Notes and Quotes From Driscoll’s Spiritual Warfare Series, Pt 2 and Peasant Princess, Pt 2
Two minutes into his teaching on Spiritual Warfare, part 2: Driscoll begins what I consider to be women-bashing. In his “Demonic Counseling,” he claims to counsel more women than men [implication: more women are demonized than men?]. He quotes Scripture, “women are the weaker vessel,” and states this is evidence that they are the more easily deceived. [Ah ha!]
Nine minutes: Driscoll discusses what he terms, “the ordinary demonic.” Of course the first thing he talks about is that lack of frequent sex among married Christians is demonic [Great for him: “Uh, baby doll, if you don’t have sex with me as much as I desire, that is ‘frequently,’ you are demonic.”].
Eleven minutes: He states that in most of the marriage ‘counseling’ he does, there is almost always the problem of one not wanting sex as often as the other. He says this is like having “Satan in bed between the two of you.” [What? What if it’s about sexual abuse in either of their pasts? What if it’s about emotional/physical abuse in the marriage? What if it’s about lack of emotional intimacy?, etc…]
Fifty minutes: Driscoll asserts that Satan loves gossip and busy-bodying, “Ladies, this one is for you.” Driscoll spends FIFTEEN MINUTES castigating “women who gossip, or busybody.” He fails to mention anything about men who gossip or busybody. He even warns women not to rely on or trust in older women [contrary to Scripture] because they are likely to be busybodies and gossips, unless they are especially spiritual and very submissive.
Fifty three minutes: Driscoll describes how he protects his wife from other women who want to go have coffee with her and get to know her, because, guess what, “that is Satanic,” and he says he knows what they’re really up to. [Pray tell?]
Fifty four minutes: “Female manipulation.” Women use emotion to manipulate others, especially into gossiping and being busy-bodies. He says, are you ready, “That’s Satanic.” [The only safe place to keep these frighteningly dangerous and sinful women is in their homes, busy with their kids, serving their husbands, having sex on demand, and Bible reading. Apparently, women getting together with other women (unsupervised by the correct authority) is too dangerous an activity for Mars Hillians.]
Fifty six minutes: “Sometimes women’s ministry is the cesspool that this kind of activity flourishes in. Some people ask, ‘Why don’t we have women’s ministry?’ We do, but you have to be very careful. It’s like juggling knives.” [The message seems to be that even when women are allowed this little bit of autonomy and power, they are so sinful and unstable they create a “cesspool.” ]He states that women meeting together end up secretly ripping on their husbands, “It happens all the time.”
Fifty seven minutes: The women who want to be in leadership and who want to lead women’s groups are “the wrong kind of women.” That is Satanic. When you meet a woman who tells you she wants to marry a pastor, Mark exclaims, “Run! That is Satanic!” These are controlling and busy-bodies. They are the “gossip mamas and drama queens.” Then he goes on to describe the sweet, submissive, quiet women who are fit to lead.
One hour and twenty three minutes: Driscoll states that our self talk is demonic, that when we have self accusations (e.g., “you can’t do that, you aren’t good enough”), it is demons speaking to you. He says that anytime you find yourself thinking about yourself using “you” instead of “I,” it is Satanic because in his reasoning we should never refer to ourselves as “you,” but only “I” when thinking about ourselves [Huh?]
On Peasant Princess Part 2…
Mark said he blocked his wife’s, Grace’s, email, only allowing certain emails through because he “wants to keep her safe.” Is she incapable of discerning when an email is safe or not? This feels parental to me, as if she is her husband’s little girl, rather than adult partner. He said when they were dating, she didn’t call him when she’d arrived at WASU as she’d told him she would, so he skipped work and drove for five hours, knocked on her door, “Why didn’t you call me?” “I forgot.” “Oh, okay,” then he said he got back in his car and drove the five hours back. This feels incredibly intrusive and possessive to me. I would have dumped him right then and there.
Additionally, when Grace lived at a different university, she had to be in a co-ed dorm for awhile. Mark said he went and knocked on all 20 rooms’ doors and “threatened” every single man to “keep his hands off of her, to not even talk about touching her, think about touching her, or he’d beat ‘em up!” That is verbal assault. And yet he brags from his pulpit about these dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors. He’s actually proud of them. This speaks to me more of the style of an obsessive stalker type “boyfriend,” one whom a woman would definitely want to be rid of–and fast. Move away and change your address, woman!
On stage at MHC, sitting in a loveseat with Grace, while giving this sermon, he remains for the most part leaned in toward her, keeping his arm reached out so his hand is over her knee the entire time, almost as if claiming her…
YOUTUBE, MD & Wife re: Peasant Princess
pulled 2/11/09
Wow! I just found this site today as there is a whole brouhaha going on about Driscoll and the SBC. Driscoll is not my pastor or anyone I would listen to (any more than anyone else) as he fails to impress me that he is biblically grounded.
But I had absolutely no idea that this stuff was going on in his church. If the above is true, according to Driscoll, I must be the very spawn of Satan! I occasionally have coffee with other women, I have my own email account (wow!), I have occasionally been the leader of my women’s Bible study, and I guess the most damning of all: I am a woman!
Fellow Christians: these viewpoints are NOT biblical. They may be convenient for you if you are male, but they are NOT biblical. Study scripture for yourself (not just the proof-texting, singled-out verses these folks like to point to). If you believe this stuff, have enough guts to come out of the choir room now and again and expose yourself to some other viewpoints.
Until Believers stand up to this heresay, it will continue.
Thank you, Savannah, for your comment.
Some helpful sites I found for defending against the “because I have a penis I am superior to you,” stance or the “although we are equal, because I have balls we are in different roles, therefore, you can’t make decisions on your own, you can’t teach or lead men, you can’t preach, you can’t work, you must have babies, I get to make all the decisions… but we’re equal, just different roles” stance, is:
equalitycentral.com
and/or their forum:
http://equalitycentral.com/forum/index.php#1
Christians for Biblical Equality:
http://www.cbeinternational.org/
It feels like you are looking for misogyny and interpreting everything he says to women as through that lens. You have mentioned you have been at an abusive church before, I think you’re overreacting. I just don’t see the things here that you seem to be reading into this sermon.
Al,
Thank you for your comment. We all have biases and our experiences certainly color those, no doubt. From another angle, we are wired to learn from our experiences for good reason. We learn that that pretty orange kitty of substantial size and razor sharp claws and teeth, you know, the kind that live in jungles and dine on large mammals, is not so nice to pet… We learn that people who refuse to respect our boundaries are not so good for us to be with…
…and yes, we learn that certain characteristics and behaviors from a church leader (or any leader for that matter) spell TROUBLE, spell ABUSE, and spell BONDAGE.
I invite you to look over the breadth of materials discussed in the whole of this blog, including comments from others. If you still come to your conclusion that I am “overreacting,” well, you’re welcome to your opinion, and I mine which would then tell me you are probably “under” reacting.
Freedom