"unchurched part of the country" makes me want to slap that man. But you know, in a Christian / Turn the Other Cheek kind of way...

'unchurched part of the country' sounds to me like paradise.

Don't worry...he'll be back or replaced by someone even worse. And looking at the bios of the other associate pastors we've got some really freaking crazy right-wingers waiting in the wings to take over for Mark.

The basic job of a PR consultant is turd-polishing; even under ideal circumstances, the goal is still to make something or someone look better than they are. It doesn't matter whether Mr. Driscoll is sincere in his repentance, so long as he is SEEN to be sincere by the people who matter most, namely, church leaders, his peers, and of course the congregation - particularly the congregation, because that's where the bulk of the money comes from.

@1: I'm proudly unchurched.

You should read Slacktivist to see exactly how Franklin Graham has distorted and destroyed his father's message and ministry. This is not good news for Mars Hill or Seattle. DeMoss and Graham are evil men intent on rebuilding Falwell's Moral Majority.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist…

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist…

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist…

For "an unchurched part of the country" there sure are a lot of Mormons. I guess they don't qualify for DeMoss' special brand of special branding.

DeMoss appears to be the son of Arthur S. DeMoss, whose foundation brought us the Year of the Bible and various other mouthy fundy claptrap.

That he's on hand to tell Marky Mark to STFU and lay low would indeed confirm that Fundy Central doesn't want to lose this particular share of the megachurch bizness.

Nothing in his speech surprised me, other than how short of a time his sabbatical will be. I expected he'd be hidden away until at least Christmas. Next up - strong arming internal dissenters and removing those that aren't going to toe the party line. Or maybe a magazine cover of Mark wielding a bible and only wearing an American flag.

In those 17 minutes, does he mention where the money went?

In a way, I feel sorry for Driscoll; he's an extreme self-hating closet-case, and it's driven him insane. How else could one explain the misogyny, the gay-shaming, and the downright bizarre, cartoonish, "macho" behavior and philosophy. No man with any real confidence would bully others the way that he does. It must be hell to be him on the inside.

@ 3,

Associate Pastors/Future Youth Pastor Watch bachelors.

If you think Mars Hill is a hate filled house of bigots (and it is) then just wait until Driscoll steps down (and he will) and the cult gets taken over by even more extreme right-wingers. The are some evil people waiting in the wings who are just dying to get a hold of the reigns of Mars Hill.

It's too bad we have this terrible cult in our midst. It needs to be brought down and collapse entirely.

And "unchurched"? FUCK YOU MARK DRISCOLL. FUCK YOU.

Just another religious charlatan. Religion is a mental illness. This is more proof.

So Little Paulie Constant still has a crush on Mark Driscoll? Little fella is like a 12 year old girl obsessing on the boy who ignores her. It would be cute if he were a 12 year old girl, but as it is, it's just weird.

And @15? If you looked up the word 'evil' before you used it your confusion might be cleared up. Things like Danny Boy the Savage attacking anything decent and good, corrupting kids and young 'adults' and warring on marriage and family? Now that's evil. A church that may have gotten far too large and lost its way? Sad, and one hopes they find a way back to ministering to an unchurched community like Seattle with or without Mark Driscoll, but not evil.

@17:

If Paul's "crush" on Driscoll, is such a cause of concern to you, then what exactly are we to make on YOUR demonstrable obsession with Paul AND Dan? Fantasizing about a three-way, are you?

Didn't he just come back from vacation?

@17, funny how Dan is "warring on marriage and family" by marrying and raising a family. It's you who are attacking families, not him. Because you are a cartoon.

Original Andrew @ 12, my thoughts exactly! Driscoll reminds me so much of his fellow bizarro evangelical preacher Ted Haggard--who also hid behind a trophy wife & five kids.

Haggard of course was outed as gay by his hired male escort of three years, who also supplied him with crystal meth, after the escort was appalled when he heard Haggard railing against homosexuality in one of his sermons.

It's been said so many times, but is worth repeating: No straight man who is secure in his own sexuality has a need to obsess about "THE GAYS". I won't be a bit surprised when young men Driscoll has "counseled" start coming forward. Who knows, maybe some of them have been paid off already with skimmed church funds...

For those who are skeptical about the Driscoll closet-case theory, we can find countless examples of evangelical wierdos & conservative politicians who have railed just-a-little-bit-too-loudly against the Homosexual Menace (and who are often misogynist as well), only to be inevitably outed themselves ...remember "Professor" George Rekers, who, after shamelessly making a career of "curing" homosexuality in young boys, was caught with his hired young man from Rent Boy (you can't make this stuff up!) ...and Larry Craig (just google "wide stance"), the Republican U.S. Senator from Idaho, who consistently voted against gay rights, then was arrested in Minneapolis for soliciting sex in an airport restroom ...subsequently the Idaho Statesman published many more reports from young men who had been propositioned by Craig, who remains in denial to this day.

So many more: Paul Crouch, Mark Foley, David Dreier, Edward Schrock, Bob Allen, Glenn Murphy Jr, Jonathan Merritt, John Barrasso.... the list goes on, and on... and sociopathic Mark Driscoll certainly fits the mold.

@23

Well, first no condition of 'homophobia' exists. It's just a loaded term people afflicted by unnatural sexual desires and their apologists use to short circuit discussion. It doesn't mean anything but " I don't LIKE you!". So there's that.

And apart from that there's no point in engaging in "interviews" with hostile bigots who hate you for your Christian faith, so any rational churchgoer will politely deny such a request.

It doesn't mean anything but "I don't LIKE you!".

Homophobia (noun)
- irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals.

-homophobic (adj)-

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar…

@26: I'll go ahead and add dictionaries to the list of experts/reference organizations that Seattleblues thinks he knows better than.

IKR?

Swaggart did it better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWkVa-_s…

@15 Actually, since Mars Hill is a personality cult founded on the personality of Mark Driscoll, when he goes away the group will most likely splinter. There will be several offshoots that essentially reflect the existing cliques that form in any large group. Otherwise, most of these folks will either return to the churches they used to frequent, or go back to chasing the next fad. Mars Hill will become an empty shell.
It is extremely rare for a Joe Smith type to be immediately replaced with a Brigham Young type.

@24: Don't forget Redmond's own Rev. Dr. Bob Moorehead, whose unfortunate men's room incident likely opened the stall doors for Driscoll's updated, snarlier he-man gay-hatin' mega-thumpiness.