The Monarch’s religion expert, Stephanie Drury, was nice enough to answer a couple of questions for us regarding one of our favorite topics, Mark Driscoll, the dangerous egomaniac who famously resigned from the Mars Hill church last week. 

Jake Uitti: Want to write a piece about your Driscoll predictions?

Stephanie Drury: I’d love to!

People keep asking me “Aren’t you glad Mark Driscoll resigned?” but I’m really not. I don’t think he’s actually going anywhere and I don’t think he’s changed. I believe he resigned because the social media narrative is something Mars Hill couldn’t control and didn’t see a way out of, and before that he only took a six-week focus break because Mars Hill was caught using creative bookkeeping on their attempts to get Mark on the NYT bestseller list. His resignation letter was a Nixon-esque, self-aggrandizing joke in which he said that the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability absolved him of any charges, that while having a brusque leadership style he’s actually done nothing wrong, and that he is stepping down to ensure the safety of his family. As if.

The BoAA is comprised of wealthy donors and yes-men, each of whom was chosen BY MARK DRISCOLL. Highly ethical. But in a fun twist, Mars Hill released a statement yesterday from the Board of Elders (whom the BoAA asked to review the charges against Driscoll along with them), and it said that the BoE had recommended that Driscoll begin a process of rehabilitation. Instead, Driscoll decided to resign. This actually gives me hope for Mars Hill as a church. The fact that the board finally saw that he would need to go through a formal accountability process to face his issues is amazing to me. And it doesn’t surprise me that he chose instead to resign rather than face the work of humility. Mars Hill has taken a massive hit but if the new leadership is able to recognize the ways they’ve harmed people and take steps to rectify and restore these relationships, this bodes so beautifully well for their future.  But time will tell.

I’m still incredibly concerned that Mars Hill leaders and members looked the other way on the misogyny and homophobia issues for years. By luck or by divine calculation, his misogynistic and homophobic William Wallace II rants surfaced recently during his focus break, but I have to wonder if they would have been treated with the same gravity and eventual resignation with which the financial misappropriation was handled. I have to say that I doubt they would have been seen as any type of indication that he is an unfit leader.

In the meantime, I find it deliciously hilarious that Mark Driscoll is now a stay-at-home dad after he’s railed against the unmanliness of stay-at-home dads all these years. (As an aside, I wish CPS would do an investigation on that household. There are five children and an enabling wife locked up with a sociopath who’s suffered a major narcissistic injury on a national scale and we can’t overestimate what he’s capable of. Can we make a public petition to investigate the children’s well being?) But he’s retreated to his million-dollar house with his million-dollar severance package, and I would not be surprised if he’s plotting and gearing up. Mars Hill members are declaring their allegiance to him all over the internet. Expect him to launch a new church by January and a TLC reality series by spring. I’ll handle your PR, Mark. I won’t say anything nice, but bad press is good press, right?

JU: I’m wondering: there seems to be hope and compassion in your voice for Mars Hill. In my mind you’d want it to go away for good, but it sounds like you want it to exist and be reformed – why?

SD: I’m all for any church being reformed if it’s going to be reformed in a more democratic direction instead of a totalitarian direction, which the Board of Elders’ letter seemed to indicate. But as I said, time will tell.

Well, that was fast…