Jesus…the bully?

check out this article in the ny times magazine.

talk about making God in OUR image! mark driscoll has made Jesus into an american indie rock artist who would rather pummel his enemies than die for them. however, i do see his point since apparently we have turned Jesus into a “limp-wristed queer.” seriously?! i’ve never really thought that turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile or loving our enemies was “queer”. actually it is just the opposite. it takes a much bigger and stronger person to do what Jesus taught than to live the way driscoll teaches.

while it’s hard to say that driscoll’s method has not changed many people’s lives for the better, i can’t help but think he is giving them a different Jesus than the one who is portrayed in the Gospels. in the long-term, there is a very real danger to believing in this militant Jesus. as katie ladd so beautifully stated in response to driscoll, “declaring Jesus a ‘masculine dude’ subverts the transformative message of the Gospel.”

does anyone else see anything completely wrong with this picture? forget about my issues with calvinism, this guy has completely read Jesus into his cultural lens. talk about the pot calling the kettle black…

-dave-