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MERGE: Mark Driscoll in the news again/Mars Hill Hits Fan


Marian the Librarian

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Courtesy of komonews.com:

SEATTLE - Disillusioned former Mars Hill Church members, faced with senior pastor Mark Driscoll's claim that they "remain anonymous," have taken to Facebook to deliver on-the-record explanations of why they departed the Seattle-based megachurch.

On the Facebook page, they have invited those who left the church to make a declaration: "Dear Pastor Mark and Mars Hill: We are not anonymous."

The result is a message to Driscoll and his executive elders: Whatever it preaches about God's life, Mars Hill has created a lot of hurt.

Driscoll delivered a modified, limited mea culpa last week in a video address to Mars Hill members. He acknowledged critics among those who have left his flock, but said "a lot of the people we are dealing with in this season remain anonymous.

"And so we don't know how to reconcile, or how to work things out with, with people because we're not entirely sure who they are, and so that has, that has made things a little more complex as well."

Diana Normal Antoniello used the Facebook page to tell Driscoll who she is, and let him know why she left.

"My name is Diana Antoniello and my husband is Don," she wrote. "We are not anonymous because our son, Darren Antoniello, has been at Mars Hill since 2012. He is still fully entrenched and has become a different person because he is following false prophets and doctrines.

"He has basically excluded us from his life. His community group is now his 'family' and he is required to share the intimate details of his life with them."

Lee Brown served Mars Hill for six years, played worship in three bands, led a Bible study, and was with a group that cooked 500 hamburgers for a Golden Gardens baptism.

"But," he told Driscoll, "you've lost your way. Autumn and I sent you and others have sent you and others our resignations with no response. We couldn't get a meeting with you …"

Driscoll wrote to his flock in March, with a promise that he was going off social media for the rest of the year and scaling back his outside speaking. The Mars Hill co-founder had come to what he called an understanding that he could not be a "celebrity" pastor while tending to his congregation.

The dissenting voices in his church speak of a harsh, judgmental, dictatorial environment.

"I'm quite sure he (Driscoll) sees only what and whom he wants to see: He may have noticed the money I gave him, but never me," Margaret Bullitt of Seattle wrote on the Facebook page.

As well, added Bullitt, "The more I opened myself to pastors, my community group, to elders and to lay counselors, the more I felt injured. I felt crazier and crazier as I was judged and branded, misinterpreted and misheard, rebuked and ignored."

Sarah Eno wrote of encountering Mars Hill's concept of male authority in marital relationships. "Marriage is not about control over a possession," she wrote on the Facebook page, "and when I cried out for help Mars Hill silenced me."

Driscoll drew one passionate defender to his critics' page. Addressing Driscoll, who helped persuade him to join Mars Hill, Randall Crisman wrote:

"When I became disabled you came out and visited me at both the awful first nursing home and the better second one. Your counseling got me through some of the worst times of my life and I suspect it was what helped save my life during that time."

Mars Hill claims 14,000 members, worshiping in 15 locations in five states. Driscoll was profiled by The New York Times Magazine in 2009.

He has built the megachurch on Calvinist theology and with a male-centric view of marriage and church leadership. When the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected Episcopal presiding bishop, Driscoll responded by saying: "If Christian males do not man up, soon the Episcopalians may vote a fluffy baby bunny rabbit as their next bishop to lead God's men."

But to former members - the Facebook site was set up Wednesday - the church's authoritarianism has reached intolerable levels.

Travis Barnes, a member for six years, wrote of "abuse of authority, spiritual abuse, and a plethora of un-Biblical practices exercised by the elders."

And, in the words of Bina Ellefsen, "I am not anonymous. My husband and I voiced our deep concern for Mark and Mars Hill six years ago, and our concerns have grown each passing year. Mark never responded to our approaching him."

The disillusioned still refer to their former pastor as "Mark." They speak with pain about a church in which they had faith and to which they contributed much.

"Dear Pastor Mark and Mars Hill," wrote Sonja Schroeder, "I fully and joyously gave you my time, talent and treasure for more than eight years, and you accepted. I was not anonymous then, and saddened to hear that as an ex-member it's convenient for you to make me anonymous now."

Or as Sarah Eno ended:

"Just to be clear. We are not throwing stones, merely placing the ones you had given us while under your care at the feet of Jesus."

One ex-member, Joanna Petry, did say: "Mark and Grace (Driscoll's wife), here's hoping we can meet face to face soon and live out the gospel together in Jesus' love and peace."

But reconciliation seems a far-off prospect.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/433217200154935/

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If I could pick one person to punch in the throat it would be Mark Driscoll. He is a horrible human being.

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I read a good article the other day about this:

crosscut.com/2014/07/16/religion/121033/inside-mars-hills-big-meltdown/

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Courtesy of komonews.com:

I had breakfast with a colleague yesterday that is still attending Mars Hill. She mentioned "additional scandals" happening but would not expound.

I am wondering how many more "scandals" Driscoll and his church can weather before it collapses on itself...

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Courtesy of komonews.com:

Oh, I bet they noticed the money! Margaret Bullitt is heir to one of the biggest fortunes in Seattle. I always wondered how Mars Hill could afford to take over that building on 5th Avenue downtown.

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Oh, I bet they noticed the money! Margaret Bullitt is heir to one of the biggest fortunes in Seattle. I always wondered how Mars Hill could afford to take over that building on 5th Avenue downtown.

I wondered if Ms. Bullitt was a member of THE Bullitt family. Of course, Driscoll probably doesn't know that Jean Enersen (still of KING-TV) was married to a member of that family, too.

KING-TV has an investigative group. Maybe they could get an accounting of where the $2 million raised for "missions" went.

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FYI....Mar Hill has an app I was on the Google Play store looking for an app, and it popped up in the search results. I'm contemplating getting it (it's free), but I don't want Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill any ad revenue, since most free apps have ads.

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Many former members of Mars Hill Church have started a Facebook page. They are allowing those who are respectful to join and participate or lurk. They have also managed to unearth some postings Mark Driscoll made under an assumed name in 2000 that I'm sure he'd rather others did not see...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/433217200154935/

Woah. I read some of the posts under his alias.

NEW THEORY: Wardrobe Wanker is actually an alias of Mark Driscoll.

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Many former members of Mars Hill Church have started a Facebook page. They are allowing those who are respectful to join and participate or lurk. They have also managed to unearth some postings Mark Driscoll made under an assumed name in 2000 that I'm sure he'd rather others did not see...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/433217200154935/

Unreal. What a terrible human being he is.

Agree with one of the FB comments which said that he's the same as he was when he posted back in 2000 - he's just monetized the crazy into the MH franchise system.

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I read this the other day and followed a couple of the links. Those led to other links and let's just say that I read enough about Mark Driscoll to last a lifetime. Sadly, the spiritual abuse he is guilty of is nothing new. It's something I'm familiar with since I spent many years of my life in a controlling church that taught they were The One True Church.

I believe that when Mark Driscoll finally falls from his self-appointed pedestal, he will fall HARD.

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Woah. I read some of the posts under his alias.

NEW THEORY: Wardrobe Wanker is actually an alias of Mark Driscoll.

They do kind of sound similar, don't they?

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I looked at the Mars Hill site to see how close they had gotten to me and checked out the newbies portion. Expect a one hour sermon?! At least they announce that in advance. No way I'd even visit for snark purposes.

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Woah. I read some of the posts under his alias.

NEW THEORY: Wardrobe Wanker is actually an alias of Mark Driscoll.

I could be wrong, however, didn't Mark Driscoll publicly embarrass his wife by disclosing her sin? I know they wrote a book on marriage together where she's blamed for holding out in the bedroom, etc. This DOES sound like Cabinet Man. Not saying they're the same person. It's just that this "type" is so predictable, yes?

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In addition to the recent Mars Hill scandals (using church funds to buy best-seller status as well as taking money raised for global efforts to feed the hungry and spending it to mprove the tech at Mars Hill), Driscoll's early forum-rants come to life proving once and for all that Mars Hill is a misogynistic train wreck. Though most of us never really doubted it.

http://matthewpaulturner.com/2014/07/29 ... ed-nation/

If you click through to the full 140 pages, it is appalling. Looks like Driscoll never realized that the internet is forever. Though I kinda get the feeling that he might not even be ashamed of his ramblings.

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Ugh, I know a few "hipster christians" who go to Mars Hill. I hope every one of them is mortified by all this coming to light.

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I haven't paid much attention to the Mars Hill church saga. But now I'm curious, because my former BFF has been going to one of their churches for a few years, and just married a guy she met there. I thought something must be odd with the church when she mentioned that their weekly sermons were videos of Mark Driscoll speaking. I've always thought that as a "shepherd" of the church community, a pastor kinda should be local and actually involved with the members. Otherwise it starts to seem cult-ish when you have one guy that pastors many different churches...

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I haven't paid much attention to the Mars Hill church saga. But now I'm curious, because my former BFF has been going to one of their churches for a few years, and just married a guy she met there. I thought something must be odd with the church when she mentioned that their weekly sermons were videos of Mark Driscoll speaking. I've always thought that as a "shepherd" of the church community, a pastor kinda should be local and actually involved with the members. Otherwise it starts to seem cult-ish when you have one guy that pastors many different churches...

Oh, it's definitely cult-ish, and Mark is the king in the authority structure there. This blog post has a pretty good summary of the crazy if you want to warn your friends off: http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/driscol ... am-wallace

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Just read the Rachel Evans blog, posted above. The guy is completely nuts! How in the world does he have a church? Oh never mind....how do any of the Warren Jeff's or Bill Got hard but jobs have any followers? Although this guy is definitely overt about his meanness.

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A few words to understand Mark Driscoll's testosterone-riddled relationship to Mars Hill:

Unlimited power

Zero accountability

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I didn't past page 8 of that document. If I ever hear the word pussy except in reference to a cat, I'll scream. My fiancee read a lot of it. He dropped so many F bombs that I couldn't keep up. He also said "it cause of these men, I have to take beaten up women to the hospital.

MD and his kind are...well.... I don't think they have invented words for how awful they are. These assholes make my blood boil.

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I didn't past page 8 of that document. If I ever hear the word pussy except in reference to a cat, I'll scream. My fiancee read a lot of it. He dropped so many F bombs that I couldn't keep up. He also said "it cause of these men, I have to take beaten up women to the hospital.

MD and his kind are...well.... I don't think they have invented words for how awful they are. These assholes make my blood boil.

If I ever hear the phrase, 'manly man,' again, that will be too soon.

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I am slowly reading this a few pages at a time. I'm on page 47. What is almost more disturbing than the garbage Driscoll posted is that the general response is "this is an important discussion" and "this needed to be said" and "I know I'm not enough of a manly man so that's why it made me mad".

Basically, his twisted theology of Christianity as violent and aggressive is okay with the majority of the people responding. The arguments just seem to be about his word choice. :pink-shock:

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I am slowly reading this a few pages at a time. I'm on page 47. What is almost more disturbing than the garbage Driscoll posted is that the general response is "this is an important discussion" and "this needed to be said" and "I know I'm not enough of a manly man so that's why it made me mad".

Basically, his twisted theology of Christianity as violent and aggressive is okay with the majority of the people responding. The arguments just seem to be about his word choice. :pink-shock:

I read a few pages of this last night. I had, over the years heard a lot of anti woman rhetoric from places like "Focus on the Family" and the radio pop christianity that was on Bott Radio a few years ago. Even then, they couched the submissive wife in very suburban terms, and were not as vocal in their misogyny as this stuff. I guess I wasn't paying attention to realize how deeply anti woman Christianity is becoming, compared to when and where I practiced it.

I used to think it was only a few men older than my husband who had failed to have their consciousness raised, but now I see there is a lot of actual hatred of women. I can only gather it is because a lot of men always figured they were losers but "at least they better than women" and are angry when they are not immediately recognized as such. What a great selling point. I am amazed, however, that any woman can tolerate listening to any of it. Don't people recognize their own humanity and know inherently that the teachings are wrong?

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