God is allowing this to be unleashed because of America’s rebellion and the wickedness within His own church.

The “this” in the above declaration of God’s behavior is the accusation that someone has “rented several rooms at Washington’s Doubletree Hotel for their Sodomite orgy.”  It’s hard to say who posed this theological rot since no author was given.

But it does raise some interesting questions such as:

In what history is this person living that America was so godly in previous generations?  How is America rebellious now and she was not before?  Was America not in rebellion when she enslaved a race of people?  Was she not in rebellion when she committed near genocide for gold and land?  Was she not in rebellion when she persecuted people based on their religion and/or nation of origin?  The assertion that God is somehow so much more upset with us now, because the nation is tolerant of this sin as opposed to that sin is theologically retarded.  Such assertions remind me of the warning: “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Exodus 20:7).

Now, regarding “wickedness within His own church” – let me see if I have the logic correct?  God is allowing a group of homosexuals to openly flaunt there sin because of wickedness within the church?  Now “church” was not capitalized, so I am not sure if the author is thinking in terms of local churches or the Universal Church.  I have a hunch such theological distinctions are beneath our author… that, or they are not able to discern them -  but I digress.  So, we are to suppose God is allowing sinners to sin based on others sinning within his church?  Two questions: 1) for what are God’s purposes in this? 2) is this anything new?

Sure, the particular sin may be new, but that’s only real estate.

Finally, this whole declarative statement of what God is doing in Washington this week was preceded by “There’s no stopping them now” – the “them” being the homosexuals.  What a telling statement.  There is no stopping them… now?  Why because the President of the U.S.A. thinks they are not sinning?  Because Gos is allowing them to sin?  And have we ever stopped them before?  Is it our job to stop them?  Is calling their sin a “Sodomite orgy” really going to help win them to Christ – or just make “someone” feel better?

I find the thought of people lost in their sin(s) sorrowful – regardless of what sin it may be.  I find homosexuals trading the natural for the unnatural to be repugnant – whether they do it in groups or in pairs is irrelevant.  But I find the attitude of this unknown poster at Slice of Laodicea to be both.

[I am hoping this does not turn into yet another thread of comments on homosexuality - that is not the point]

In trying to be “all things to all men”, Mark Driscoll takes a drastic step to appeal to his conservative critics.

So what was it like to be in ministry prior to the internet?  Well Graham Cooke had his own ADM’s that followed him around wherever he went.  Little did he know that God was gonna use it to teach him and refine him.

(or I thank Thee that I am not as other men )

In the Cinderella fairy tale, the prince is trying to find the owner of the glass slipper in order to make her his bride. Driven by their greed for the monetary rewards to be had by such an occurence, each of Cinderella’s ugly step-sisters tries to cram her foot into the slipper to “prove” that she is the rightful owner. This, of course, doesn’t work.

In short, the shoe didn’t fit.

In the last few days, there have been two posts at major Christian blogs that have been of the “if the shoe fits” variety. Both were personally convicting for me and both were — to one extent or another — also pointed partially at the authors. Maybe not a confession, per se, but an admission that “here’s something I need to think about, and maybe you do too”. One even specifically asked for input on the issue.

Happily, there were some commenters on each post noting that they, too, were convicted (or at least had their minds churning). Unfortunately, the majority of the comments at each blog — when not running off on non sequitur rabbit trails — were so full of self-justification, it was sickening. Sometimes, it took the blatant form of “that doesn’t apply to me”. Sometimes, it was a bit more subtle, with so much word-parsing and caveat creation, the greatest defense lawyers in the world would be jealous.

In either case (blatant or subtle), the commenter was saying “that shoe doesn’t fit me”.

Why are we like this? Why are we so afraid of — gulp — God actually speaking to us? Neither post was beating its readers over the head. In fact, as I stated, both blog authors somewhat blamed themselves for the problems they discussed.

I’m not “without sin”, so I’m not “cast[ing] the first stone”. But if a writer or speaker isn’t pointing fingers (at least without pointing one back at himself), aren’t we really just being defensive with God?

Howzat workin’ for ya?

Well, I have recently become a big fan of Mark Driscoll because he preached a sermon from 1 Timothy that was timely and helped me a lot, but today I became a bigger fan of Ingrid Schlueter. Thanks to Ingrid, I now have a couple of very important links to VERY important web pages. (Sex.) Since I don’t read Mr Driscoll’s sex stuff, I would have never known about these links if not for you! Thanks! (Sex.)

On the other hand, I have to sort of chastise Mark Driscoll today. You see, I have steadfastly avoided his ’sex’ talk (sex) because, in my humble opinion, I don’t think there is a place for it in the pulpit. I know, I know. That runs against the grain of many people in my generation, but sex in the pulpit is to me like sex in the oval office: There should be more respect. That’s my opinion and I’m not trying to foist it upon anyone else. (Sex.) Like I said, the best person to ask about sex within a marriage is your spouse. As a preacher, I won’t talk about it; as a parishioner, I don’t want to hear it. But that’s me and it doesn’t have to be anyone else. I don’t preach in Seattle. (Sex.)

That said, Driscoll really let me down today with this post: Spiritual Disciplines: Chastity. Man, Mark, are you nuts? Here’s what Driscoll wrote:

Chastity is the fasting from all sexual activity for the purpose of holiness. The best example of chastity in all of Scripture is Jesus Christ, who never married and never committed any sin, including sexual sin (Hebrews 4:15). As an unmarried man, Jesus is the perfect example of appropriate male-female loving friendships that do not violate propriety or holiness in any way. The Scriptures command God’s people in numerous different verses to remain chaste in both their actions and appearances [...]

I was starting lose confidence in Driscoll, now he goes and writes something like this. I’m wondering if there will be any blog posts from certain bloggers today praising Driscoll for this post? No one even uses the word ‘chas…’…what was it again?…chas…’ oh, nevermind. (Sex.)

Attention Mark Driscoll: Boring! (Sex.)

I’ll let ‘the remnant’ have the last word:

God help you, Mr. Driscoll, and God help the so called Christian leaders who support him in it. You’re no longer going to do it in a corner, because the remnant is blowing the whistle. [My emphasis.]

Mr Driscoll, be afraid. Be very afraid. (Sex) It appears that now, God help you, you have been handed over to the satan. (Sex.)

I’m done.  I’m going home. All this talk about sex is making me anxious. 

Tags: Mark Driscoll, Sex, Slice of Laodicea

All too often in the Christian blogosphere, we’re overwhelmed with the pseudo-pious ramblings of holier-than-thou harpies and armchair quarterbacks that we forget to notice so many examples of the kingdom of God at work, both in big and small ways.

Brant Hansen, of Kamp Krusty fame, posted a link to his facebook page, which I found to be a rather touching example of followers of Christ finding creative ways in which to advance the kingdom.  From the article:

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

For those of you who aren’t from Texas, or w/o Texan friends & family (I’d make a subtle jab at Texas here, except that Zan lived there for a small bit of her life and still takes the second-largest state in the union way too seriously) – high school football is, in some ways, the end-all be-all of existence.  Which makes this story all the bit more strange.

So what was going on?

Gainesville is a maximum-security prison, 75 miles away from Grapevine, and its high school team plays every game on the road.   The coach from Grapevine arranged to have half of his school’s fans (along with cheerleaders) cheer on the other team.

It was a strange experience for boys who most people cross the street to avoid. “We can tell people are a little afraid of us when we come to the games,” says Gerald, a lineman who will wind up doing more than three years. “You can see it in their eyes. They’re lookin’ at us like we’re criminals. But these people, they were yellin’ for us! By our names!”

[...]

After the game, both teams gathered in the middle of the field to pray and that’s when Isaiah [the Gainesville QB and DCB] surprised everybody by asking to lead. “We had no idea what the kid was going to say,” remembers Coach Hogan. But Isaiah said this: “Lord, I don’t know how this happened, so I don’t know how to say thank You, but I never would’ve known there was so many people in the world that cared about us.”

Go ahead and read the whole article – with a box of tissues (in case you get something in your eye while reading).

You see, it’s little things like this which demonstrate the Kingdom of God – the heart of Christ – something far different than sniping at pastors who preach in cities in which you don’t live, in churches you don’t attend, to people you wouldn’t know from Adam.

I’ve been reading Asphalt Jesus by Eric Elnes recently, and though I cannot necessarily endorse all of it, it raises some good points.  In one chapter dealing with the issue of homosexuality, he offers the following quote by William Sloane Coffin taken from an open letter to the Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The quote is the following:

“For Christians, the problem is not how to reconcile homosexuality with scriptural passages that condemn it, but how to reconcile the rejection and punishment of homosexuals with the love of Christ.”

I was immediately challenged when I read that.  I’m interested in what others’ reactions are to it.  I was also wondering how well the quote would work if we replaced the words “homosexuality” and “homosexuals” with something like, “drug addiction” and “drug addicts”.  It seems to me that we don’t have a problem accepting the fact that we need to show the love of Christ to drug addicts a lot of the time, but for some reason the specific issue of homosexuality gets special treatment.

Mark Driscoll.

Well, that should be enough fire up this thread. Look, I think the problem is that Mark Driscoll’s church is called Mars Hill. That’s probably it. GBA. (Sex.)

What amuses me about this and this and this is the word ‘demand’ in the first link. Here’s the quote:

Because Driscoll is causing harm, I and Cathy Mickels and Deborah Dombrowski and any other women who would like to join us, are speaking out. I am demanding a response from men like Dr. Erwin Lutzer who has refused to come out against this and who will be speaking with Driscoll at an upcoming conference. You can reach Dr. Lutzer through his assistant named Lori at Moody Church. The number is [removed] or [removed]. Here is a list of speakers who will be further legitimizing instead of rebuking Mr. Driscoll. [My edits & emphasis]

Ladies, ladies, ladies. You ‘demand‘ a response? Seriously. On what grounds? (Hint, you don’t have to go to the ‘conference’.) At what point has Dr Erwin Lutzer suggested that he is accountable to you? Demand?

I’m sorry, I’m choking on the word ‘demand.’ My goodness these ADM’s like to demand. Here’s a demand of my own: I demand that Ken Silva post his picture online for everyone to see and unless he does I will continue to believe he is a fictional character. Demand! Bwwaaahhahahahaha! Demand. (Sex!)

I’m also amused by this quote:

Mark Driscoll should be shunned by decent people everywhere. There are Mormons and certainly Muslims who have more of a sense of decency and propriety in sexual matters than he does. There is a filthiness about this man that evokes a strong desire for a disinfecting bath after watching him. This is not the spirit of Christ. It is the spirit of the age.

So now, as it was pointed out by someone wiser than I: “Anyone else find it hilarious that she looks to Mormons and Muslims to show us the proper way to go, and then says that its the “spirit of the age”.” (Sex) “Shunned”? What are we now, pilgrims? Are we living in Jamestown? Demand! I demand you ladies out there start wearing really long and thick dresses again; and stay quiet at church. (Sex.)

Yes, I do. Demand? (Sex)

**ALERT** With all due respect to the sexually uninformed: If you don’t like Mark Driscoll, and you don’t like the words he uses, here is a very simple exercise for you: Turn it off. Don’t click the link. Close your ears. Turn the channel. I mean, it’s not that difficult. Seriously. It is not that difficult. No one is forcing you to pay attention to Mark Driscoll. (Sex) **END ALERT**

And, concerning the last link, the letter from ‘Derek’, I have a question: Derek, if you think Driscoll is embarrassing the name of Christ because he talks about sex, do you think the author of SOL is doing any better for the name of Christ by continually tearing apart pastors over whom she has absolutely no authority whatsoever? Seriously, ‘Derek’, from the ‘Braidwood Bible Chapel’, can you show me where in the Bible it says that the author of Slice has a right to say what she is saying about pastors whose churches she does not belong to? Can you show me where she has a theological or moral obligation to make demands of anyone?? Did you read the rest of Ephesians 4-5 where it says we are to be kind to one another and forgiving, and compassionate? And what about that crazy part where it says we are to ‘get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, and brawling, and slander, and every form of malice.’ Do the Bibles at Braidwood Bible Chapel have those verses too? (Sex.)

Oooh, oooh, ‘Derek’, don’t forget that one that says this: “…walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant sacrifice to God.” Yes, brother ‘Derek’, those verses are in there too. Do you think that the author of Slice needs another letter from you today? (Sex.)

Time to grow up kids.

PS, I happen also to think that Driscoll’s sex sermons are pathetic and embarrassing. But I do the manly thing: I don’t listen to them.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. (Just want to make sure we get picked up by a whole mess of porn sites.)

Here’s a link to a series of 5 sermons hosted by Driscoll at Mars Hill featuring Dr DA Carson. I wonder if perhaps the author of Slice should demand Dr Carson no longer speak at Mars Hill in Seattle? Maybe we should start suspecting Dr Carson too…

***Just having a little fun.****

(sort of: see: He said: Love One Another)

cf., Luke 23:22-24

Tags: demands, Humor, Mark Driscoll, preachers, Sex

We are often told by the ADM crowd that contemplative prayer, lectio divino and other practices are inherently evil and cannot be rescued because of their roots. See this piece as an example. It makes me wonder, what about Karate? Do Ken and his friends stand againt Karate? It started as with world view that is certainly anti-biblical.  I wonder if we’ll get an answer.

If you’ve read any organizational leadership books, you’ve probably heard about something called “reframing.” Reframing is a technique for change (both corporate and personal) that utilizes a new perspective. That is to say, you look at a situation from a different angle; same object, different view. It occurred to me this week that is what the Bible is about on almost every page.

God “reframes” all of life for us.  Think about it. What is stressing you out right now? What scares you right now? What is driving you crazy right now?  Have you ever wanted revenge? Have you ever felt alone?  What’s interesting to me is this is how Satan works too. Look at Satan’s interaction with Eve; he reframes the issue by asking her, “Did God really say…?”  Once again he’s counterfeiting what God has created for his own end.

This is what makes God so radical, and so relevant for our day. He’s always reframing your life.  Think about His command to love our enemies! Come on, be serious, that’s nuts! Forgive those who hurt you! Be kind to each other! Love one another; submit to one another, the list of crazy reframing goes on and on.

Now, this is where I’m going to get myself in trouble. I wonder if the reason we don’t see much change in the church today, in fact I wonder if the reason we don’t see much difference in those who claim to follow Christ and those who don’t is because we fail to allow God to reframe our life for us. When we hold onto our hurt, seeking revenge, we are willfully choosing to go our own way.  We are choosing to live life our way. I wonder if the reason most of the world has stopped listening to us is because we’ve decided to put down our Bibles and pick up our “political rights.” We’ve exchanged time on our knees in prayer for time on our feet in protest marches. We’ve exchanged trust in a God who has promised to meet all of our needs for trust in a political system. We’ve laid down our greatest identifying marker (love for one another) for theological wars. We’ve traded in faith, hope and love for name-calling, castigation and witty titles.  We’ve traded in forgiveness for grudges.
So I want to ask you, what is in your life right now that God is trying to reframe? What are you holding onto? What are you saying, “God you can have all of this, but not that!” What action/thought/belief do you want to change but can’t because you won’t let God reframe it for you.

Please understand, I could do a follow up post about the many things in my life that I struggle with, this post is not intended to make you feel guilty, or bad about yourself.  This post is meant to remind you, change can happen. God can change you. He can reframe your hurt, and bring you the change you’re desperately seeking. I know he has done it many times in my life and many times in the lives of others.  I’ll leave you with I Peter 5:7. Talk about reframing…