At first glance, this doesn’t seem like it would lead to any controversy: Mark and Grace Driscoll are planning to speak at Liberty University. Not much conflict there, right?

Well, wrong, as Matthew Paul Turner is covering.

Driscoll is a big fan of sex, so long as it’s heterosexual married sex and the women folk remember to be responsive, submissive and don’t get any ideas above their God appointed station.

He’s a patriarch. Respect his authority and he’s fine. Reject his authority – by, for example, having differing opinions – and he’ll f’ck you up.

According to Peter Lumpkins, the trustees at Liberty University are of a different mind:

Sources say trustees took a vote, and the vote was unanimous indicating that Mark Driscoll is not welcome at Liberty University. In addition to Driscoll’s “potty mouth” approach to pulpit etiquette playing a role in their decision, his “Reformed” theology, Acts 29 Network, and the provocative hedonistic understanding of a___ s__ came up as well … Trustees were apparently flabbergasted that Driscoll was considered for an invitation in the first place.

These folks are puritans, desperately afraid that someone, somewhere is having fun, and then using old Saxon words to describe it.

But wait, now the Liberty U website is denying this claim:

On April 4, 2012, a Southern Baptist blogger, Peter Lumpkins, wrote an innacurate account of Liberty’s recent Board of Trustees meeting as it relates to the university’s invitation to Mark Driscoll to speak in Convocation. Lumpkin’s recent blog contains information that is defamatory and portrays Liberty University in a false light.

The Board of Trustees of Liberty University did not vote unanimously that Mark Driscoll is not welcome on campus, as the blog states, and, in fact, Mark Driscoll is still scheduled to speak in Convocation at Liberty University on April 20, 2012.

Meanwhile, Sophia at Mars Hill Refuge, a blog for recovering members of Mars Hill, is busy pouring kerosene on the flames:

So to raise curiosity about a problem (emotional and spiritual devastation coming out of Mars Hill church) that we have seen for years in our community and now spreading nationwide as Driscoll’s fame and Acts 29 church network grows, we need to spark curiosity about what is happening behind the scenes. If demand is created then news outlets will cover these devastating stories of people who were once on the inner circle of Mars Hill church. Since Driscoll is a national bestseller and getting lots of media attention we decided to petition Liberty University to rescind their invite for Driscoll to speak on their campus on April 20th. We think that would get the conservatives and fundamentalists engaged as well. Once the truth is brought to light then healing can begin, as any survivor will tell you.

I’m very curious to see how this plays out.