Consider IT pure joy…

If you haven't heard of Mark Driscoll before, he's an interesting guy who will provoke your thinking. The NY times have just written an article about him and the church in which he ministers in Seattle. You may be a bit shocked by the first paragraph, but remember that he isn't the first person to have provoked some shock among the religious establishment. Remember that this article is written by the secular press who usually have a strong anti-Christian agenda. Here'a a paragraph to whet your appetite:

 God called Driscoll to preach to men — particularly young men — to save
them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and
driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like
boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
What bothers Driscoll — and the growing number of evangelical pastors
who agree with him — is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St.
Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really
grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict
a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his
patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written,
has transformed Jesus into “a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,” a
“neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . .
would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.”