Mark Driscoll Has Terrible Advice for Men
Evangelical churches are feminine places, in many way hostile to men. Mars Hill Church, which puts out a lot of media, is reputed to be different: a place unabashedly for men. As a first step to learning more about them, I started following their twitter feed (hey, it’s something). So far I am not impressed.
Here’s founding pastor Mark Driscoll telling us that—no exaggeration—it is sinful not to think that your wife is the paradigm of beauty (note also his effeminate body language):
A man should certainly love his wife. But the idea that he must always think her physically perfect is a psychological and biological absurdity. But worse, even telling men that they ought to have this as an (admittedly unattainable) ideal is terrible advice.
Imagine telling a woman, “your standard for loving behaviour is your husband.” A woman who adopted this maxim would do terrible harm to her marriage. Her husband would come to feel contempt for her, because what man will respect a woman who has no standards?
Beauty is extremely important for men, and that’s why it’s also important to women to be beautiful. A man who doesn’t care about beauty (which is what treating your wife as your standard really means) is a man who announces he has no standards. This man will receive only contempt from his wife.
Here’s better advice, for Christian and non-Christian men alike: make it clear to your wife that a failure to maintain her appearance as best she can (within reason) is a betrayal, just as it would be a betrayal of your commitment to her to spend your days drinking instead of working.
Ignoring the exact content of sermon, it’s remarkable how widespread this style of preaching is. I can’t define it exactly… pablum? They all have the same feel. And the cringe-inducing attempts to be humorous. It brings me back to all those sermons spent struggling to get oxygen to my brain.
And yet this is clearly supposed to be a “challenging” sermon. “Men, here is your call! Will you rise to the challenge?? Will you be MEN??” And it still manages to be totally vapid.
I can’t get over that leg kick at 1:46. Cringe-inducing is right.