{"id":15478,"date":"2013-05-26T13:33:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T17:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=15478"},"modified":"2013-05-26T13:33:43","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T17:33:43","slug":"why-i-dont-think-mark-driscoll-was-joking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/05\/why-i-dont-think-mark-driscoll-was-joking.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I Don’t Think Mark Driscoll Was Joking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Several weeks ago, Mark Driscoll said this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I know who made the environment and he\u2019s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When people got upset about it, he claimed it was just a joke<\/a>, adding:<\/p>\n

I am sorry that you do not have a sense of humor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thing is, I grew up in a home where this sort of thing was said regularly, and it wasn\u2019t about joking. My parents were soundly against<\/em> recycling, because they saw the earth as disposable. I was reminded of this again a couple months ago when I complained to my mom that there was only one place in my town that took glass recycling, and it was on the outskirts, and she basically laughed at me for recycling.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written quite a bit<\/a> about my own experiences<\/a> with evangelicals\u2019 views of the end times. I grew up in premillenialist circles, and we really did believe that Christ would return any day, and I grew up expecting that this world wouldn\u2019t last another hundred years, and probably wouldn\u2019t be here in fifty. This world was put here for us to use, I was taught, so we might as well use it while it\u2019s still here. We looked forward to the day when Christ would create a new heaven and a new earth.<\/p>\n

Given Mark Driscoll\u2019s reputation and the similarity between his beliefs and my parents\u2019 beliefs, I don\u2019t think he was joking. I think he was serious. I think premillenialist eschatology gives evangelicals like Driscoll and my parents an excuse to not feel bad about their carbon footprints. I think that in a world of uncertainty, it\u2019s psychologically reassuring for them to belief that what we do to the environment doesn\u2019t matter, because Jesus is coming back and will fix everything.<\/p>\n

That said, I\u2019m extremely glad that my parents\u2019 and Mark Driscoll\u2019s beliefs appear to be giving way to a new evangelical approach to climate change and pollution: \u201ccreation care.\u201d This new trend hasn\u2019t been without conflict, conflict that often takes place between younger, hipper evangelicals on the one hand<\/a> and older, set-in-their-ways culture wars evangelicals on the other. In fact, not so long ago Focus on the Family and the National Association of Evangelicals had a falling out over this very issue<\/a>. In fact, I suspect that this trend is the reason Driscoll played off his remarks as a joke rather than digging in\u2014and we should see that as a positive sign.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several weeks ago, Mark Driscoll said this: “I know who made the environment and he\u2019s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.” When people got upset about it, he claimed it was just a joke, adding: “I am sorry that you do not have a sense of humor.” The thing is, I grew up in a home where this sort of thing was said regularly, and it wasn’t about joking. My parents were soundly against recycling, because they saw the earth as disposable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-15478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics","tag-end-times"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Don't Think Mark Driscoll Was Joking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Several weeks ago, Mark Driscoll said this: "I know who made the environment and he\u2019s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV." When people got upset about it, he claimed it was just a joke, adding: "I am sorry that you do not have a sense of humor." The thing is, I grew up in a home where this sort of thing was said regularly, and it wasn't about joking. 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