The pastoral Andrea links to some discussion of Mark Driscoll’s vile comments on the Ted Haggard affair, which I will not dignify by quoting or linking to.
Pastor Madrid-Swetman seems to take Driscoll to task as much for the tone of his writing as the content. Now I am not the most moderate of writers on subjects I feel strongly about; I sometimes feel justified in using harsh and indeed vulgar language to make clear my emotional as well as intellectual stance on an issue. So while I appreciate Pastor Madrid-Swetman’s feelings on the issue, especially in light of the conflict in the Seattle churches, and indeed I’m wholly in her camp on the issue of gender equality, I submit that “verbal violence”, and indeed physical violence, are not automatically beyond the pale in Christian life and discourse.
After all, as I point out time and time again, our Lord was no mealy-mouth:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make that convert twice as much a child of hell as you are.”
…
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”
– Matthew 23
And He did on occasion even blow up and start beating on people:
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. – John 2
So while I despise Mark Driscoll’s views, I don’t think it’s right to focus on his tone. He obviously believes that he is right, so for us to condemn his tone because we think he’s wrong is counter-productive — what if we needed to use harsh language in a cause we believed was right? So don’t criticize Driscoll’s use of language, criticize his stone-age gender insecurity.
And if Mark Driscoll, the self-described “street fighter” (I believe I shall refer to him from now on as “that pathetic wanker who wants to keep the icky girls out of the clubhouse”) wants to call me “limp-wristed” or “chickified” for upholding gender equality, he may feel free prove it to me on my body with his choice of weapons at a time and place of his convenience. I’ve got 300 pounds and ten years of martial arts experience that may serve to teach him a thing or two about respect for fellow children of God.