Mark Driscoll boasts in his book The Radical Reformission (TRR) that, “I want to unabashedly play plank and speck with the numerous Christians who consider alcohol consumption unfit for God’s people and a measure of one’s lack of piety” (145) Um, there’s no mention of wanting to play plank and speck with those of us who call him out for sharing the platform with Word Faith mogul and Oneness Pentecostal heretic T.D. Jakes.

In my post Mark Driscoll: Emergent No More?! I linked to the ad MARS HILL’S CINCO DE SERVICE. Well, lo and behold now the beer has come up missing. Originally the blurb read:

Viva La Fiesta! This party is going to be be fabulous! From the team that brought you the Red Hot Bash, this over-the-top party is not to be missed. Decor! Taquitos! Chimichangas! Cervesas! Mariachis! and Mas! (emphasis mine)

You can still see it by scrolling down to the bottom of this link. But now the ad has been changed without explanation and the word cervesas (Spanish: beer) has mysteriously vanished:

Viva La Fiesta! This party is going to be be fabulous! From the team that brought you the Red Hot Bash, this over-the-top party is not to be missed. Decor! Taquitos! Chimichangas! Mariachis! and Mas!

Interesting; some have lambasted me for drawing attention to beer being part of this particular church “celebration” (see–TRR, 150) and plenty of profane Emergent howls from Hell erupted at me in defense of Tony Jones when I pointed out he said, “the Bible is an f***king scary book.” A plethora of Emergent arguments have thus proceeded for their right to swear and to be able to imbibe beer.

And suddenly Mars Hill–no, not THAT Rob Bell one silly, the OTHER Mars Hill–home church to the daring Driscoll pulls the word cervesas from their ad. How about that; now the church of the loquacious man lovingly known as “the cussing pastor” is giving the appearance of being concerned about how they are being perceived concerning their upcoming beer party.

Well, maybe Mark “I am not Emergent” (echoes of Richard Nixon) Driscoll will get the leadership together to go over chapter 6 of TRR, “the sin of light beer,” where Driscoll does the Church an incredible service by informing us:

My Bible study convicted me of my sin of abstinence from alcohol. So in repentance I drank a hard cider over lunch with our youth pastor. Since that time, further studies of church history have led me to discover that a number of God’s people down through the years have greatly enjoyed alcohol… (146).

By the way, one assumes the reference to sin above is an emerging lame attempt to be clever. And then later Driscoll anticipates a question from his readers:

“Why does all of this matter?” It matters because alcohol is a very real example of the pitfalls of syncretism and sectarianism. Prohibition began as a syncretistic liberalism that took away alcohol and the Christian freedom to drink. This happened because churches aligned themselves with a non-Christian feminism that attempted to eliminate the pub as a gathering place for men to do theology, politics, and business. This syncretism undermined the clear teachings of Scripture in an effort to fabricate a theology that supported its cultural form of morality.

Over time the prohibitionist mindset became so entrenched in evangelical and fundamentalist thinking that it is now a sectarian belief intended to keep God’s people out of the pubs, clubs, and dinner parties where sinners gather to make friendships and memories–the very places where Jesus was often found… Confusion about the gospel is truly at the root of this issue. (151)

Ok, then why would Mars Hill now feel the need to remove the reference to beer? It couldn’t be that the ol’ cusser Mark is trying to straddle a fence…or could it?