Christian Right Mega-Church Minister Faces Mega-Mutiny for Abusive Behavior

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/christian-right-mega-church-minister-faces-mega-mutiny-abusive-behavior

Calvinist super-star Mark Driscoll is the iconic figure at the heart of a church empire that spans five states and fifteen locations. Founder of the Mars Hill franchise, Driscoll boasts a flock of 14,000 members plus hundreds of thousands of listeners and readers via web and print media, including, until last month, 466,000 followers on Twitter alone.

While fans and critics heatedly debate whether Mar’s Hill is a church or a cult, there can be little doubt that the brand relies heavily on a cult of personality. Every Sunday Driscoll appears on stage not only in person at his primary location but on life-sized screens at others. He opens at times with a rock band that one secular detractor confessed was “the best indie music I’ve heard all year” and that Driscoll himself has said will “melt your face off.”

Driscoll has a knack for getting attention and, in particular, for using controversy to spin up his visibility. During the second Obama inauguration, he tweeted, “Praying 4 our president who today will place his hands on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.”

Though Driscoll rarely dabbles directly in politics—his followers know implicitly where he stands—his comments about queers and, in particular, women have been a source of ire for many. When Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals was caught with meth and a male prostitute, Driscoll pointed the finger at Haggard’s wife: “It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness.” Outrage on the part of feminists merely stoked Driscoll’s fire.

[shenmue]

1. What an idiot

You've always got to wonder about angry, mean people.

[hobbit709]

2. Another would be Nehemia Scudder

[Spacemom]

4. +1 n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

3. A lot of religious people are becoming Calvinists, it seems.

My parents have become Calvinists, and they drive me nuts. It's sad to see the twisted shit people will talk themselves into believing. What would we see if we put one of them on a couch? The people who need the meds the worst are the ones who refuse to take them, it seems to me.

[MrScorpio]

5. This man has a sex scandal somewhere in his future nt

[Eleanors38]

11. Farm animals should star clear.

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. Posted to for later entertainment. eom.

[Moostache]

7. Every single person who gives money to this criminal should be indicted as a co-conspirator.

The time to kid-glove these people has passed. Its no longer a question of just religious freedom when these pastors take hardline stances on political issues and insert themselves into the discussion on a routine basis, they need to be stripped of their tax-free status and treated as a common political activist at that moment. Then, when they are found guilty of money laundering, extortion and the other lists of offenses these Emmy-award winners have done, at that point we go after the source of their money and stop people for believing its a good idea to fund this kind of organized hatred.

If you want to believe it, thats just fine with me. If you want to stay out of politics and preach your message of hate, that too is just fine by me....but once you cross the line from spiritual and private into public and policy based, then you forfeit the right to function outside of the laws and taxation system of the nation.

[Hip_Flask]

10. I would love to see your plan for implementation on that...

[bullwinkle428]

8. I never get tired of hearing about pricks like this experiencing great falls!

K&R.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. Every time I see one of those assholes wearing his expensive suit

and proclaiming his hate speech from the pulpit, I think of a monkey in a tuxedo, holding out a cup for money. I just can't help it.

[KittyWampus]

12. Googled an image of this charlatan >>> every one is a smug, arrogant face.

I seldom have such a visceral reaction to an image of someone's face.