On page 16 of “Real Marriage”, Mark Driscoll asserts that he is world-class at truth telling.
While most of us would agree that he is an excellent orator, many of us would not agree with his claim of being world-class at truth telling.
Have we heard the truth from Mark Driscoll after each scandal over the last several months? Perhaps we should go through them so that the reader can judge whether these reflect the world-class truth telling that is claimed.
- Rampant plagiarism in several of the books Mark Driscoll has written. Plagiarism is wrong because it represents that the work is your own, when in fact it is not. It misrepresents the truth. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/02/20/mark-driscolls-citation-errors-at-a-glance/
- Using church funds to deceptively buy a position on the New York Times Bestseller list. This deed may be world-class, but of course is far from telling the truth. http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage
- Not only is what he did deceptive and hardly telling the truth, but there were three different explanations given as the scandal unfolded. The first was basically that what was done was not unusual and that in so doing more people would come to Jesus. The second spin was that it was unwise to have followed outside counsel, and then the third was that it was wrong and he is sorry. In the apology, it took seven lengthy paragraphs to get to admitting that it was wrong. http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/mark-driscoll-posts-open-letter-apology. Perhaps a world-class truth teller would rush to tell the truth, not take two attempts at avoiding the truth, and then crafting paragraphs of building up to argue that he is now moving fron having been an angry prophet to a spiritual father before he finally ekes out the fact that what he did was wrong.
- He preached for years that he was accountable to his elders. This was true before he coercively changed the bylaws in 2007. Yet after 2007 he continued to preach and say that he accountable to his elders, while at the same time reportedly tells the same elders that he does not “give a s—t” what the elders think. http://sinrepentancegraceforgiveness.blogspot.com/2014/03/bylaws-and-changes-in-accountability.html
- He cancelled the membership of all the church in 2007. Yet this self-acclaimed world-class truth teller has given several different accounts of this. He has said that it was because he raised the bar for membership http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/05/06/an-interview-with-mark-driscoll-on-the-book-that-cost-mars-hill-a-thousand-church-members-and-gave-him-an-intestinal-ulcer%E2%80%94and-whether-or-not-the-new-calvinist-coalition-will-hold-together/, he has also said that he “cleaned up the church, lost about one thousand people due to changes amidst intense criticism” (Page 16 “Real Marrige”), and others. What was the truth? Does he not know that 1000 ex-members left because he defrauded them of the church they were a member of? The so-called “replant” of Mars Hill Church (that the members had no say in) was both deceptive and defrauding.
I could go on. Needless to say, Mark Driscoll, a world-class orator, sadly does not appear to be a world-class truth teller.
Musings from under the bus. 