Controversial pastor Mark Driscoll (founding pastor of the now defunct Mars Hill Church and founding and current pastor of The Trinity Church) addressed whether a Christian can attended a gay wedding in a recent Instagram video.
“There is only one acceptable answer for a Bible-believing, Spirit-filled Christian,” the caption read beside Driscoll’s video.
Driscoll told his followers that a Bible-believing, Jesus loving, faithful Christian should not attend a gay wedding for a family member or a friend.
The “Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together” author also listed going to a “strip club,” a “drug den,” or a “progressive, woke church” that flies a rainbow flag as things Christian shouldn’t do.
“Those are all places that are not best for God’s people,” Driscoll explained.
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“I know we love people, and if they don’t know Jesus, we want to build a relationship [with them],” Driscoll shared. But “if somebody claims to be a Christian and they’re getting into a same-sex marriage, then you for sure can’t go, because what you’re doing then [is] you’re agreeing with apostasy and false teaching.”
Driscoll believes that anyone who attends a same-sex wedding is publicly endorsing something that God is against. Driscoll further said that he wouldn’t officiate a wedding for a same-sex couple, “so why would I attend one?”
“Whether you’re up front [officiating] it, or you’re sitting in the pew, [you’re] endorsing it. The question is, if God isn’t for it, how can you be? If God isn’t excited about it, how can you pretend to be,” Driscoll asked.
Explaining that his answer applies to same-sex couples who claim to be Christian as well as those who don’t, Driscoll asked, “Does God show up” for a same-sex wedding?
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“Why would he show up for something that he’s not for,” Driscoll concluded. “If he’s not going to be there, [then] why should you?”
Driscoll has been accused of being an abusive leader during his time at The Trinity Church, as well as when he was at Mars Hill Church. His alleged abuses at Mars Hill were documented at length in Mike Cosper’s podcast series “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.”
The viral Instagram post was liked by controversial pastor Greg Locke, and it received some 200 comments.
“I can agree with this policy, unless it were one of my children,” one follower said.
“I don’t think I could damage my relationship with them to that extent,” she continued. “If that other person ends up being their life long partner, I could alienate myself from them forever. Then not only would I be heartbroken, they would too, and it would close the door on me ever being able to convert them to becoming Christians and living a life God is honored by.”
Another wrote, “If I were to stay away from sinners, I would have to be a hermit. We all fall short of the glory of God. God sees all sin as sin. One never knows what others have gone through to get where they are. I can only hope to love as God loves. I am not by far perfect but I do try to be the best I can and hope my love helps by not judging. Until you experience situations you do not know how you will feel or react.”
