Jonathan Merritt writes,
When Christians have grown so bitter toward someone that we can’t even accept their apologies, something has gone seriously wrong. If Driscoll had ignored these comments, his critics would have excoriated him for his silence. But when he says he is sorry, they criticize him still. We must refuse to create lose-lose situations for each other where one is damned if they apologize and damned if they don’t.
When Merritt is writing the stuff I like, he is dead on… but when he is clearly in the wrong, I’m going to disagree with him.
In all seriousness, I admire Jonathan’s take and believe that over all, if the situation was different, I would support him and his call to accept Driscoll’s apology. However, I am not a parishioner in anyway of Driscoll’s. He is not my pastor, my mentor, my boss — shoot, the only time I read his garbage is when I have to read it via a secondary source. Driscoll has yet to “sin against” me in anyway. He did not insult me, berate me, or abuse my money to buy his way to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.
I know better (now) than to put myself in that situation.
To suggest I should accept his apology to colonize the hurt and harm he has caused others. This is not my hurt, this is not my harm, this is not my apology. I’m not sure I can even suggest to those he destroyed that they accept his apology because I’m not there. I’m not in their shoes. They’re the ones who have to decide for themselves.
Related articles
- A Confession, An Apology, An Explanation: Regarding Mark Driscoll (allmyroads.com)
- Mark Driscoll Addresses Crude Comments Made Trolling as ‘William Wallace II’ (christianitytoday.com)
- The gospel of misogyny (patheos.com)
