Driscoll Buys His Way Onto NYT Bestseller List

[DomWackTroll]

"Seattle's Mars Hill Church paid a California-based marketing company at least $210,000 in 2011 and 2012 to ensure that Real Marriage, a book written by Mark Driscoll, the church's founding pastor, and his wife Grace, made the New York Times best-seller list... According to the terms of the contract between ResultSource and Mars Hill, 'RSI will be purchasing at least 11,000 total orders in one-week.' The contract called for the 'author' to 'provide a minimum of 6,000 names and addresses for the individual orders and at least 90 names and address [sic] for the remaining 5,000 bulk orders. Please note that it is important that the make up of the 6,000 individual orders include at least 1,000 different addresses with no more than 350 per state.' The purpose of this instruction appears to be a way to outsmart systems put in place by The New York Times and other list compilers to prevent authors from buying their way onto best-seller lists."

worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage

But will this scandalize fellow Reformers as much as the book's assertion that buttsex is totally cool with Manly Jesus, as long as the butt is on your wife and not another dude?

[Coconut Flan]

I'd heard those lists were manipulated regularly but hadn't heard how until now.

[Rainytown]

My, my, my. The best part of the above? This was all paid for by the parishioners of Driscoll's church. Not a dime of his personal money was used.

I can hardly wait to read the verbal gymnastics Driscoll will employ to explain this one away. In the meantime, this is already showing up on author and IP attorney websites. Let's just say that people who actually have to WORK (and write/sell a quality book) to get on the NYT bestseller list aren't amused at all.

It's not going away, Mark.

[SPHASH]

I bet Skanky Palin did the same thing with Going Rogue, America by Heart, and her Christmas book.

[doggie]

I bet Skanky Palin did the same thing with Going Rogue, America by Heart, and her Christmas book.

No I think there are enough stupid people that would buy her books.

[Joan of Snarc]

1. Gothard

2. Phillips

3. Driscoll

Time for this asshole to go down. You know he has as many, if not more, skeletons in his closet than the other two.

:evil:

[SPHASH]

No I think there are enough stupid people that would buy her books.

Supposedly her PAC bought a bunch of the books and gave them away.

[Megan]

If the money came from the church, I would like to know whether or not they paid any applicable sales tax on this contract or used a church exemption for taxes. I also would like to know whether the fake purchasers were churches that used church tax exemptions when purchasing

(when I was in retail, we had churches buy items and bring in forms that exempted them from sales tax. I assume they can do this with contracts and purchases in other locations. If it was done in this case, it would be quite shady at best. I am no lawyer, though)

[ThisOlGirl]

1. Gothard

2. Phillips

3. Driscoll

Time for this asshole to go down. You know he has as many, if not more, skeletons in his closet than the other two.

:evil:

...and those skeletons probably get paid by the hour. I'm patiently waiting for him to get caught with a high priced prostitute, paid for with Mars Hill money.

[ILoveJellybeans]

I hope he is next. So many fundie leaders going down :)

[louisa05]

This won't do it. Many of them will just see this as outsmarting the "liberal media" to gain exposure for his book which will "bring the gospel" to the unsaved. This kind of cheating is usually okay with them.

It is going to take a sex scandal. And a consensual affair with one adult woman won't even be enough. He'd be able to repent, cry a lot, throw some blame on the wife and get past that. Even a consensual affair with one adult male--witness Ted Haggard, a couple of my former students from fundy-lite school attend Ted's new church. It will take multiple affairs or something involving a minor a la Jack Schaap.

[lilwriter85]

This won't do it. Many of them will just see this as outsmarting the "liberal media" to gain exposure for his book which will "bring the gospel" to the unsaved. This kind of cheating is usually okay with them.

It is going to take a sex scandal. And a consensual affair with one adult woman won't even be enough. He'd be able to repent, cry a lot, throw some blame on the wife and get past that. Even a consensual affair with one adult male--witness Ted Haggard, a couple of my former students from fundy-lite school attend Ted's new church. It will take multiple affairs or something involving a minor a la Jack Schaap.

I agree this won't bring him down.

[DomWackTroll]

"Mars Hill has already edited Mark Driscoll's bio to remove description of Driscoll as a New York Times best selling author."

patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/

[BalconySmoker]

I can hardly wait to read the verbal gymnastics Driscoll will employ to explain this one away.

Don't get too excited. Mars Hill was already asked for a comment by somebody, and their answer was pretty much a shrug of the shoulders, and a "don't hate the player, hate the game" kind of response. They clearly don't give a shit.

What's more, Mars Hill attendees already knew money was going towards the book. Long before the book came out, the folks at the church were courted for a special offering specifically for money to get the book released. If I remember right, any donation above 25 dollars guaranteed the donor a preorder when the book came out. It's not like it was their regular tithing money or anything. I'm not sure if this happened at every campus, but I know it happened at at least one of them.

Obviously Mark Douchecoll and Mars Hill didn't tell them the details, but church goers did know that their money was going to to book. So I really doubt any of his supporters will care.

It's gonna take something way bigger than this to put egg on Driscoll's face. The entire Mars Hill empire is built on his smug, tradition-eschewing image. Stuff like this only makes him look like a bigger badass and rulebreaker to his faithful.

Don't worry, his day will come. He can't help himself, he loves the spotlight too much and he will screw up badly one day. In a very, very public way.

[Cleopatra7]

The WW has a post about this topic, and somebody who claims to be a member of Mars Hill left a crazy but hilarious comment (all in caps) about how great Driscoll is and how it doesn't matter if he acted unethically because everybody is doing it and Christians need to have the biggest books, movies, music, etc. Assuming that this person is serious and not a troll, this mindset shows how bankrupt American Christianity is, particularly the Calvinist strain. If Christians are going to act the same or worse than everyone else, how can conservatives claim that being Christian improves the moral fiber of the nation? I suppose this is where Calvinists would say that a member of the elect can act unethically from a human perspective if that's what God wants, but it puts Christians (and God by extension) in a very bad light. The Bible says we will know Christians by their love, not by having a book on the NYT bestseller list.

[DomWackTroll]

Don't get too excited. Mars Hill was already asked for a comment by somebody, and their answer was pretty much a shrug of the shoulders, and a "don't hate the player, hate the game" kind of response. They clearly don't give a shit.

What's more, Mars Hill attendees already knew money was going towards the book. Long before the book came out, the folks at the church were courted for a special offering specifically for money to get the book released. If I remember right, any donation above 25 dollars guaranteed the donor a preorder when the book came out. It's not like it was their regular tithing money or anything. I'm not sure if this happened at every campus, but I know it happened at at least one of them.

Obviously Mark Douchecoll and Mars Hill didn't tell them the details, but church goers did know that their money was going to to book. So I really doubt any of his supporters will care.

It's gonna take something way bigger than this to put egg on Driscoll's face. The entire Mars Hill empire is built on his smug, tradition-eschewing image. Stuff like this only makes him look like a bigger badass and rulebreaker to his faithful.

Don't worry, his day will come. He can't help himself, he loves the spotlight too much and he will screw up badly one day. In a very, very public way.

So true. He's radical, dude-- just like JC!

Over at Wartburg Watch, some poster is calling him "Fiscal." :lol: We gotta steal that one.

[BalconySmoker]

The WW has a post about this topic, and somebody who claims to be a member of Mars Hill left a crazy but hilarious comment (all in caps) about how great Driscoll is and how it doesn't matter if he acted unethically because everybody is doing it and Christians need to have the biggest books, movies, music, etc. Assuming that this person is serious and not a troll, this mindset shows how bankrupt American Christianity is, particularly the Calvinist strain. If Christians are going to act the same or worse than everyone else, how can conservatives claim that being Christian improves the moral fiber of the nation? I suppose this is where Calvinists would say that a member of the elect can act unethically from a human perspective if that's what God wants, but it puts Christians (and God by extension) in a very bad light. The Bible says we will know Christians by their love, not by having a book on the NYT bestseller list.

That comment doesn't surprise me, Mars Hill fans are like SUPER fans. They'd lick that dude's balls if they could.

On the other hand, Calvinists regularly shoot their wounded. We've seen that with Doug the tool and his kingdom, there's nothing they love more than looking theologically superior to one another. Unlike the Vision Forum kingdom though, "New" calvinists jump ship when things look sketchy with a teacher or pastor in their community, they are quick to discredit and disassociate from them. Pastors who are associated with Gospel Coalition has been critical of Driscoll for a while now, whereas they once regularly featured him on their blog and whatnot. He doesn't preside over Acts 29 anymore either.

Mars Hill is already getting pushed away by other Calvinist churches, but that doesn't matter much anymore. They've gotten so big that they don't need the support of respected Calvinist circles. I think I heard they have like 15 Mars Hill campuses now? That's gotta be thousands of people going every Sunday. They are practically their own denomination at this point. That's the scary part.

[lilwriter85]

I think Driscoll and Mars Hill's success is due in part to how he promotes himself as "cool type" pastor. There was an article last year about him and his church was described as a hipster megachurch.

[Trynn]

It might not bring him down, and the majority might not care, but I guarantee it will cause at least a few people to question, and maybe to leave.

Baby steps. Progress is often slow; we will take what we can get and try to move forward from there.

[DomWackTroll]

Mars Hill statement on website: "While not uncommon or illegal, this unwise strategy is not one we had used before or since, and not one we will use again. The true cost of this endeavor was much less than what has been reported, and to be clear, all of the books purchased through this campaign have been given away or sold through normal channels. All monies from the sale of Pastor Mark's books at Mars Hill bookstores have always gone to the church and Pastor Mark did not profit from the Real Marriage books sold either at the church or through the Result Source marketing campaign."

christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/march/did-mark-driscoll-real-marriage-earn-nyt-bestseller-status-.html

[ThisOlGirl]

"All monies from the sale of Pastor Mark's books at Mars Hill bookstores have always gone to the church and Pastor Mark did not profit from the Real Marriage books sold either at the church or through the Result Source marketing campaign."

I see. Remind me again how Pastor Mark makes his money? Oh that's right--his church pays him*.

*I understand that church finances and a pastor's salary are usually not as simple as that, but I have a hard time believing that Driscoll isn't making any money for himself off these books.

[Rebelwife]

"All monies from the sale of Pastor Mark's books at Mars Hill bookstores have always gone to the church and Pastor Mark did not profit from the Real Marriage books sold either at the church or through the Result Source marketing campaign."

I see. Remind me again how Pastor Mark makes his money? Oh that's right--his church pays him*.

*I understand that church finances and a pastor's salary are usually not as simple as that, but I have a hard time believing that Driscoll isn't making any money for himself off these books.

I agree. I have a feeling he received a nice "bonus" from the church as a token of appreciation for the good publicity his book brought them.

[Trynn]

Yeah, not buying it

[Rainytown]

The true cost of this endeavor was much less than what has been reported"

Really? REALLY? Okay, Mars Hill, let's hear how much the "true cost" was. I'm sure the IRS is pretty interested in that "true cost" as well, especially since non-profit funds were used for the enrichment of an individual that does not answer to anyone else in the hierarchy, according to Seattle's The Stranger's investigative reporting on Mars Hill.

Anyone who can add and subtract can figure out from the posted contract the price of Mark Driscoll's "New York Times bestseller" listing. It's comical that Driscoll and the church are falling back on the "everyone else is doing it" defense, too.

[Trynn]

Everyone else is doing it, huh? What if everyone else was jumping off the mackinaw bridge... Would Driscoll do that too?