Thread by @ZachWLambert

I finished the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill last week and have been letting it simmer before I share my perspective.

So here goes.

My biggest issue with the podcast is its refusal to engage with the toxic theology beneath all the abuse.

Namely, white supremacy and patriarchy…

When churches and leaders who ascribe to a certain belief systems continue to be exposed as oppressive and abusive, we have to ask if the system itself is broken.

Rotten fruit often comes from toxic theology.

In every intro we heard Jen Smith say, “Why are we not looking at the deep-seated reasons for this?”

Every episode I would hear that and pray it would be the one where they'd actually examine the underlying belief systems, but as the credits rolled each time I was disappointed.

A “culture of celebrity,” “the advance of media,” and a “lack of accountability” are handed most of the blame throughout the podcast, while white supremacy and patriarchy get a pass.

I certainly don’t think the podcast was all bad. Not remotely so.

I think Mike Cosper did a really good job in a really difficult situation (I’ll talk more about that in a second) and I think he genuinely wanted to help abuse survivors from Mars Hill.

It also seems like it has been helpful for some former Mars Hill members and staff. Many of them mentioned on the podcast that last few months have led to conversations and reconciliation.

I was particularly touched by the interaction between Jen Smith and Sutton Turner.

It was helpful for me too.

In my early 20s, I worked at a church that was like Mars Hill in a number of ways and for a pastor who shared many toxic traits with Mark Driscoll.

They were friends, in fact.

I cried in my car a number of times as stories and testimonies triggered my own experiences.

The first time I heard a clip of Mark yelling “who in the hell do you think you are?!” I started to shake.

One of the toxic traits my pastor shared with Mark was yelling like that.

My guess is that Mark has some form of narcissism and/or anti-social personality disorder, which makes it easy to point to him as an aberration instead of examining the belief systems that enabled and even propelled his meteoric rise.

Mark may be unique, but the toxic theology that undergirds him is not.

So much of evangelicalism is infected with the twin cancers of patriarchy and white supremacy.

Patriarchal white men made every single decision at Mars Hill. Patriarchal white men were also the ones supposed to be providing accountability to Mark.

This is the equivalent of cops investigating their own crimes or judges ruling on cases in which they are the defendants.

One of the most frustrating parts of the podcast was the repeated suggestion that Mark would have been fine if he’d just submitted to a different group of patriarchal white men.

Are you kidding me?

But it’s understandable.

Christianity Today’s Executive Leadership Team is 88% white and 88% male.

To do a thorough examination of white male supremacy would be like sawing off the limb upon which they stand.

I think this is why Cosper would not interview Stephanie Drury (@StuffCCLikes) and some other early critics of Mars Hill.

It's also why many of the interviews with critics were shortened and heavily edited (according to those interviewed that I have privately corresponded with).

These critics were set on doing what the podcast refused to do—rooting out the toxic theology beneath all the rotten fruit.

Also, there was zero repentance from Christianity Today for their significant role in applauding and platforming Mark during his rise.

Like Jesse Bryan said on the podcast:

“It’s easy for them to distance themselves right now, but I would just love to hear one of them say, ‘you know what, this totally so jacked up. We should have never done it and we ruined a lot of people’s lives. And I took the money.’”

My worry is that we will chalk up the fall of Mars Hill to an aberrant and destructive leader like Mark Driscoll without ever considering the toxic theology and systemic sin that made it possible for him to rise in the first place.

But my hope is that we will take Jen Smith’s advice and look at the deep-seated reasons for this.

And when we do, I pray we can root out the evils of white supremacy and patriarchy before they do even more damage.

/end