Snarky, I know, but I couldn’t quite help myself but give this reply to NYT bestselling author and pastor Mark Driscoll of the 14-campus, 4-state, 15,000+ weekly attendance Mars Hill Church.
Tweeting Comparative Religion, Mega-Church-Style
https://twitter.com/FrAndrewSDamick/status/215170492221493248
*zing!*
Like +too many to count!
I followed the link to his twitter page. Your reply was apparently promptly deleted. I know nothing of twitter though so I could be mistaken. All in all a good laugh.
Yes, well, even if my reply isn’t visible from his page, it’s on mine! I also made sure to do a screen capture on it, just to preserve it for my own amusement.
There’s a persecution complex joke in there, but I can’t figure out how to avoid it being deeply uncharitable.
Mark Driscoll…you mean the “pastor” who makes money off of writing books about sex and calling it Christian? Mark Driscoll…you mean the “pastor” who preaches X-rated sermons on Song of Solomon with a smirk knowing and not caring that it will offend many in his own camp? Mark Driscoll…you mean the guy (yeah, I downgraded him from “pastor”) who had (haven’t been to his “church’s” website lately) an NC-17 rating on many of his public question/answer series mostly dealing with…you got it – sex?
Yeah, that Mark Driscoll.
I’m a bit surprised…this doesn’t befit you. Comments like this don’t help.
As I’ve written elsewhere, I’m a graduate of the Prophet Elijah Institute for Ecumenical Understanding.
I believe that a “reality check” or “wake-up call” is occasionally very necessary and helpful.
Part of the human condition is that we forget, over time, that the context in which we live our day to day life is not “normative” — even if we’re a fairly normal person.
Mr. Driscoll may _think_ he has resource problems, because within the context he operates he doesn’t have enough to do all the things he wants to do, but if he would “snap out of it” and look outside his context, he might remember just how fortunate he is to have as much as he has been given and maybe think that he could be doing a lot more with what he has rather than lamenting that he doesn’t have more.
Obviously we need to be very careful that we aren’t being uncharitable or deliberately hurtful when we offer such a reality check.
But hurting someone’s feelings isn’t _always_ a bad thing.
Really? I think Fr Andew didn’t go far enough. Mark Driscoll is one of the reasons I left Christianity altogether. He made me loathe Christianity (at least his version as well as all Protestant Christianity). Thankfully, I later became Orthodox. Anyway, if people don’t put this guy in his place, it’s only going to get worse (methinks).
Its a funny comment for sure. I’m not necessarily a fan of Driscoll, but he could easily be talking about any of 10s of pastors who work for him, or the hundreds of pastors who look up to him as their spiritual guide. He also might still remember what it was like to be a small, independent pastor forced to do things on his own.
Granted – that bit about doing a lot with a little is likely because they’re on their own as a non-denominational pastor. Which is kind of a bed of your own making.
Still a good zinger.
Good for you!