I've been reading Kim Paffenroth's blog dehttp://gotld.blogspot.com/ decided to steal a couple of his topics because they're awfully good.

This is a New York Times article on Mars Hill Church in Seattle and its pastor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=calvinism&st=cse&scp=1

It's not to be confused with the Mars Hill church in Michigan and its pastor Rob Bell. I'm a big fan of Rob's with his engaging style and fresh approach that builds on the themes of grace, justice, responsibility, etc.

No, Mars Hill in Seattle is focused on a brand of theology called Calvinism, created about 500 years ago by a man named John Calvin.

Calvinism has the virtue of offering simple answers to complex theological questions. I know how appealing that can be. If you've ever spent time with someone who is suffering intensely and asking questions like: "Why is God doing this to me?" or "What have I done to deserve this?" you know how strong the temptation to come up with an answer is.

I think we know deep down that answers we come up with aren't true, but they are very seductive. The honest answer, "I don't know" is harder to deal with because it leaves us feeling out of control. We have to rely on faith at that point, and false certainty is so much more comfortable than faith.

Calvin's version of false certainty is this: All human beings deserve to go to hell and suffer torments for all eternity. It doesn't matter how good or bad a person is, because everyone is equally deserving of the eternal flames. God has chosen a tiny minority, called the "elect", to be saved from hell. Human effort makes no difference because, as bad or good as you may try to be, God has already determined where you are going to spend eternity.

Calvinism has another virtue: it's faithful to the scriptures.

Actually...that's not accurate. It would be more accurate to say that Calvinism is faithful to a few of the scriptures. Which ones? Why, the scriptures that can be used to support Calvinist doctrine, of course.

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill church in Seattle has combined this simple-answer theology with modern American machismo. If you read the article you'll get a good idea of what I'm talking about. And, as you can probably guess, it's not my favorite form of church.

I got to see Driscoll a few years ago at a conference. What I saw was an angry seeming man whose message for society was, as stated in the article...

"...New members can keep their taste in music, their retro T-shirts and their intimidating facial hair, but they had better abandon their feminism, premarital sex and any “modern” interpretations of the Bible."

And his message for the church was one of disdain for...

"...a culture that he has called the domain of “chicks and some chickified dudes with limp wrists."

I'm probably being unfair here. There are good things in Calvinism, and there are probably good things in this new version. It's certainly struck a nerve to have the following it has.

I doubt I'll ever become a fan, though. I believe real faith is more about keeping true to the values of Christ: justice, compassion, mercy, etc. in hard times. It's not about easy answers; it's about faithfully struggling with complicated questions.