News Oct 1, 2014 at 1:15 pm

Internal Memo About Mars Hill's "Global Fund" Shows the Church Intended to Use Some of the Money to "Deflect Criticism" and Quietly Keep the Rest

Brendan Kiley
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Comments

1
"the human fund"
Max Solomon on October 1, 2014 at 1:20 PM Report this
2
Goddamn. Either Throckmorton has a well-placed mole inside Mars Hill, or some of the pissed-off higher-ups who've been forced out brought a LOT of documentation with them.
JenV on October 1, 2014 at 1:28 PM Report this
3
Jesus. Reading that memo literally made me sick to my stomach. How this greed and hypocrisy escapes them when there are so many examples right in their own fucking scriptures (money changers in the temple, anyone?) baffles me.
AmyC on October 1, 2014 at 1:32 PM Report this
4
Throckmorton you hero! Thanks for spotlighting what he's found.
TomJohnsonJr on October 1, 2014 at 1:32 PM Report this
5
Is there anything left to report on Driscoll and Mars Hill?

News flash: Idealogues are scammers, snake-oil salesmen. Charisma always corrupts.
fetish on October 1, 2014 at 1:47 PM Report this
6
The IRS needs to lift it's financial disclosure exception of "Churches & Religious Organizations" to help prevent exactly this sort of situation.
Dougsf on October 1, 2014 at 1:51 PM Report this
7
@ 5. You'd think not, but things keep happening and long-held suspicions keep being confirmed.
Brendan Kiley on October 1, 2014 at 1:52 PM Report this
8
I have no idea what sort of influence this stupid church has on Seattle, or why you have such an abiding interest in reporting on it, so forgive me if I find your ongoing fascination with it irritating.

Having reported that it's a snakepit run by disreputable, manipulative assholes, what more is there to add? And keep adding? And keep adding?

I believed you the first time.

Can we ignore them now? I realize the bits and bytes of Slog don't cost very much, but they're worth a whole lot more than Mars Hill appears to be.
Brooklyn Reader on October 1, 2014 at 2:00 PM Report this
9
How this greed and hypocrisy escapes them when there are so many examples right in their own fucking scriptures (money changers in the temple, anyone?) baffles me.

Meh...it doesn't escape them...it's a how-to manual. Or did you mean the people in the pews? Mega-churches are tax-free get-rich-quick schemes. Have you ever read Elmer Gantry? I highly recommend it.
AFinch on October 1, 2014 at 2:05 PM Report this
10
Hey, at least Driscoll's not working with the Mafia, laundering money, or running guns and drugs, like 700 Club maven Paul Crouch was recently revealed to be doing. Or IS he....

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/fbi-f…
Fnarf on October 1, 2014 at 2:12 PM Report this
11
Well now that Mark Driscoll is gone Mars Hill won't have any more problems of this kind at all. Because he was the only vindictive dick in the whole church. Everyone else is a kind and selfless Christian who lives only to humbly aid the sick and the poor. There's really nothing in Calivinism that supports hoarding wealth and telling the unsaved to fuck off.

It was all Driscoll. He was a one man army of corruption and graft. He never slept and he controlled every Mars Hill account. He wrote every check.

He's gone now. Nothing more to see here folks. Just some meek Christians hoping to do some good is all.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn on October 1, 2014 at 2:32 PM Report this
12
Brooklyn Reader: You'll simply have to learn to look away. As a Seattleite, I insist that The Stranger keeps airing every bit of confirmation we find re: the creepiness of Mars Hill.
David Schmader on October 1, 2014 at 3:02 PM Report this
13
brooklyn reader - mars hill is embedded in seattle, and it hasn't imploded yet. i absolutely love these stories. this place was a cancer in our community and until it's not longer a threat it is still news.
in-frequent on October 1, 2014 at 3:11 PM Report this
14
i just read the whole memo. whoa. that's pretty bad.

i kinda wanted some big scandal to bring down mark/mars. something undeniable. not something subtle that could potentially be argued away. this isn't that big scandal, but it's pretty bad. the church openly put money (and mark) first.
in-frequent on October 1, 2014 at 3:33 PM Report this
15
I am so sick of living in the shadow of Mars Hill Ballard. These articles are like water in a parched desert - keep them coming.
word3 on October 1, 2014 at 3:39 PM Report this
16
@2: Inside. He's constantly getting new documents, sometimes the same day they're sent to the elders.
Canadian Nurse on October 1, 2014 at 3:42 PM Report this
17
NOTE: This Sunday the Mars Hill downtown location is having a "celebration" and pot-luck as they have their last service there before vacating (Yeah!).

I think it might be a good chance for a protest march out front. Anyone willing to join?

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitic…
IndicaDogwalk on October 1, 2014 at 4:17 PM Report this
18
Say, isni't it well past time for Driscoll to have returned from his self-imposed "after vacation vacation" or whatever his PR machine was spinning it as? Or has he just decided to become a permanent exile in the Cayman Islands?
COMTE on October 1, 2014 at 4:22 PM Report this
19
@18 - You can bet that Driscoll has a "plan A" and a "plan B". Plan A, the most likely, is to stage a comeback and form a new flock of idiots/suckers to line his pockets once again, all in the name of Jesus. Plan B is just as you said - Run, run away with briefcases full of cash. Either way, he's pure evil and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
IndicaDogwalk on October 1, 2014 at 5:11 PM Report this
20
Dear Brooklyn Reader, The Stranger has been covering Mars Hill's rise to prominence for quite some time, going back to Erica Barnett and the early days of Slog. I believe this may have been the first feature written on the Mars Hill phenomenon, well, anywhere. Tracking the rise and fall of a retrograde evangelical religious movement which makes co-option of Seattle's casual, nontraditional, and largely agnostic, lifestyle a cornerstone of its strategy is exactly in most Slog reader's interests.
laterite on October 1, 2014 at 5:44 PM Report this
21
I was in Bellevue last Sunday and parked right near the Mars Hill in the old Good Guys shop next to Barnes and Noble near the mall.

There were people actually going into that church! Scared the living daylights out of me.
fletc3her on October 1, 2014 at 7:12 PM Report this
22
Brooklyn Reader for what its worth I'm with you idk what the big deal is with the just another "whacked out on goof balls mega church goes down in flames" plot line that Mars Hill church is. But apparently it holds the Stranger staff fascinated.

Maybe living in the Great lakes Watershed in my case and on the East coast in your case we've developed a callus over a 200 year period of watching these things pop up and die. Or in some cases not, New York / Ohio did bring Mormonism to the world after all.
Machiavelli was framed on October 1, 2014 at 7:49 PM Report this
23
Brooklyn Reader, I am with you. Mars Hill is an awful rock and roll infused spectacle and a lot of people are finally realizing that. But this constant reporting on them only fans the flames of religion bashing that seems to be a favorite past time in these parts. How about a little balance of the many churches that are doing good works of charity with practically non-existent budgets?
Moveondotorg on October 1, 2014 at 9:06 PM Report this
24
@16, let the witchhunt begin! They have to know their docs are being released from inside. Who is Deep Throat? They'll tear each other to pieces trying to find out.
Fnarf on October 1, 2014 at 9:57 PM Report this
25
I want every lurid detail of this evil church's downfall.
very bad homo on October 1, 2014 at 11:38 PM Report this
26
I love the Mars Hills reporting. I'm fascinated how surprised churchgoers are about such unsurprising developments.
DJSauvage on October 2, 2014 at 4:24 AM Report this
27
Yeah, let's just ignore the ideologues, demagogues, egomaniacs, bat-shite crazy religious fundamentalists, and general douche-nozzles in our midst, because sticking your head in the sand and pretending bad people don't exist in our world is the surest means of making them go away.
COMTE on October 2, 2014 at 9:01 AM Report this
28
@23 "How about a little balance of the many churches that are doing good works of charity with practically non-existent budgets?" Hey, that's a wonderful idea. I know several good Christian souls who I believe are not hypocrites, really good people. Moreover, having lived in Thailand for over thirty years I have actually seen two missionaries whom I believe are good men (they happen to be men) who actually live their faith. You know, this would have been a wonderful place for you to tell us about one of those churches that are doing good works of charity. At least give us the name of one.
Acharn on October 2, 2014 at 9:26 AM Report this
29
@20 Laterite, Mars Hill had been covered by national media long before that article.

Here is a piece in Mother Jones from 1998! http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998…
on October 2, 2014 at 8:57 PM Report this
30
23: Here's something you should enjoy: The Stranger's 2012 feature on Seattle's Best Christians.
David Schmader on October 3, 2014 at 9:36 AM Report this

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