Op-Ed: Mark Driscoll Was Wrong About the ‘Jezebel Spirit’ And it Was GOOD To Remove Him

Pastor Mark Driscoll of the Trinity Church is being lauded and praised for calling out a performance at the Stronger conference, praise that is almost wholly undeserved and uncalled for.

Given Driscoll’s history of obstreperous and disqualifying behavior, both ancient and recent*, it would have been more appropriate for a pastor to call out Driscoll speaking at the event than for Driscoll to steal the show. There is no reason for anyone to invite him to speak at any event or give him a platform unless it’s to stage an intervention or pull a ‘Carrie’ on him. Yet because someone did, Driscoll is appearing in mainstream news sources, garnering tens of millions of views and just as many units of goodwill.

Furthermore, the performance that Driscoll so strongly objected to was relatively benign and completely mischaracterized by Driscoll in some sexual light because he’s a bit of a theological weirdo. When you mind-meld his strange obsession with sex with the worst excesses of the charismatic movement, you get whatever it is he was going on about:

“the Jezebel spirit has already been here. The Jezebel spirit opened our event…Before the Word of God was opened, there was a platform. It was a high place. On it was a pole of Asherah. The same thing that’s used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel spirit to seduce men. In front of that was a man who ripped his shirt off like a woman does in front of a pole at a strip club.”

While Driscoll is on record claiming he has pornographic dreams where he watches his congregants have sex with other people or get raped and molested, all in vivid high-definition detail, this seems more of the same type of projection. His imagination is cranked to eleven. He’s seeing sex and demonic Jezebel spirits where everyone else is seeing an acrobat performing on a bolted-down aerial pole used by circus performers, aerialists and acrobats.

The “platform” he was on wasn’t a religious “high place,” and there wasn’t an “Asherah pole” (some representation of the Canaanite fertility goddess that no one even knows what they truly looked like). There was no stripper pole, unless he believes Cirque du Soleil is is the world’s biggest strip show. There was a stand used by the performer to be more visible, and which helps bolt down the Chinese pole for added safety and security.

Continuing his habit of making things up, Driscoll starts spiritualizing the act of the man climbing to the top of the pole so he can do a dangerous trick, suggesting some relevant contrast and connection to Jesus descending to earth, without noting that Jesus also ascended to the heavens, just like the man, rending his offense and incredulity stupid at best and malicious at worse. 

That man (the daredevil) then ascended. See, our God is not arrogant. He doesn’t ascend; our God is humble-he descends. “

Driscoll makes a big deal of the man removing his shirt like a woman at a strip club, and while there may be a bit of performative nature to it (like there usually is when many types of athletes remove their shirts), acrobats doing their feats shirtless is a common trope in all these performances; peruse any sort of “_____ Has talent” TV show or attend a wide variety of circus acts, and you’ll see this is the case. It doesn’t mean it’s good, and even if I grant him a few token ‘that’s gay’ points, it’s hardly out of the ordinary.

In 2021, the conference also had a strongman with no shirt performing incredible feats (in below pic) I don’t even want to know what Driscoll would claim this is representing and what sort of pole-analogy he would use.

Prior to his condemnation, Driscoll was talking about the sexuality of the demons, waxing eloquent about their devilish orientation and gender identity with a certainty that should make anyone with a passing knowledge of the depth and breadth the bible speaks on demon sexuality more than a bit suspicious. 

(Demons) are non-binary. Their sexuality shifts on a spectrum. They are transgender. Demons want you to be like them, not like Him. He made you male and female. They want to remake you as not male or female so that you’re no longer manifesting the image of God but the counter-image of your mind. 

These are standard category errors. Using his logic, angelic beings and probably God the Father himself would also be ‘non-binary’ and ‘transgender’ whose “sexuality shifts on a spectrum,” which is more strangeness with no real point other than Driscoll satiating his gnostic appetite. 

Here’s the thing: this men’s conference has these rah-rah events every year. It’s what they’re known for. Peruse some of their highlights and you’ll see bull-riding, monster trucks, and tanks crushing cars, shirtless strongmen, shirtless boxing matches, and now, a shirtless acrobat. This is entertainment at a conference, not a church service, for which we would be imminently harder.

Are most of these things cool? For sure. You’re never going to convince me that a tank flattening cars to Top Gun theme song/ Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone’ mashup while fireworks and firebombs go off isn’t the best thing ever. 

Are they all completely ridiculous and utterly unnecessary at a Christian Men’s conference, and does it say something theological about the event as a whole? Absolutely. None of this needs to be happening. We have tons of reasons why we’re not fans of any of it and don’t want to see it at these types of events, from the motocross to the bull-riding to the men beating each other up in boxing matches. Don’t even get us started on John Lindell, the pastor and organizer of this event.

But Driscoll isn’t making that case. He accidentally walked himself into a good rebuke. He was right to call it out (though he should have gone further by calling all of it out) but did so in the worst way possible. He got the answer correct while misdiagnosing the problem; the what and not the why.

Driscoll is making the case that the Jezebel Spirit is buzzing around the conference like a thirst trap in heat, ready to lead unsuspecting men away after being ‘granted access’ by organizers to their souls. He’s doing so using speculation, assumption, seeing stripper poles and high places where none exist, charismatic inclinations and perceived slights incorporating lame connections about Jesus ascending and descending.

This is why you don’t invite Driscoll anywhere.

The sad plot twist to all this is that shortly after, the two appeared on stage together and made up, so that Driscoll wasn’t even removed from the conference, but rather got an invite back next year, and the world is worse off for all of it.

*We believe Driscoll is a pathological liar, culty control freak, shockingly thinned-skinned, and has long been disqualified from the ministry for many ministerial deeds.

Back in the day, Driscoll favored an edgy, aggressive style marked by prurient sermons laced with cuss words and punk-style worship- he once called women’ penis homes’ and commanded women with unsaved husbands to give their husbands oral sex to convert them. All the edgy aggressiveness boiled over in 2014 when the empire suddenly imploded due to Driscoll’s emotional and spiritual abuse of the flock, plagiarism, and accusations of financial misconduct. Rather than undergo church discipline, he claimed he audibly heard from God that he needed to leave, and he bolted. Later, nearly 40 former Mars Hill elders issued a public statement describing him as ‘unfit’ and ‘unrepentant.’

Not many years later, with the help of his crony James MacDonald, Mark Driscoll wrapped up his own discipline and re-established himself behind a pulpit in Phoenix, Arizona. Here, he set himself up as Pope of his own church, removing any of the limiting factors that previously constrained him, chiefly the presence of elders. Despite having hundreds and hundreds of people attending each week, there are no elders at The Trinity Church, which has resulted in his bullying ways continuing.

We’ll say it again: Driscoll’s new church was purposefully created to have no elders, as after his old ones ousted him from Mars Hill a decade ago and over he vowed that would never happen again, setting up internal structures and hierarchies to give him absolute power and no accountability.

Think of him as a wayward child who locked his parents in their room and now has the run of the house, terrorizing the dogs and torturing the cats.

Slowly, he rebuilt his empire, even as his theology got squishier. He mocked reformed theology and described Calvinism as “garbage.” He publicly apologized for criticizing Joel Osteen. He started selling copies of his sermon notes online and pushed seeker-sensitive services like “Swimsuit Sunday.” He even defended the Roman Catholic Church, saying they “believe in the essentials.”

Despite resigning in disgrace and possessing a penchant for theological violence, people flocked to him at his new home, and his church has grown immensely in the last few years, slowly edging towards megachurch status. 

 Some of his recent actions include:

Mark Driscoll Featured in ‘Demon Slayer Exorcist’ Movie. That Tracks
Mark Driscoll Cries and Whines While He Strawmans Cessationists
Mark Driscoll Meets Up With Steven Furtick, Thanks Him for ‘Preaching Jesus’
Nearly 40 Former Mars Hill Elders Issue New Statement: Mark Driscoll is ‘Unfit’ and ‘Unrepentant’
Cultish Bullying! Mark Driscoll Hired 24/7 Surveillance on Congregant + More Abusive Behavior
Mark Driscoll asks for $850,000 in ‘Year End Push’ To Promote Church Influence
Mark Driscoll Lies About Where His Bible Came From
Jordan Peterson’s Daughter Promotes Mark Driscoll’s Church+ Driscoll Plays the Bully
Liar Liar? Mark Driscoll Claims Book Was Banned From Amazon, So Why Is It Still There?
Mark Driscoll’s New Promo Material for an Upcoming Sex Sermon Series is Something Else
Mark Driscoll Claims Mars Hills Elders Tried to Oust Him From Church Using False Allegations of Adultery

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