Spoiler Alert: Mark Driscoll is losing.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have a TV \u2013 but after a bit of googling and searching around, I haven\u2019t found much about Pastor Mark outside of the Internet. It seems now that every week, Mark Driscoll is apologizing. There was his open letter apology that went viral on reddit<\/span><\/a><\/span>, there was a nuanced sort of apology in a sermon, the recent video in which was his most straight forward\u00a0apology.<\/p>\n Oh and then there\u2019s the plagiarizing debacle<\/span><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0the William Wallace II trolling\u00a0apology<\/a>, and then\u00a0Driscoll blames Haggard\u2019s affair with a male escort not on the former pastor\u2019s homosexuality<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> As if this were not enough, there are seemingly dozens of stories of abuse online: Bizzare reports of patriarchal abuse and exorcism, traumatizing reports from fellow employees, and long time friends of his re-sigining<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n People are pissed. People are dismayed. Most of all, I think people are hurt. Now it seems like these very people are calling for his resignation, well \u2013 at least Matthew Paul Turner is<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I haven\u2019t really talked about Mark Driscoll at length, here. Mainly because 1) I don\u2019t know him, 2) I don\u2019t feel right using him as a means to drive traffic [this is not<\/strong><\/span> to say that\u00a0everyone <\/i>who mentions him is doing that], 3) It\u2019s one thing to put down an institution, it\u2019s another thing to come at an individual [i.e. Rob Bell, Neo-Calvinist\u2019s alike\u00a0went from disagreeing with his theology, to making it personal by calling him a heretic].<\/p>\n I want to be sensitive to Driscoll as a person<\/em> despite how much I might disagree with his theology as a leader. Having said that, I\u2019m not against calling out people or individuals, just never<\/span> at the cost of their humanity.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that I despise his theology and that I want to live to see the end of his patriarchal-misogynistic-racist institution, but again, I do not<\/strong> want to see the end of Mark Driscoll.\u00a0I 100% agree with Jonathan Merrit, we must accept Driscoll\u2019s apology<\/span><\/a><\/span>, though this does not mean we permit his abuses [Which Merrit, also says in his article<\/a>].<\/p>\n From a Christ-like perspective, forgiveness must\u00a0always <\/strong><\/em>be an option, no matter how deplorable one\u2019s action might be.\u00a0Be against any institution, but we must always\u00a0love\u00a0<\/em>our enemies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As tough as it can be to admit, I have no qualm\u2019s with Driscoll, but I have a problem with what Driscoll symbolizes, preaches, represents, and therefore perpetuates. This being an abusive institution responsible for the wounding of generations, and quite literally, millions of lives.<\/p>\n For a majority of us, the\u00a0question should not be, \u201cDoes Mark Driscoll deserve all that is happening to him?\u201d but rather, \u201cHow much longer should we\u00a0be victimized by this theology, and subjected to oppressive teachings\u00a0and institutions such as his?\u201d The problem is not<\/strong><\/em> Mark Driscoll, the problem is a cultivated and continued authoritarianistic-culture found within evangelicalism[1]. It\u2019s a malignant tumor that needs to be removed as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Sometimes, as reality has it, in order to build up, we need to take out. Right now, the information age has allowed the beginnings of this \u201ctaking out\u201d\u00a0to happen.<\/p>\n The worst part of this, is that it seems<\/em><\/span> like Driscoll, and his various other counterparts do not even realize or fully understand why their\u00a0not liked, or what exactly they\u2019ve\u00a0done wrong, kind of like the pastors who email me and berate me<\/a>. Driscoll is claiming that his \u201cangry young prophet days\u201d are over, and that he is taking up the role of a pastor, but I greatly question if his days as a prophet ever truly began.\u00a0Rachel Held Evans puts it quite well saying in a recent article<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut let\u2019s be clear: There is nothing \u201cprophetic\u201d about degrading women\u2026 and using hateful slurs to talk about LGBT people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In scripture, both old and new testament, I never see a prophet continuing to push the downtrodden further down. There words of a prophet were always geared towards the powerful and privileged, yes to even God\u2019s chosen people, Israel. I\u2019m disgusted by patriarchy, misogyny, racism, and any other form of oppression,\u00a0I want to see neo-Calvinism \u00a0[which is just calvinism in\u00a0skinny jeans marketed to millennials], and fundamental conservatism go away.<\/p>\n I want people to have room enough for healing without having to daily face a re-traumatizing imposition from\u00a0the moral-right. This is including enough space for Driscoll and his current or former leadership to also grow and heal.\u00a0But at no point\u00a0should\u00a0the feelings\u00a0of the oppressor take precedence over the healing of the oppressed.\u00a0<\/strong>A bully is not being bullied when they\u2019re\u00a0being called out for their bullying, meaning a victim of bullying, cannot immediately turn around and then bully her\/his oppressor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a basic premise of activism in general that the feelings of those victimized and hurt take precedence over the feelings of those that have done the victimizing and hurting. Abusers, bullies, and harassers frequently argue that they shouldn\u2019t be punished, or publicly scorned, or suffer various other consequences, because it would hurt them\u2014hurt their feelings, their reputations, their careers. But we [Christians]\u00a0acknowledge that, even if this is true, it\u2019s not as important as ensuring that their victims are represented, and supported, and receive justice insofar as we are able.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In other words:\u00a0My concern is for the victims, not for Mark Driscoll or his institutions[3]. We\u00a0must<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>remember that victims of abuse are not<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u201cdividing the Church\u201d simply by expressing their hurt. They were pushed to the outskirts of this so-called Church, so if we want unity, then we must go to the oppressed, marginalized, and abused becoming part of their community. Is this not what Jesus did?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want Driscoll to resign, nor do I want him to cease to exist. What I\u2019d like to see is Mars Hill close their\u00a0doors<\/strong>. I don\u2019t think the church needs another reform, I think the church is in need of a revolution. Too many of us have lost our ability to trust a reformed set of\u00a0beliefs that have lead to\u00a0a\u00a0misogynistic leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The issue is not Mark Driscoll, the issue is what Mark Driscoll represents. This is as a warning shot being fired into the air notifying the reformed\u00a0that\u00a0their set status quo will not be tolerated. Robbing people of the basic human rights, inciting \u00a0institutionalized violence, discrimination because of gender\/race\/sexuality\u2026 all of this is unacceptable<\/strong><\/em>. Driscoll is the frontman, but quasi-prosperity preacher Steven Furtick, Financial \u201cguru\u201d Dave Ramsey, and numerous others are\u00a0all in<\/em> and on<\/em> the same sinking ship.<\/p>\n Having the freedom to believe what you want to believe verses imposing what you believe onto other people are two separate, and completely different things.<\/p>\n With all of this being said,\u00a0Christians\u00a0or not, the questions must be considered: What does it look like for us to love our \u201cenemies\u201d? Is it possible to love our enemies without being subjected to their abuses? How can we\u00a0love<\/em> Mark Driscoll or anyone who holds such theology that one might so adamantly disagree with and be hurt by? What does\u00a0love\u00a0<\/em>in this case look like without it becoming a cheapened grace justifying abuse\u2026?<\/p>\n [1] by \u201cevangelicalism\u201d I mean the fundamental-right, conservatism portion of Christianity.<\/p>\n [2] I think we need to also be well aware of the fact that many will take advantage of us this.<\/p>\n [3] This is\u00a0not<\/span> to say that Driscoll\u2019s humanity should be ignored.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoiler Alert: Mark Driscoll is losing. I don\u2019t have a TV \u2013 but after a bit of googling and searching around, I haven\u2019t found much about Pastor Mark outside of the Internet. It seems now that every week, Mark Driscoll is apologizing. There was his open letter apology that went viral on reddit, there was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9,19,16,69,14,21,39],"tags":[25,274,279,167,275,128,280],"class_list":["post-653140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buzzfeed","category-christian","category-church","category-culture","category-lgbtq","category-life","category-millennials","category-theology","tag-andy-gill","tag-dave-ramsey","tag-jonathan-merrit","tag-mark-driscoll","tag-matthew-paul-turner","tag-rachel-held-evans","tag-steven-furtick"],"yoast_head":"\n