A Southern Baptist pastor in Missouri wants LifeWay Christian Bookstores to stop selling books by popular Calvinist preacher Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Jim Wilson, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Seneca, Missouri, introduced a motion at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) last month to remove Mark Driscoll's books from LifeWay Christian Stores because of his "reputation for abusive and ungodly language and...promotions of sex toys on his church website." SBC president Johnny Hunt ruled that the motion was "not in order." Pastor Wilson says he also was unable to convince Southeastern Seminary President Danny Akin no longer to invite Driscoll and members of his Acts 29 church-planting network to speak at the school. Driscoll has drawn criticism from some fellow evangelicals for his frank talk from the pulpit about sex, including his sermon series on Song of Solomon titled "The Peasant Princess." Well-known Calvinist preacher John MacArthur wrote a four-part critique of Driscoll's series titled "The Rape of Solomon's Song," in which he argued Driscoll's interpretation of Solomon's Song "is a molestation of the book, tearing off its God-designed veil, publicly defying its purity, and holding it up for leering and laughter." Dick Bott, founder of the Bott Radio Network, recently ordered his stations not to carry any programs featuring interviews with Driscoll. In May, Bott stopped an airing of the program "Family Life" in the middle of the broadcast after learning that host Dennis Rainey was interviewing Driscoll. Pastor Wilson believes his motion regarding Driscoll was shot down by SBC president Johnny Hunt because Hunt wanted to "skirt a controversial issue" and did not want to offend Southeastern president Danny Akin. "We've had leaders like Adrian Rogers through the years, who's gone now, and heaven knows we need him more than we ever have," Wilson says. "And I don't want to see our convention go the way of Mark Driscoll and others. I'd rather go the way that Adrian Rogers and some of these leaders of the past have been leading us." Driscoll and Mars Hill Church did not respond to a request for an interview.
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