{"id":2410,"date":"2013-10-24T09:10:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T15:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=2410"},"modified":"2013-10-24T09:12:25","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T15:12:25","slug":"why-mark-driscolls-influence-will-never-last-jonathan-merritt-nails-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2013\/10\/why-mark-driscolls-influence-will-never-last-jonathan-merritt-nails-it-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Mark Driscoll’s Influence Will Never Last: Jonathan Merritt Nails it Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Mark Driscoll is promoting his new book, in which he is calling out Christian leaders for being too confrontational and fostering too much infighting\u2026 What the what? It gets better. Driscoll\u2019s big publicity stunt to promote his book on being less confrontational, was to show up uninvited at rival-Calvinist preacher John MacArthur\u2019s \u201cStrange Fire Conference\u201d and confront him for being too exclusionary.<\/p>\n

Driscoll isn\u2019t serious. Driscoll is just trying to sell books.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Merritt wrote an interesting piece on Mark Driscoll at RNS<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s worth reading. He chronicles Driscoll\u2019s divisive past. Honestly, Mark Driscoll is one of the most divisive Christian leaders I\u2019ve ever seen. His bombastic tweets and flippant comments are well known. Personally I think the low point was his Twitter post reading, \u201cSo, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you\u2019ve ever personally witnessed.\u201d Who says something like that? You know exactly who, because you went to Jr. High\u2026 which means you learned to spot the bully.<\/p>\n

I was a pretty scrawny kid when I was growing up. I weighed 82 pounds in seventh grade (not kidding). I was an easy target, so I have a finely honed radar for this behavior. The truth is that I feel so, so sorry for Mark Driscoll. I really do. He seems miserable to me. He is in so much pain and he doesn\u2019t even know it. So, he just goes around getting his pain all over everybody else. It must be exhausting to try to keep up his brand of tough, cool, always right, always in control, everyone who disagrees with me is going to hell, confrontational narcissism.<\/p>\n

Merritt catalogs a few other Driscoll-isms:<\/p>\n

When it comes to non-Protestants, Driscoll has\u00a0joked thusly<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2013 About Jews \/ Catholics: \u201cI don\u2019t get the hats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 About a Jew: \u201cI saw a man that I will now refer to as Mr. Goldilocks because he had these sideburns that were Goldilock-esque.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 About Catholics: \u201cthere are weird rules like priests cannot get married, which has not worked out so well\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 On LDS and Muslims: \u201cThe Muslims. It got so quiet. Everybody\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, man. Can\u2019t we do the Mormons and the under britches, can\u2019t we do anything else?\u2019 No, that\u2019s too easy. We won\u2019t talk about the burkas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 On students in religious schools trying to keep the rules: \u201cAnd you know there was some little Nazi walking around checking. That kid, like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m gonna be a deacon, that\u2019s what I\u2019m gonna be.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This same Mark Driscoll who has spent years dividing Christians and insulting almost every kind of people group imaginable now wants to put the kibosh on infighting? I know exactly how to respond. I cannot take it seriously. I think he just trying to sell books.<\/p>\n

One of the most dangerous parts of this whole discussion is the fact that Driscoll, like many rock star pastors, has set up his life in such a way that he has no accountability. Merritt again:<\/p>\n

The backlash from fellow Christians was so intense that Mars Hill Church\u2019s elders sat Driscoll down to discuss the issue. [the effeminate worship pastor tweet] He later issued a statement saying the comment was \u201cflippant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Driscoll\u2019s list of divisive comments run much deeper than these isolated incidents. He has\u00a0attacked emergent Christians<\/a>, called\u00a0yoga \u201cdemonic,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0said stay-at-home dads are \u201cworse than unbelievers,<\/a>\u201d\u00a0compared nagging wives to water torture<\/a>, and offended egalitarian Christians when he argued that women shouldn\u2019t hold leadership positions in churches because they are \u201cmore gullible and easier to deceive than men<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He famously\u00a0rules Mars Hill Church with an iron fist<\/a>, preaching against \u201csinning through questioning\u201d and once\u00a0remarked<\/a>\u00a0that he wants to \u201cgo Old Testament\u201d on dissenters.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Honestly, I look at Driscoll and all I can see is a scared little boy who thrives on power and control, and who doesn\u2019t care who he hurts while he builds his tower. I can\u2019t figure out how people still follow this guy, but they do. His influence is enormous.<\/p>\n

However, I think it is inevitable that Driscoll\u2019s influence will not last, and here\u2019s why: Eventually all of the people who follow Driscoll will grow up<\/em>. When they do they will tire of being scolded and yelled at by a forty-year old with a faux hawk. When all of the twenty and thirty-somethings who thrived under his dualistic, black and white, in and out leadership finally hit mid-life they will hit eject. Honestly I think this will happen to many of the men (I say men because they don\u2019t allow women), who are leading within the neo-Reformed\/neo-Puritan cabal.<\/p>\n

Driscoll can only work within the very early immature stages of Christian discipleship, where rules, dualistic black and white thinking rule the day. Defiant about his immature behavior, Driscoll will continue to shun accountability and control people through fear and intimidation. Without the capacity for self-criticism, his glaring issues become will only become more pronounced over time. Those who follow him will see that his only mode of building community is to force community by erecting rigid boundary markers enforced through intimidation and fear. It\u2019s simply not enough for us as we grow older and begin to crave wisdom and sacrifice. Any Driscoll devotees who grow beyond that narrative of dominance, dualism, and control will see that conformity<\/em> is not the same thing as transformation.<\/em> When that happens Driscoll\u2019s influence will immediately melt.<\/p>\n

So why even bring it up? Why give it any play? Because, I think that what Mark Driscoll is doing, and what he represents, is truly dangerous, and because \u201cAll that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.\u201d I\u2019m trying to be a good person, so I\u2019m saying something. I\u2019m thankful that Merritt is as well. If you have a moment, read the last few paragraphs of his article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Driscoll is promoting his new book, in which he is calling out Christian leaders for being too confrontational and fostering too much infighting\u2026 What the what? It gets better. Driscoll\u2019s big publicity stunt to promote his book on being less confrontational, was to show up uninvited at rival-Calvinist preacher John MacArthur\u2019s \u201cStrange Fire Conference\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[798,614,613,797],"class_list":["post-2410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-john-macarthur","tag-jonathan-merrit","tag-mark-driscoll","tag-rns"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Mark Driscoll's Influence Will Never Last: Jonathan Merritt Nails it Again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Driscoll is promoting his new book, in which he is calling out Christian leaders for being too confrontational and fostering too much infighting...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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