Mark Driscoll embodied the anger and the ability to hold people through the power of shame in the same way experienced by those who had left structured Christianity to begin with. As Mike Cosper observes, Driscoll took a particular prop, women, and beat men into silent submission through guilt and shame. He controlled them with his own nuanced law of conformity, into his vision of manhood, and used the power of shame to hold people. He scripted angry sermon rants, clips that were played all over the internet, and downloaded by the millions. And it shouldn’t go without noting that Cosper exposes how Driscoll’s entire ministry ended in an “us versus them” angry ethos. The irony: Driscoll embodied the same ministry of an angry legal preacher that had driven many of out the church to begin with, only he did it in Vans and designer jeans with a subject that struck deeply into marital relationships that were in desperate need of help.
It’s no wonder that under Mars Hill bus are “a mountain of dead bodies” who will never return to the church. If people leave a form of structured Christianity due to angry legalism, the solution will never be found in creating an updated version the same legalism even though its couched with all the aesthetics that make the new generation comfortable. The issue was Driscoll himself and the message he embodied. Read the full article by Chris Gordon.