As most of you know I am a co-administrator over at Mars Hill Refuge. We worked on creating this petition with Stephanie Drury who runs Stuff Christian Culture Likes. A lot of people have been wondering why we focused on Mark’s views on sex and not his other more abusive or damaging views.
From Stephanie on our strategy;
"I met with social justice groups over the past week after news outlets have failed to pick up any of the spiritual abuse stories coming out of Mars Hill church. It's fucked up how Driscoll has a bestselling book on godly marriage while at the same time alarming stories from behind the scenes of his church have been coming out on sites like Jesus Needs New PR and Joyful Exiles. We've emailed major papers and news sites to ask them to spotlight the testimonies of insider experiences coming out of Mars Hill, andl the only one who would pick up the story was The Stranger. Not Christianity Today, not any of the Timeses type papers - no one.
So to raise curiosity about a problem (emotional and spiritual devastation coming out of Mars Hill church) that we have seen for years in our community and now spreading nationwide as Driscoll's fame and Acts 29 church network grows, we need to spark curiosity about what is happening behind the scenes. If demand is created then news outlets will cover these devastating stories of people who were once on the inner circle of Mars Hill church. Since Driscoll is a national bestseller and getting lots of media attention we decided to petition Liberty University to rescind their invite for Driscoll to speak on their campus on April 20th. We think that would get the conservatives and fundamentalists engaged as well. Once the truth is brought to light then healing can begin, as any survivor will tell you."
Liberty university is a fundamentalist institution. We felt the best way to capture their attention on the issue was to bring their attention to some of his more vulgar quotes on sex.
Personally, I don’t care about what he has to say on sex. I care about how he views a woman’s role in sex and marriage, and it frightens me that so many women are trying to live out his message, that they are quitting school to have babies and serve their husbands because Mark told them it was the right thing to do. I am concerned about the abusive stories coming from his church and I really just want to do whatever I can to try and limit his audience when he seems so hell bent on selling the world his version of the truth.
