Hey Church! Stand Up To Mark Driscoll! (This Means You, Hillsong).

I’m fairly new to the whole world of Evangelical Christianity. Truth is, I’m a Jersey girl gone Jesus freak, and I have a B.C. life. My life before Christ never really considered the power of mega pastors to wreak absolute havoc in the lives of the people they shepherd. I always thought they just made great fodder for television soundbites.

But after a few years of being enmeshed in the stuff of church, I’ve come to learn a few things. So much of what the church is doing is good, and so many of the people are wonderful. But church can be a place that fosters the abuse of power, and no church seems to represent that better these days than Mars Hill and their lead pastor, Mark Driscoll.

A simple Google search will tell you all you need to know, but for the sake of convenience, I’ll link to a few articles. I first heard about Mark’s latest revelations of our “pussified nation” here, at the blog of writer Rachel Held Evans. But Rachel is simply reporting a small bit of a large repertoire of material that Mark Driscoll has provided. Here’s another link, with pictures. And this is only the most recent controversy — I’ll leave it to you to read about the way he manipulated his book onto the New York Times best seller list, about how he’s taken a leave of absence from social media over a massive, ill-handled leadership turnover at his church, or how there’s a protest being staged at Mars Hill this weekend by another “legion” — no, not the “legion” of effeminate men Driscoll refers to in his eloquent writing, but rather the many, many people that he has devastated with what can only be called his psychopathology.

But this post isn’t so much about Mark Driscoll. This post is about the church.

This post is a really, really big question mark, from a sheep to the collective shepherd, to ask: Where the hell are you?

This is the thing that bothers me the most about the “religion” of my faith — why do we tolerate hatred? Why do we show more “love” for the bigot than for the victim? Where are the masses of good and worthy pastors standing up to Mark Driscoll, his misogyny and bigotry, his obvious abuse of power, and saying, Hey there, mister. Knock. it. off.

Instead of accountability, bright and shiny churches like Hillsong give him an international platform at their conference. This is nothing short of disgusting.

It’s all about “acting in love”, I’m guessing. But we’re so busy loving the hateful that we’re missing the masses of people languishing at his feet, the abused and hurting. Here’s a conversation I had last night on Twitter, in response to Rachel Held Evans’ post, with someone espousing the fact that in order to love Mark Driscoll, we apparently shouldn’t call attention to his behavior as a person in leadership:

@JerryHillyerII @rachelheldevans just because he got better at hiding it doesn’t mean there isn’t a point to be addressed.

— She*s ELEVATED (@sheselevated) July 30, 2014

@JerryHillyerII what exactly would constitute a loving response to this behavior? Letting it go unchecked?

— She*s ELEVATED (@sheselevated) July 30, 2014

And this is the pervasive attitude that allows the abuse of power to continue — leaders go unchecked, leaving a swath of hurt and injured people in their path, tarnishing the reputation of our faith (as if we need more of THAT) to the world at large, and institutionalizing and affirming misogyny and bigotry by giving it a platform.

Here is what’s so disturbing: [ctt tweet=”Some Christians use love as an excuse for bad behavior, yet refuse love to people who have been hurt by those behaving badly. #markdriscoll” coverup=”wT94a”]

Sometimes love takes the form of courage, of being the lone voice in the wilderness calling out the wolf hiding in the pelt of a sheep. Sometimes love takes the form of standing up to Godless behavior. There is such a thing as righteous anger — and whether Mark Driscoll believes it or not, Jesus elevated women to a status unheard of in his day. It’s time that the church catches up with Jesus — and Jesus would have had no problem teaching Mark Driscoll a thing or two about Biblical leadership.

This is an official call to the church — stand up for those you shepherd!

Consider the many people — male and female — who have been hurt in the name of some false Jesus-machismo over at Mars Hill. Take responsibility. Stand up to the bully — don’t give him a platform. Don’t stroke his over-inflated God complex. Love includes standing firm.

A very special request to Hillsong — as the beacon on this international hill that you position yourself to be — TAKE A STAND. Despise misogyny. Refuse this abuse of power.