Evangelicals Are Standing Up to Their Own Sexist Leaders

[cbayer]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/08/06/protest_against_mark_driscoll_mars_hill_church_pastor_gets_called_out_by.html

By Amanda Marcotte


Pastor Mark Driscoll as a guest on The View in 2012.
Photo by Donna Svennevik/ABC via Getty Images

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Seattle's Mars Hill Church has gained national notoriety for his sex-obsessed, hypermasculinized take on Christianity that mostly serves to justify the desires of men who believe they are entitled to completely submissive wives. Good news: Some evangelical Christians are speaking out against him. Dozens of evangelicals camped out in front of Mars Hill on Sunday, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in order to call Driscoll out for his ugly behavior and particularly his views on women, saying he's gone too far and needs to "acknowledge his sins and repent":

“Mark Driscoll has sort of become the face of Christianity in Seattle. It’s insane, some of it,” said Bruce Hanson, who goes to church elsewhere. Kay Willette chimed in, adding, “Mark Driscoll is the Rush Limbaugh of Christianity, a bombastic big-mouth.”

Two members of Mars Hill’s Board of Advisers and Accountability have resigned in the past week as criticisms of Driscoll escalate. The latest incident drawing alarm is the revelation that Driscoll has been using a pseudonym to post on message boards, where he laments that "We live in a pussified nation" and that it's full of "sensitive emasculated men." Former members of the church that were protesting Driscoll told the Post-Intelligencer that they disapprove of how the pastor portrays women as "accessories in marriage" who exist just "to please their husbands."

The protests are just the latest in a series of high-profile stories involving Driscoll, including accusations of plagiarism that were reported on by Ruth Graham in Slate last year. But they are also the latest in a series of high-profile instances of evangelical Christians standing up against members of their own church.

Take, for instance, the evangelical group GRACE, a group founded by Billy Graham's grandson Boz Tchividjian for the purpose of investigating how Christian institutions handle allegations of sexual abuse and how they support (or don’t) alleged victims. GRACE even investigated Bob Jones University, at the university's request, though they were fired after their investigation proved aggressive (and then hired back again after a bout of bad publicity).

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[Htom Sirveaux]

1. That's a great comparison

The appearance of those message board rants in the public's awareness is like Limbaugh's Sandra Fluke tirades. Just too outrageous not to spark blowback.