I wanted to title this post, "Driscoll is selling War again" as a sort of part two or companion post to my
"Driscoll is selling Sex again" post. But it just wasn't as explosive sounding as, "Driscoll is Delusional."
Because Driscoll works so hard to be so explosive, controversial, and cutting edge, I went for the more bombastic title in honor of the bombastic and attention-seeking drama queen who is the subject of this post.
First off, I guess selling sex didn't work out for Driscoll as well as he had hoped. Book sales for his "Real Romance" book must not be anywhere near what his old "Peasant Princess" series was back in the good old days of Mars Hill. If they were, then perhaps Driscoll wouldn't be so quick to try to sell war. He might not have jumped into trying to be a god of war, declaring himself to be Elijah, and saying he's a weapon if his "Real Romance" had done better in book sales. And his Real Romance book might have done better if Driscoll actually knew what 'real' meant. (No Driscoll, your thoughts and opinions are not real while everyone who disagrees with you is fake. You are not the standard for reality. You are so delusional that it is getting comical. Yes, I said it. You are becoming a big joke.)
How I wish that Driscoll could have a real encounter with Elijah and find out how far out of touch he is with reality and how far out of touch with the Bible he is. He might find that he has more in common with the prophets of Baal than he'd like. He might find out that he has more in common with the controlling spirit in Jezebel than with the Holy Ghost working through Elijah.
Poor delusional man. And poor deceived, delusional people who are following him off the rails of the crazy train.
Maybe he'll make a few bucks selling his shtick. Maybe not.
5 comments:
Real Marriage was the bestseller (with help from ResultSource and being the required text for the same-named sermon series at Mars Hill). Since Real Romance probably can't be more then a gently re:worked and re:visited form of the same material some of the lower sales (if lower sales there be) may simply have to do with the problem that there's a couple of editions of Real Marriage out there already and they're bound to be cheaper, by now, then Real Romance.
Driscoll never touched the Hebrew biblical narrative literature in the past (Pentateuch is another matter), so New Days, Old Demons is an actually new thematic element for him, even if his talk about Elijah is a convenient pretext for writing a book-length variation on "Pussified Nation".
I'm not particular eager to wade into that swamp this year.
Jessica Johnson's observation in Biblical Porn was that selling war has been part of Driscoll's deal for quite some time. It may not have been so prominent in the 1996-2001 period but by 2001 it was definitely more prominent. I think that's one of the challenges of any kind of historical survey of Driscoll--I finished Richard Taruskin's posthumous book on music history and music theory and in one chapter Taruskin pointed out that bane of historians is to treat what happened as a foregone conclusion and look for causal explanations for why what happened happened, the problem being that this tends to devolve into a series of partisan just-so stories ...
but the other problem, Taruskin noted, is that because we live in the present, we can forget that at the time being explored, the future was NOT KNOWN and that there were other possibilities or real constraints we wouldn't consider. He used a fun example by way of the composer Franz Haydn. Haydn told his biographer he wished he'd written more choral music and Taruskin said it's axiomatic among music theorists to marvel at this wish because Haydn was famous for "inventing" the symphony, the string quartet, and the chamber sonata, so why would haydn have wanted to write more choral music? Taruskin pointed out the funny but obvious set of points:
1) because Haydn said so
2) because Haydn wrote baryton trios for his royal employer and
3) didn't get to compose a lot of choral music (despite his background as a choral singer because his royal patrons weren't that into choral music in much of Haydn's life but
4) once Haydn was free to write what he wanted and his patroness wanted choral music, he wrote scads and scads of masses and a few oratorios (THe Creation is wonderful, if you haven't heard that one)
Taruskin's dry, scholarly joke is that sometimes historians and music theorists can't get the explanations that are staring them in the face from the primary source himself. Why? Because Haydn became famous with music historians and theorists for what he DID do that they couldn't believe what he said he WANTED to do.
Which is a very roundabout way of saying it can be tempting for us in the present to imagine that the Mark Driscoll of 2023 must have been who he always wanted to be or thought he would be. Since Lief Moi's death and since Mars Hill collapsed nine years ago I think it's wise to remember that the Mark Driscoll of 2023 might be someone the Mark Driscoll of 2000 would've denounced as a greedy, corrupt heretic.
"Driscoll never touched the Hebrew biblical narrative literature in the past (Pentateuch is another matter), so New Days, Old Demons is an actually new thematic element for him, even if his talk about Elijah is a convenient pretext for writing a book-length variation on 'Pussified Nation'."
Interesting.
I'm trying to remember what book he was referring to when he talked about busting people's noses. Was it Nehemiah?
I wasn't there so can't speak with any authority. But it seemed to me that he is just doing with Elijah what he did with Nehemiah (or whoever that was).
Just pick some war-like OT dude and hitch your bully B.S. wagon to it and delude yourself into thinking that you are the righteous one like Nehemiah and Elijah. And the people your are mad at are the wicked ones, like the 'rebellious' elders or denominational preachers who you are targeting.
Either way, he's out to increase his following and his cashflow. Having an enemy to target can really help that. Worked for Hitler. Sorry. I know that escalated quickly. But vilifying people groups is neither Christlike nor an expression of healthy masculinity.
P.S. Want to let you know, I did make it over to that video. Good guitar playing. But my biggest take away was realizing that I don't know near as much Stevie Wonder as I should.
I should clarify that I meant the large historical/narrative books. I know he went through Nehemiah and Ruth in 2007. Ruth was ... okay but disappointing and Nehemiah was a tedious self-aggrandizing slog.
I think I'd have to agree with a verdict that the Elijah series is probably Mark casting himself as Elijah like he cast himself as Nehemiah.
Ethan Hein and I have compared notes on Stevie Wonder songs at our blogs so if you ever want to dig into Wonder's music there's two places to go (yes, I know, sales pitch of a sort).
Thanks for watching the video, too.
Liked "the Elijah series is probably Mark casting himself as Elijah like he cast himself as Nehemiah."
Also, sort of sales pitches are welcome.
Not sure how quickly I'll be able to follow those threads. Tough year. Just took my mother's ashes out west last weekend to intern her where she belongs.(West of me, southeast of you.)
I am curious, tho, how the sales of his 'real' romance book went. I am imagining that those numbers were too low for his ego. And as a result, he shifted gears so quickly from sex to violence to see if those numbers would be any better. But my imaginings are probably way off. Driscoll is deeply ensconced in his one, two punch dynamic. Sex and violence both sell well.
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