Jesus needs salvation from the liberal, pansy ethos of mainstream evangelicals, and Mark Driscoll is determined to save him, Molly Worthen writes in the New York Times Magazine. The foul-mouthed Seattle pastor, who preaches in distressed jeans and unflinchingly discusses oral sex in the Bible, is a culture warrior resurrecting the fire-and-brimstone of Calvinism, “a theology that makes Pat Robertson seem warm and fuzzy.”
Churches have transformed Jesus, Driscoll says, into “a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ that would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.” But Driscoll tells worshipers some of them are going to hell, following Calvinism’s conviction of preordained human life. Conservatives lambaste Driscoll, but one initial skeptical says he went to Driscoll’s church, and soon, “I believed Mark.”
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