Mark Driscoll Has An Easter Message for Grace City Church
The Disgraced Ex-Pastor of Mars Hill Once Characterized Women As 'Penis Homes,' Now You Can Buy His Easter E-Book for $9.99
It’s Easter weekend and Grace City Church is going big at the Chelan County Fairgrounds. According to GCC church planter and lead pastor Josh McPherson they had to move the worship service and “Jesus Fair” to the larger outdoor venue in order to accommodate the massive crowd they’re expecting.
It’s been a full-court press on the event planning and marketing front for weeks, with social media posts, internal message board updates on GCC’s website with calls for volunteers as well as email blasts encouraging all followers to come and bring their friends. McPherson even went on KPQ Radio this week, for a 10-minute “interview” that is really more of an advertisement for GCC’s Easter extravaganza, GCC’s new building and the organization in general.
In an April 15, 2022 “House News” email newsletter to followers, GCC leaders included a PDF written by Mark Driscoll, who was ousted from the Mars Hills megachurch in Seattle in 2014 “following accusations of bullying, plagiarism and misuse of church funds,” according to the Washington Post.
Church investors accused Driscoll of using church funds to buy copies of his book, “Real Marriage: The Truth about Sex, Friendship & Life Together,” to ensure it made it onto the New York Times Bestseller list. That book is still required reading for GCC members to this day, according to multiple sources here in the Wenatchee Valley.
Driscoll also characterized women as “penis homes” for men in posts written on a church message board under the nom de plume “William Wallace II.”
“While His penis is on loan you must admit that it is sort of just hanging out there very lonely as if it needed a home, sort of like a man wondering (sic) the streets looking for a house to live in,” Driscoll wrote. “Knowing that His penis would need a home, God created a woman to be your wife and when you marry her and look down you will notice that your wife is shaped differently than you and makes a very nice home.”
That story was reported by Patheos in 2014. Between the allegations of fraud, bullying and spiritual abuse as well as misogyny, Driscoll was under a lot of pressure and resigned from Mars Hill. He left that organization in free fall according to subjects interviewed by Mike Cosper on Christianity Today’s podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” and didn’t look back.
Driscoll moved to Arizona and “planted” a new church, but according to many sources his behavior has not changed and his reputation was tarnished. Many former allies on the evangelical right turned their backs on him. It was a fall from grace for a charismatic preacher once considered the up-and-coming rockstar of the “young, restless and reformed” movement.
Josh McPherson never turned his back on Driscoll though. Not only did GCC include his Easter treatise in this week’s email, McPherson is also listed as a board member on Driscoll’s “Mark Driscoll Ministries” doing business under the name “Real Faith,” according to tax records.
Even at the height of Driscoll’s plagiarism and fraud scandal surrounding “Real Marriage” and the Acts 29 board of directors removing Driscoll from that membership, McPherson was unwavering in his support and instructed his followers on how they should think and feel about the situation in a lengthy post on GCC’s website.
It’s more than 2000 words long and in it McPherson wrote that there’s hurt and pain on all sides, but “Worse, there is gloating among unbelievers and haters of Pastor Mark's ministry.”
All of it is “heartbreaking,” McPherson wrote, and then proceeded to lay out nine points of instruction for his followers on how to respond.
This is number seven:
“Don't celebrate, weep & pray. I've noticed many people gloating online about ‘the evangelical world finally being rid of the evil empire and heretical preaching of Pastor Mark Driscoll.’ That is nothing short of despicable. He is one of the most gifted, faithful gospel preachers of our generation. Many people simply don’t like Driscoll’s hard line on Jesus as the only way, hell as hot and long, gender roles of men and women, and homosexuality as sinful and wrong, and are therefore celebrating this event. Others are jealous of his ‘success’ and inwardly celebrate this apparent ‘fall.’ Still others sit back and play arm-chair prophet with the ‘I told you so’ and ‘I knew this would happen’ from the safety of their inactivity. This is not the attitude of anyone involved on either side. I know for a fact that all of the men involved in this situation, on both sides, are absolutely sick. Nobody in Acts 29 is celebrating. This is a day for mourning, weeping, repenting, and praying for reconciliation and wisdom in the days to come. Anything short of that falls quickly into the ‘ungodly response’ category,” he wrote.
According to the post, McPherson took time off from his vacation to get involved in the matter personally and go to bat for Driscoll among the Acts 29 leadership.
It’s further proof that no matter what men like Driscoll and Douglas Wilson say and do, McPherson will stand by their side and even endorse their messages.
It begs the question: When McPherson looks up to guys who characterize women as “penis homes” and teach that it’s impossible to rape your wife because that would be “like trespassing in your own garden,” is there any level of misogyny that Josh McPherson would take issue with?
It’s another question I would like to ask McPherson personally if given the chance, but it seems like Dave Bernstein is the only member of the media locally with whom McPherson will do an interview.
In the interview, as well as the marketing materials for the event, McPherson and GCC make sure to repeat that “everyone is welcome” at their Easter extravaganza.
But I wonder if that’s really true. It’s a claim just begging to be put to the test.
Ooh...a wee road trip to the fairgrounds? Be careful...likely to be plenty of weapons there abouts...wonder if a certain lea is providing covert security...