Driscoll’s Porn

We looked at porn on Tuesday.

No, not the photos. I mean as a class we discussed the prevalence of porn in a society that adheres to the First Amendment. Every time we thought we’d arrived at a consensus among us as to what ought to be allowable and what shouldn’t be, we discovered someone who disagreed. Or maybe a lot of someones.

We discussed this excellent article in The New Yorker, He’s Just Not that Into You. And we watched this troubling interview between Ted Bundy and James Dobson.

Some students came forward with pretty revealing stories about their own personal boundaries, but the discussion wasn’t confessional-based, it was all part of wrestling with how does a society built upon the freedoms of the First Amendments then make a path forward for the betterment of a society as a whole.

Fortunately for my students I had not yet seen this review of Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll’s book on marriage. Here’s a snippet of the review by Lori Fox:

The advice contained in Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll and Grace Driscoll is mainly sound, but fairly vague. At least, until you get to the chapter entitled: Can We______? which can get fairly graphic in describing what kind of sex is and isn’t allowed in marriage. The idea is to present the method of determining whether or not a particular sex act is allowed in marriage by questioning whether it is lawful biblically and by the laws of the land, if it is helpful, or if it is enslaving. The couple is to discuss these three things together before deciding whether or not a specific act is a good fit for them sexually, and to only proceed if it is both lawful and helpful and not enslaving, and only if both partners agree to it. This section is mainly written by Mark Driscoll, and discusses oral sex, anal sex, and role playing, among others. The section on masturbation seems to be particularly long.

To be fair, I know Driscoll isn’t the only pastor who seems to possess a prurient preaching style. Mega-church pastor Ed Young and his wife have been rollicking on the rooftops in an effort to get God back in the bedroom. Pastors like Mark Driscoll and Ed Young are media whores in the way that Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian are. As we did discuss in class, there is always going to be certain unsavory segment of a free society who will always exploit those freedoms for their own advantage and pocketbook and not for the betterment of society as a whole.

I’m pretty sure this wasn’t what George Mason and James Madison and others had in mind when they came up with the idea of the First Amendments, but they hadn’t planned on a society ruled by greed and corruption either. I think that’s exactly what they were trying to escape.

Personally, I don’t give a rat’s tail what kind of sex toys Mark Driscoll and Grace employ. I don’t care if they do it doggie style or stick to the missionary position.

I just wish to God that pastors everywhere would keep to their own bedrooms and out of ours.

Pastors like Driscoll should quit hiding behind their spiritual positions and their pulpits as they promulgate porn to the Body and proudly proclaim that they are just preaching and teaching.