Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Men Judging Women...

...from the depravity of their own minds.

Let me specify because I do not want to imply, in any way, that all men do this.
But there is one man in particular who believes that he has great spiritual insight into the sin and wickedness of women and feels called to reveal that to his congregation concerning a certain Bible hero, Esther.

Rachel Held Evans is doing a good job of revealing the mishandling of Esther by Mark Driscoll. It's so good that I can't improve upon it and I'll leave her to it here: Esther Actually:What happens in the harem

But I want to draw one thing out that she says and quote it here:

"He rejects the story as given and replaces it with a story he wishes it to be, a story that lines up with some of his assumptions regarding salvation, election, gender, sin, and relationships."

This goes along with the quote from Nick Bulbeck that I've written about here:

"Driscoll isn't a teacher, he's merely adept at using the Bible as a sock puppet that always agrees with him."

Driscoll truly believes that he is getting to the heart of this story and that his revelations are Spirit led. The problem is that what he is really doing is revealing the depravity of his own views of women.
His misogyny is so thick that he projects his prejudices against all women onto Scriptures thereby making him completely incompetent as a Bible teacher when it comes to anything having to do with women.

But the worst part about all this is not his own depraved view of women. It is the silence of other male Bible teachers who must share in this depraved view of women because they never call him on it.

6 comments:

The Goat's Opinion said...

I am constantly surprised that any women listens to Mark Driscoll. He treats the Bible like his own ball of silly putty. His preaching is an exercise in yellow journalism and as a confirmed eisegete, he wouldn't know exegesis if it bit him in the face. I enjoy your blog, by the way.

Mara Reid said...

Welcome and Thank You.

I agree. Why any woman would even listen to him is beyond me.
There should be a mass exodus of estrogen from his church and the churches of many of his cronies.

Unknown said...

Hmm... treats the Bible like his own ball of silly putty puts it rather more pithily than is adept at using the Bible as a sock-puppet that always agrees with him. Though they're saying slightly different things.

I'd go downstairs to drown my sorrows, but I need most of the red wine for the bolognese... sigh.

Mara Reid said...

However it is said, however many ways it is said, it must be continually said because there is an entire generation that mistakes Driscoll as a Bible teacher.
He is not.
He's a Bible manipulator.
But his young, lusty followers are so charmed and overtaken by all the flash and guy-glam that they wouldn't know exegesis if it bit them on the faces either.
Speaking of Red Wine, it's my 25th anniversary today and my husband and I (among several other things) stopped at a winery and got a bottle of both red and white.
Neither of those bottles will get anywhere near Driscoll's bologna and pasteurized, processed, American cheesewhiz.

Estelle said...

Congratulations on your Silver Wedding anniversary!
from Estelle
(a longtime reader and lurker)

Mara Reid said...

Thanks Estelle!