Mark Driscoll: The gospel of misogyny

[muriel_volestrangler]

As Warren Throckmorton points out, Driscoll’s earlier acknowledgment of those posts attacking “feminists and liberals” wasn’t so much an apology as a humblebrag. In that 2006 book, as in the recent apology he shared with Christianity Today, Driscoll rues the tone and harsh language of his “William Wallace II” sock-puppetry, but never suggests that the substance of his disagreement with them was also wrong.
...
The real problem with William Wallace II wasn’t his language or his surly attitude, the real problem was his rabid, elemental misogyny.
...
Matthew Paul Turner has posted some excerpts of Driscoll’s sock-puppet posts, and in all honesty, the last time I read something like this was during my attempt to get through Elliott Rodgers’ “manifesto.”

We could get every man, real man as opposed to pussified James Dobson knock-off crying Promise Keeping homoerotic worship loving mama’s boy sensitive emasculated neutered exact male replica evangellyfish, and have a conference in a phone booth. It all began with Adam, the first of the pussified nation, who kept his mouth shut and watched everything fall headlong down the slippery slide of hell/feminism when he shut his mouth and listened to his wife who thought Satan was a good theologian when he should have lead (sic) her and exercised his delegated authority as king of the planet. As a result, he was cursed for listening to his wife and every man since has been his (sic) pussified sit quietly by and watch a nation of men be raised by bitter penis envying burned feministed single mothers who make sure that Johnny grows up to be a very nice woman who sits down to pee.

...
There are women at Mars Hill Church. There are girls at Mars Hill Church. There are girls who go to church on Sunday and hear from a man who believes that “pussies” represent everything that is wrong with the world.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2014/08/04/the-gospel-of-misogyny/

It has to be said - that makes the Catholics look like life-long feminists, in comparison. That's pure hatred. But in his book, he described it as "I sinned and cussed a lot, but God somehow drew a straight line with my crooked Philistine stick. I had a good mission, but some of my tactics were born out of anger and burnout, and I did a lot of harm and damage while attracting a lot of attention." He actually thinks there's a 'good mission' in there somewhere.

[cbayer]

1. I have never heard of this guy and I didn't really get this until I got to the excerpt.

And the excerpt is one of the most outrageous things I have read in a long time.

His lack of repentance is really alarming. At the very least, he needs to resign.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. He runs a multi-million dollar operation HQed in Seattle

Mark A. Driscoll (born October 11, 1970) is an evangelical Christian pastor and author, and current preaching pastor of Mars Hill Church, a megachurch in Seattle, Washington. In 1996, Driscoll co-founded Mars Hill Church, which as of 2014 has grown to 14,000 members in five states and fifteen locations.[1][2] He also founded The Resurgence, a theological cooperative, and co-founded several other parachurch organizations: Churches Helping Churches, the church planting Acts 29 Network,[3] and The Gospel Coalition.[4] He has written for the "Faith and Values" section of the Seattle Times,[5] OnFaith,[6] and the Fox News website.[7] Driscoll has also authored a number of popular Christian books. Described as "hip yet hard-line",[8] he is known for promoting "culturally relevant" yet theologically conservative Christianity. He favors "vintage" aesthetics and a "down to earth", yet at times "aggressive" preaching style.[9][10][11]

In 2011, Preaching magazine named Driscoll one of the 25 most influential [English-speaking] pastors of the past 25 years.[12] His influence is polarizing; he is described in a profile by Salon as being the center of a cult of personality, and using controversy to increase his visibility. The New York Times Magazine called him "one of the most admired – and reviled – figures among evangelicals nationwide."[13] Controversy has often surrounded his complementarian view of gender roles, Calvinist theology, and perceived misogyny.[13][14][15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Driscoll_%28pastor%29

He's turned up on DU quite a few times (I've never seen anyone here supporting him, I should add), eg:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021614856
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x197303
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12188363
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024768503
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x235425

[cbayer]

3. Thanks for the info.

He appears to love being outrageous and controversial. More than one article about him describes his church as a "cult of personality".

Scary, scary guy.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. I have a co-worker that's a member of that money-vacuum.

Small wonder he still can't afford to retire.

[intaglio]

4. It is not just Driscoll, Michael Pearl* is equally bad

The blog "No Longer Quivering" has the following except from his book "Created To Need A Help Meet"

[center][font size="5"]Trigger warning for survivors of abuse[/font][/center]

It was a long day’s drive. We arrived at the cottage well after dark. We had brought all the gear for fishing and crabbing, as well as the groceries for her to prepare our meals. That way we could save a lot of money and be able to stay longer in the cabin. We dug all of the gear out of the station wagon and placed it in the cabin. Deb fixed us a big supper, after which I tried to break my record. One time and I was asleep. I woke in the middle of the night and remembered that crabs sometimes run along the beach, so I work Deb and excitedly said, “Let’s go crabbing!”

/snip

A cottage on the beach, a hot wife, plenty of crabs…this was living! We made it back to the cottage where we grabbed a couple of hours of sleep before I woke up hungry and had to make love to a woman half asleep. She was willing but not very active.

Afterward she got up and fixed us a fine breakfast. Great cook. Her mother taught her well. She wanted to go back to sleep but I talked her into going out for more crabs. By mid-afternoon we had a sack full of crabs and headed back to the cottage. Wow, was I tired. I told her I would just take a little nap while she prepared supper. I don’t know how long I slept but I awoke to her screeching and jumping about with crabs crawling all over the cabin. The silly girl had left the sack open when she was trying to get the first crab in the huge boiling kettle. I sat up in bed and offered some constructive advice and she had a personality change right there in front of me, and us not yet married 48 hours. Who could have imagined a female could carry on in such a crazy manner? I tried to calm her down but she just stomped off, leaving the French fries turning black in the hot smoking oil and the crabs crawling. I yelled at her retreating form, “I don’t need to hunt crabs; I married one!” Somehow that one remark has hung around our marriage like a ticked-off ghost. It seemed appropriate at the time.

To her credit she did come back and finish cooking. After we ate I was ready for some more sex, but she just wanted to sleep. I had read in a marriage book how women always have excuses, like being sleepy, having a headache, etc. There was a great sense of satisfaction when I was so completely able to change her mind; it wasn’t that difficult. She is wired right. It made me sleepy so I dozed off again. I was just dropping off when I heard the crash. It came from the bathroom. She looked dead l\ying there all twisted up in a weird position half in half out of the shower. The curtain and the rod lay flung out on the floor around her and water was spraying everywhere. It was one scary moment – my new bride dead on our honeymoon. I quickly turned off the water and bent to cradle her in my arms. I gently shook her while examining her injured forehead, which was quickly swelling and turning blue, “What’s wrong honey? Are you sick?”

After she opened her eyes it took her a minute to focus and then her expression changed. It was a mixture of pity and anger, although her voice was like a deep sigh as she whispered, “You really don’t know do you?” Man, it sounded like she was accusing me or something! Since she was hurt I let her have her say and boy, she laid it on.

She sat up, pulling herself away from me, turning where she could look me square in the face. The gist of what she said was something along these lines: “In the last 48 hours I haven’t slept more than two hours undisturbed. My feet have 20 or more tiny holes in them because you wouldn’t let me take an extra five minutes to unpack my tennis shoes. My shoulder is sore from trying to carry thirty pounds of crabs for hours (they didn’t weight that much.) My hand is burned from trying to stuff a fighting crab into a kettle of boiling water, which seems very much like torturing the poor thing, AND, all the while you lay in a state of repose. Due to lack of sleep and sun, my eyes feel like they are full of sand. I have had little to eat. I am female, for crying out loud. I just want to sleep without you pawing on me. Besides, I have body parts I didn’t even know existed until now and they are killing me….so what is wrong with me??? I’m the weaker vessel, remember? It’s in the Bible, chapter one, verse one….or somewhere.”

Strange creatures, these females. My brother never acted like that when we traveled together holding evangelistic services. “Well, she will get adjusted.” I thought.

[hr]
* author with his wife Debi of "To Train Up a Child," the manual of child abuse for fundamentalists.

[cbayer]

5. Lol, I think this actually comes out on her side.

At least he heard what she said, which is pretty surprising as freaking dense as he is.

[Htom Sirveaux]

6. I'm not sure there's enough therapy in the universe to deal with that level of insecurity and...

that much twisted thinking. Telling men to blame their problems on women deflects from the truth that the real source of male problems is...other men! Specifically, men in the wealthiest 1% who deprive others of steady, good-paying jobs, and their advertising men who deliberately create dissatisfaction and unrealistic pictures of what a good life looks like to keep the capitalist gravy train rolling. Not to mention men like Mark Driscoll, who support vicious and unforgiving standards of "manhood" for men to feel bad for not meeting.