The View: Joy Behar Asks Mark Driscoll About Gay Sex
Pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, appeared on "The View" Wednesday to promote their new book on marriage and were immediately asked by co-host Joy Behar why they oppose homosexuals having sex.
"In the book you say it's (sex) a gift and you really think people should be having a great … a lot of fun with sex, but not everybody … but homosexuals. What have you got against them having fun?" Behar asked the Seattle couple.
"Well, we are Bible-believing Christians," Mark Driscoll, founder of Mars Hill Church, responded. "We do hold to the teaching of Scripture and that is that sex is reserved for a married couple … a heterosexual married couple. So, even when we were dating and we were sexually active we were wrong. So, we don't want to say we are better or holier than anyone, but we were wrong as well and had to make some changes."
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The Driscolls have made a string of church and media appearances since their book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together, was released earlier this year. "The View" was their latest stop.
The hosts of the morning talk show, including Barbara Walters, Whoopie Goldberg, Behar, Sherri Shephard, and Raven-Simone filling in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck, asked the Driscolls questions about the appropriate types of sex within a marriage.
Walters asked Driscoll whether masturbation and oral sex was "godly or sinful?"
"Within the context of marriage it's not necessarily sinful," Driscoll answered.
Walters also addressed the couple's problems over sex in the early part of their marriage as described in their book by asking them, "What were the problems? How did you fix them?"
"We started out with a lot of things wrong in our marriage and so we needed to discuss more honestly things from our past," Grace Driscoll answered. "I have suffered from sexual assault and various issues in my past and because we weren't aware of those in our marriage it made it very difficult to have an honest marriage."
Walters then asked, "Did you agree about sex?"
"Yes, we did when we got married," Mark Driscoll said. "I think we started as close friends and then as the work and duties of life started to come in, the friendship started to wane and I think that affects all levels of intimacy."
Toward the end of the group's interview, Goldberg appeared perplexed about the idea of abstaining from sex outside the context of marriage.
While appearing to be frowning, she said, "I just have to ask because you are talking a lot about being married; now if you are widowed and you meet somebody, you don't want to get married again, are you saying that the widow or widower should just do without because God doesn't like it?"
"I worship a guy who died and rose as a virgin, so that example would be that you can live a full great life without being sexually active," the Mars Hill pastor stated.
Goldberg, who appeared to want more of an explanation, asked "How's that work?" But then she quickly said that the show's segment was out of time. However, Walters said that the Driscolls could answer "real fast."
"We know a lot of widows actually, and single moms, and they are very happy," Grace Driscoll said. "They have a relationship with Jesus. They are very happy serving other people and they can be content. If they desire to have sexual relations again when they get married … yes, but they can be content without that."
Real Marriage, a New York Times Best Seller, takes a look at topics that Christians are often afraid to ask their pastors, and that pastors are often afraid to address. The book is divided into three sections – "Marriage," "Sex" and "The Last Day" – the last of which includes a "big homework assignment" which "turns the principles of the book into plans for your life and marriage," said Driscoll as The Christian Post previously reported.
The Driscolls expose some of their own sins in the book, and also address the roles of both men and women in marriage relationships and talk bluntly about topics relating to sexuality (such as sexual abuse, pornography and sexual activities that are permissible in a marriage relationship).
