Driscoll, Marriage and Sex

Mark Driscoll's new book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship and Life Together, co-authored with his wife Grace, is rapidly contributing to reviews, comments and articles across the blogosphere. I haven't read the book (funny how many articles begin by saying that) but here are a selection of articles inspired by the book and the themes it addresses.

Methodist Morgan Guyton on Red Letter Christians confesses that he can make no sense of what he calls the "gender heirarchy" outlined in the Driscoll's book.

Rachel Held Evans summarises the book as the good, the bad and the ugly and in the process raises concerns about the assumption that evangelical pastors should be regared as competent to advise on such intimate issues as sex. :

Evangelicals expect too much of their pastors. In addition to demanding they serve as nearly flawless leaders and teachers, many of us demand that our pastors serve as professional counselors and advisors, experts on everything from politics to science to sex to health to money to marriage to relationships. 

Evans' appeal to look at the Biblical context as well as the Biblical content of the key marriage passages is also interesting.

Since David Moore of Fuller Theological Seminary states early on in his article that, "This book is an astoundingly unbelievable work of disrespect for women", there is no surprise that his review is largly critical.

Here in the UK, Christianity Magazine has released part of an interview with Mark Driscoll. The latter has subsequently described the hour-long interview as "adverserial." Driscoll has published a response to the article here.  

Researcher Ed Stetzer meanwhile notes that the topic of sex is being discussed by the world every day and asks the question of Christian leaders, How Should we Talk About Sex?  His five points are that Christians need to: 

• move beyond discomfort on the subject.   


• answer the critical questions people are asking. 


• hype does not help 


• teaching on sex, or at least the same levels of teaching on sex, is not for everyone. 


• talk more, not less, about sex

Lecturer and theologian John Armstrong expresses dispair at what he sees as the growing sensationalism of mega-churches on the subject of sex as he notes that:

Ed and Lisa Young, founders of Texas-based Fellowship Church, will spend 24 hours in bed on the church roof next week and stream themselves live on the Internet to encourage married couples to see firsthand the power of a healthy sex life as prescribed in their new book, Sexperiment.

As Armstrong says,

And some people actually wonder why young evangelical adults, who deeply love Jesus Christ, are now leaving evangelical churches in increasing numbers to go to more ancient churches.