Making the Facebook status update “share list” is a post by
Dr. John Piper or someone who works in his office. I’d like to consider, for just a few minutes,
what John has put out there for us to consider.
1. He starts by breaking the world into two kinds of sinners:
heterosexual and homosexual. Have you
ever seen that particularly binary choice in the Bible before? The language John (the gospel writer) uses,
and I prefer, is that God gave his son for the whole world, not two groups of
sinners identified by their sexual orientation.
The trouble, among other things, with this binary breakdown is that
these are not our only choices for human sexuality and so it begs the question –
what about everyone else? Did Jesus not
die for them? I’ll confess, that’s me
being nitpicky, I’ll try to do better on these other points.
2. Before we get to the Text, let’s note that the writer of
this post, John Piper, also believes that the clear teaching of Scripture is
that women should not preach or teach in the presence of men or practice the
ministry as a pastor or otherwise be engaged in church government in a
leadership role. While we still have to
deal with John’s argument, it is, I think, important to note what “clear
teaching of Scripture” means to Dr. Piper.
3. John’s primary point is that what makes the Supreme Court
ruling so unique is that it represents, “massive institutionalization of sin.”
Let’s see, has that ever happened in the U.S. before? Has there ever been such a massive
institutionalization of sin? Well, there
was this little era of American history whereby we enslaved a race of people
and built our cities, universities and White House on their backs. And we might reflect and recall the mass
extermination, led by the institution of the government to displace and
ultimately wipe out the indigenous people of the U.S. that we mistakenly
called, “Indians.” Watergate. Iran/Contra. We might even get
contemporary and take a closer look at the institutionalization of greed in the
recent financial collapse in the loan/housing/banking world that could not have
happened without several institutions being involved. And the list could go on and on. John’s out of touch with reality if he thinks
anything happening now is something new in regard to institutionalizing sin.
4. Dr. Piper is
using Romans 1 as most Reformed pastors and teachers would like it to be used
and those in his generation were taught to use it. Most scholars, even Reformed scholars today,
will acknowledge that the use of this passage to condemn the practice of
homosexuality is a gross misreading of the passage and contextually should
never be considered without including the point Paul is making with Romans 1
which is found in Romans 2:1, “You may think you can condemn such
people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are
wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge
others do these very same things.”
Context is king – right after Jesus.
5. John then delivers this line, which I believe he believes
but I find it, well, ironic: “The
difference is: We weep over our sins. We don’t celebrate them. We don’t
institutionalize them.” Hmmm. Most of us not in the Reformed camp would say
that the news over the last couple years has been exactly the opposite of
this. Two words: Mark Driscoll. Paul Tripp wrote, “This is without a doubt, the most abusive, coercive ministry I’ve ever
been involved with.” But Dr. Piper said,
“First, no regret. John Piper has no regret for befriending Mark Driscoll,
going to Mark Driscoll’s church and speaking at his events, or having him come
to the Desiring God conference. I do not regret that. My regret is that I was
not a more effective friend. Mark knew he had flaws. He knows he has flaws. And
I knew he had flaws. He knew that I knew he had flaws. There were flaws of
leadership attitude, flaws of unsavory language that I think is just wrong for
Christians to use, flaws of exegetical errors, say, in regard to the Song of
Solomon. I wrote a long critique of his use of the Song of Solomon. I wrote him
personally about these. But I always hoped that in those cases the relationship
with me and with others would be redemptive and helpful. He certainly gave me
more time and counsel than I deserved. I remember him sitting in my dining
room, spending a long time with me and Noel, giving us good counsel about the
last chapter of our ministry, and then going home and producing a long paper
for me and to give guidance to me and the elders. He didn’t have to do that. I
didn’t even ask him to do it. So there was a mutuality about this and I felt
loved by Mark and I wanted to love him in return. I still do hope for the best
in Mark’s life and ministry. So, no, I don’t regret it.” (http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/do-you-regret-partnering-with-mark-driscoll)
Some institutionalized sin is o.k., it just depends on who is in charge, eh? He doesn’t strike me as coming across and terribly weepy here. As a Church, even a casual reader of Church
history will conclude that we have, in fact, institutionalized our sin. So did Israel. This is a human problem from which we all
need saved (see Romans 2:1).
6. If I understand Dr. Piper’s theology, and I will confess I am almost
positive I do not, he would argue that the SCOTUS did only what God has
pre-ordained for them to do. Even those
who are living as enemies of God have already been pre-destined for this role
and they are bound to act it out with no chance of acting otherwise. Even if I’ve missed some subtle nuance of his
Calvinism, surely we can agree that it is somewhat disingenuous for a Christian
pastor with a Dr. in front of his name to be surprised that people outside of the
Church have behaved in decidedly non-Christian ways. That’s sort of, well, normal I think.
This isn’t me weighing in on the topic in general that Piper has weighed
in on. This is me, writing about that
bad thinking that smart people try to get away with on the road to telling us
what we ought to believe. It is me,
writing about the hubris that seems to be pervading the rhetoric of my
Christian brothers and sisters rather than the humility that seems more
characteristic of Jesus than we seem to be reflecting at the moment. As followers of Jesus, we have gotten this so
wrong so often that you would think we would be a little less judgmental and a
little stronger on the kindness and mindfulness.
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