9 things about the whole Howerton/Driscoll/debacle

• To be honest, it wasn’t a stripper. He was a sword swallower and a daredevil. Taking off one’s shirt doesn’t make one a stripper.
• Just to be clear, just because something arouses Mark Driscoll doesn’t mean that it is Jezebel. It really needs to be said, because the next step is to start burning at the stakes.
• The sword swallower was the most honest thing about the whole mess. A pox on all the rest.
• In the whole of scripture, there is no command anywhere about “not saying anything negative about God’s anointed”. In fact, the opposite is true. One who declares himself to be a teacher is to be rebuked before all so that others might fear.
• Elton John once sang about “tryna find gold in a silver mine, tryna find whiskey in a bottle of wine…” as difficult as both scenarios are, they are nothing compared to trying to find one of “God’s Anointed Ones” at whatever that disgusting display was.
• A testosterone fueled, ape-chest-beating, grunting display of he-man one-upmanship isn’t Christianity. But it is the logical end result of the evangelical obsession with power, chest thumping and braggadocio.
• None of it had anything to do with Matthew 18, Christianity, virtue, ethics, Jezebel or manliness.
• To me, the biggest shame of the whole mess was that there are thousands and thousands of people who think that this is Christianity, give all of these morons a platform and allow them to thrive. I weep for what we have become.

And nine is a big one. So follow me here.

Many years ago, I was a corporate trainer, responsible for training hundreds of people. I went to many, many training conferences and saw many incredibly talented and energetic motivational speakers.

Many of us trainers went back to our companies and started using that material. It was powerful and effective.

But it wasn’t preaching.

The biggest problem with all of these people is that they masquerade as preachers of the gospel. They go to conferences, share material, take notes, learn how to get the laughs, and the amens, and the oohs and aahs. They surround themselves with people who know how to say, “MMM mmm mmm. Meaty. Meaty.”

And when people get bored, they bring out tanks, sword swallowers, guns, bigger lunatics – and even start shouting at each other. All in the name of Christ. They learned from Oral Roberts, Jack van Impe, and Chuck Norris. And they watch the money roll in.

And the thing that flows through my mind is “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

Did Christ really redeem a people for himself so that these strutting morons can play “mine is bigger”  and continue to fleece God’s people?

Seriously, wake up. Scripture continues to be fulfilled right in front of us. (This isn’t an “end times prophesy”. Christ could come tomorrow, or in another 2000 years, but the scripture is still being fulfilled:

Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 11-13)

Next time, I will speak of things that are beautiful, lovely, pure, and wise.