Sympathy for Mark Driscoll

As I’m no admirer of John Piper, I’m even less so inclined to appreciate his louder, more boorish little brother Mark Driscoll. Having said that, I don’t even disagree with what Driscoll said about marriage in a recent appearance on CNN’s Piers Morgan show.

I don’t watch any TV news, cable or otherwise, but surely even octogenarian Larry King at his worst wasn’t as deaf to his guests as Morgan appears to be. Get a load of this exchange, in which Morgan tries to get Driscoll to agree with him that lack of “tolerance” is really the biggest problem facing our country. (Morgan has homosexuality in view, naturally. One wonders if Morgan, a Catholic, would be as antagonistic toward Pope Benedict on the issue, were he to appear on his show.)

Driscoll, by contrast, argues passionately that broken marriages and children growing up without fathers is a much larger problem. (Even in my limited exposure to Driscoll, I know that this issue is close to his heart—and more power to him, I say.)

MORGAN: I don’t hear many pastors, at least Catholic ones or Christian ones, ranting about those guys. All they want to rant about are gay marriage in loving, monogamous relationships with a — with one other person who just want to have the same right to get married as I do as a straight guy.

DRISCOLL: Yes, for me, I hammer those guys like a pinata on Cinco de Mayo. That’s really –

MORGAN: Oh, come on.

DRISCOLL: — like a pinata on Cinco de Mayo. That’s my sweet spot, young guys who don’t get married, they take advantage of women, they sexually assault, they’re addicted to porn, they’re irresponsible. I mean, for the first time in the nation’s history, a woman is more likely to be in church, college and the workforce than a young single man.

And there’s sexual assault, sexual abuse, abortion, children born out of wedlock. Forty percent of kids go to bed without a father. I mean to me, if we’re going to talk about, you know, what’s really harming the country –

MORGAN: You see –

DRISCOLL: — that’s a big issue.

MORGAN: Well, I agree with all that. But I also think what is harming America right now, like many countries around the world, is just a fundamental lack of tolerance and respect for people who may not share your personal values. You know, I just think that pastors like you, funny enough, are in a great position to trail blaze a bit, you know, to take this great book and bring it slightly kicking and screaming into the modern era a bit.

Ask me what I think of Morgan’s assertion that the Bible ought to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era…