos look tame.

The fact that this press release is unlikely to make it through Internet filters speaks for itself. Author and former head of Eagle Forum in Washington state, Cathy Mickels, issued a press release yesterday, decrying the foul material being passed off in the name of relevant ministry by Mr. Driscoll. I join Mrs. Mickels in her profound disgust that this pastor has been legitimized and endorsed by leading Bible teachers like John Piper and Erwin Lutzer. Driscoll is allowed the platform that he has because Christian leaders have not said, "enough is enough!" Women are now having to speak up about the degrading and filthy content of Mr. Driscoll's "ministry."

At a time when American young people are hit in the face with graphic sexuality in every facet of our culture, the church should be a safe haven where the sacredness and privacy of the act of marriage is respected by pastors. Those with sexual issues need to receive private counseling---not sex seminars in a church auditorium. For generations, Christian pastors have managed to convey the Scripture's teachings on fornication, adultery and the beauty of sexuality within marriage without sullying and cheapening it, Driscoll- style.

Mark Driscoll is a sad product of our times. While waving his orthodox doctrinal credentials, he has simultaneously embraced the spirit of the age when it comes to his treatment of sex. In the process, he is pornifying the church and only adding to the moral squalor of our culture.

A Response to Mark Driscoll :

Though calm in his defense [of using trash talk], [Mark] Driscoll insisted that Seattle's missionary need demands new, creative ways to engage the city with the gospel [sic].

"I'm not a fundamentalist. I don't think they're any fun at all," he said. "I'm a missionary. Fundamentalists avoid culture. Missionaries study it in an effort to reach people. If I were going into China to be a missionary, no one would complain. They wouldn't say, look at that, Mark's wearing Chinese clothes. He's speaking Chinese words. He's listening to Chinese music. Gosh, what is this guy? A liberal? No, he's in China.

The truth is that Seattle is as lost and pagan as China. And if we're not going to send missionaries to China, we have to send missionaries to Seattle. We need to give them the same freedom that we do missionaries in China."

[Collin Hansen, Young, Restless and Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists (Wheaton, IL, USA: Crossway, 2008), p. 146]

In conclusion, it is hoped that Driscoll should evaluate what he is doing according to the Scriptures. There is simply no warrant for deliberately sinning, even for the sake of evangelism. The famous text of 1 Cor. 9:22 cannot apply to the issue of sin, for the context focuses on following or not following various human traditions, having nothing to do with violation of the commands of God. The question he should ask himself is not, "Is what I am doing missional?", but rather "Is what I am doing sin?". If using coarse and scatological language is sin, no amount of protest of being relevant and missional can excuse it, and neither should we condone it.