Great topic suggestion by my friend Charis/Gem.
She points out a paragraph in the Mark Driscoll's apology letter to his church concerning Grace.
And this paragraph, third from the bottom, is very concerning.
Here it is: "To be clear, these are decisions I have come to with our Senior Pastor Jesus Christ. I believe this is what He is asking of me, and so I want to obey Him. The first person I discussed this with was our first, and still best, church member, Grace. Her loving agreement and wise counsel only confirmed this wonderful opportunity to reset some aspects of our life. I want to publicly thank her, as it was 26 years ago this week that we had our first date. She is the greatest friend and biggest blessing in my life after Jesus. When we recently discussed this plan to reset our life together, late at night on the couch, she started crying tears of joy. She did not know how to make our life more sustainable, and did not want to discourage me, but had been praying that God would reveal to me a way to reset our life. Her prayer was answered, and for that we are both relieved at what a sustainable, joyful, and fruitful future could be. As an anniversary present, I want to give her more of her best friend."
The most concerning sentences are bolded.
As Charis states in a comment at TWW:
"I’m distressed by Grace’s powerlessness and lack of a voice in their relationship. She dare not tell him plainly that it is not working for her lest she “discourage” him. NO ONE corrects MD!!! NO ONE!!!"
Mark Driscoll's doctrine and Bully personality is bad.
It is bad for Grace. She is a voiceless appendage to the great and powerful mark driscoll.
It is bad for his church. Look at all the cleaning up and defending they have to do for him all the time.
It is bad for women everywhere. Now lusty Driscoll fanboys all want little voiceless Graces of their own and are mad at any and all women who will not kowtow and become nothing so these boymen can think more highly of themselves than they ought to.
It is bad for the church. It makes us all look bad when Mark Driscoll is held up as relevant and a true representation of the way church ought to be.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Driscoll let it slip. He has given us a glimpse of just how under his thumb Grace really is.
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He says in there that she had "tears of joy".
I doubt that was "joy". Maybe relief? But I fear the relief will be short lived when he is directing his full attention to the homefront...
So triggering for me!
Is MD going to be preaching at her to drop to her knees and serve him sexually? Or offer up her backside as a form of birth control?
Mara, it scares me for the people who are under his influence and think this is "real marriage"...
I'm sure Grace has lots of tears that Mark, Mars Hill, and the world never see.
Of course he'll turn his need to be stimulated more fully on her.
He'll practice what he preaches, all right.
Gospel centered wife oppression and humiliation. That what he's all about.
QUOTE MD "This year we will have three of our five kids as teenagers, and our oldest will be a senior preparing for college."
^^This was the time when the whole thing unravelled for me. When my first daughter came back from (a conservative Christian) college and had a mind and a VOICE of her own. Rocked my world...
Since that time 11 years ago, I have turned from a quiet, passive, eggshell walking submissive wife into an assertive egalitarian.
I'm worried about Driscoll's kids, especially his daughters though. MY husband never advocated Blow Job evangelism from the pulpit nor sodomy for birth control. Imagine the harassment his daughters could face when the young men get hold of that stuff? I'm sure his kids are curious what is in daddy's books. Imagine other kids at school bullying his children over his pornographic sexual obsessions...
(((((((wincing and shaking head)))))))
When his kids grow up, I wonder what will be in the books they write??? I don't think the gag orders are going to work on adult children who have been wounded...
Yeah, when my kids hit teenagerville, things changed a lot. My husband wasn't able to pull the garbage he got away with when they were kids.
I can't even imagine what to expect from the children of Driscoll. I think I'm afraid to imagine it.
I put this comment under a TWW thread but it got lost because some guy is accusing us of rage porn over there. Anyway, here is the comment as it applies to Grace:
If Driscoll felt comfortable enough to tell a bunch of women he didn’t know in a service in Scotland that Jesus COMMANDS them to perform OS on their husbands, what the heck (WTH) was he telling Grace in the privacy of their own bedroom? What sort of commands from Jesus was he telling Grace about? How often was he imploring her to obey Jesus and service him in whatever capacity that he demanded? What sort of angry-young-prophet measures did he use to relay these commands? With sort of force, emotional and/or spiritual and/or physical did he use make her take these commands as seriously as he wanted her to?
It’s disgusting that few people picked up on this.
I’m glad he got caught with the plagiarism and NYT list stuff.
But I’m sorry that his misogyny of all women and mistreatment of his wife are so unimportant to the much of churchdom. People should have been all over his dysfunctional relationship with his wife like stink on poo. But then again, with such ridiculous groups like CBMW and people like Piper being held up as paragons of virtue and true biblical Christianity, what was I supposed to expect?
I agree Mara. TGC blogger Jared Wilson is incensed because he feels his writing career and prospects are personally hurt by Dricoll buying his way onto the NYT bestseller list. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/gospeldrivenchurch/2014/03/05/whats-wrong-with-buying-your-way-onto-the-bestseller-list/
But never a peep out of them about how the contents of the sermons and books create an abusive atmosphere for women and children.
Their blindness is... appalling
Jesus feels sick about this blindness and so do I:
16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,[a] I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. Rev 3
Since there are sooooo many concerned with and covering Driscoll's NYT and plagiarism sins, I'm glad you directed me to look at his wrong doctrine and attitude toward women. I'm glad that you helped direct me that way.
Please look at today's post and it's corresponding link when you get the chance.
Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well. See the link below for more info.
#apology
www.mocsbar.com
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