Don’t flay the sheep.

Guess I missed hearing about this guy…

Check out the article about this current hot-shot mega-church pastor in the New York Times.

Things I find intriguing:

• a pastor who is clearly unafraid to reach out to an alternative group
• OF COURSE a somewhat Calvinist group with Kuyperian-leanings about sphere sovereignty would attract the best tattoo artists in the city…what’s not to love about that?
• whether you agree or disagree with the whole Jesus-has-been-sissified-by-American-Protestantism thing, this guy has some great one-liners about this (except for the homophobia in some of the statements) (the comment about hair product is hilarious, I think)
• texting during the sermon? Hmmm…not sure I’m brave enough, but it could work pretty well

Things that really bug me, or even scare me:

• that this guy is claiming the neo-Calvinist mantle…hey, I’m a neo-Calvinist of sorts, but clearly disagree with him on things like women’s ordination and monolithic church leadership!
• leadership style based on advice from a martial arts guy? And, one whose first impulse is to break noses?
• why can’t someone preach in a way that transforms crappy views of women, but also pushes for women to have an equal place?
• once again, how is the solution to Jesus perhaps being feminized to take Jesus away from women in leadership roles? seems awfully contrary to what Jesus actually did

Further proof that mainstream media doesn’t get nuance in religious reporting:

• OK, to start: you could mention that it’s JC’s 500th birthday this year
• maybe the reporter could have actually looked up the term “neo-Calvinism” and checked if he’s really a neo-Calvinist, or if he’s just patching this together from what sound like Scholastic Protestant sources
• once again, Calvin linked to the Puritans
• once again, the whole Servetus thing
• and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe significant evangelical leaders do actually spend signifigant time talking about hell

This entry is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.