Mark Driscoll, Howler Monkeys, and the Unisex Society

Though I am not a Mark Driscoll fan, having written many warnings about him long before he “fell from grace” (e.g., my 2008 book What Is the Emerging Church?) I have been puzzled at his downfall. He was an extremely popular and influential emerging church leader and the senior pastor of Mars Hill, a multi-campus megachurch in Seattle that he founded, when he resigned under pressure last year. Accusations against him include his dictatorial pastoral methodology, anger issues, crude language, pride, self-promotion, and using church funds to promote his books. Though he has publicly repented of these things, every time he gets a speaking invitation, a small group of dedicated enemies sets up a commotion on social media sites like a bunch of howler monkeys, and they have been successful so far in getting him blacklisted. But it doesn’t appear to me that any of the aforementioned points are the real reason. Dictatorial pastoral methodology, anger issues, pride, and self-promotion are not uncommon to megachurch pastors. As for crude language, the emerging church hero Bono is not only crude, he is actually foul-mouthed and lives an immoral lifestyle, but no one in this crowd is howling at him. As for talking too plainly about sex, many of the megachurches are guilty of this. Looking more closely at the accusations, I suspect that a large part of the issue might be Driscoll’s political incorrectness, particularly his attacks on the unisex society. Consider the points that the howler monkeys raised against Driscoll in their recent successful petition to have him removed from a Hillsong conference in Australia. The points include Driscoll’s “public statements against women in leadership,” his belief that we are living in a feminized nation, his warnings against “feminized men,” and “his ongoing negative attitudes toward women, gender non-conforming men and gay people” (“Petitioning Hillsong: Remove Mark Driscoll from the Hillsong Conference,” www.change.org). This is doubtless the heart of the issue. The howlers in this case are a group of feminists and homosexuals. The unisex movement, which began in earnest in the 1960s, was a major factor leading to the widespread acceptance of homosexuality today. There can be no doubt that it has resulted in the feminization of men and the masculinization of women and has affected American society at every level, including the police, the military, and the churches. When viewed in the context of the history of Western society, there is an intimate connection between the social acceptance of pants on women in the late twentieth century and the acceptance of homosexuality in the early twenty-first. Driscoll was one of the few megachurch pastors (if not the only one) who spoke plainly against unisexuality (though even he didn’t deal with the hot-button issue of unisex clothing). He railed against the sissification of men in his hometown of Seattle and tried to teach the men in his congregation how to be men. Crude language aside, Driscoll was right about the unisex issue and women in church leadership. Howler monkeys on social media sites are trying to destroy freedom of speech and are doing a good job of it. They howl at Chick-Fil-A, Duck Dynasty, Brad Pitt’s mom, anyone of influence who says things they don’t like, particularly something against homosexuality and homosexual marriage. Another group of howlers roars at any scientist courageous enough to enunciate support for any type of “intelligent design.”

(Friday Church News Notes, June 19, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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