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News & ArtsTuesday, January 24, 2012
Religion Don't Fuck Around at Mars Hill Church
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 at 2:50 PM
Or they will make you sign, according to the Matthew Paul Turner blog, a sexual discipline contract.
5
Ooh, sexual discipline, my favorite kind! If I misbehave, will I be flogged? Will I have my hands bound behind my back? Will you make me scrub the floor?
Ahem. Breaking down the will is basic cult 101, from the People's Temple to Scientology to AA to Mao and Stalin. Mars Hill is drawing their people into line like good little soldiers. Writing out your faults in close detail is a traditional technique. Say "yes, sir".
Ahem. Breaking down the will is basic cult 101, from the People's Temple to Scientology to AA to Mao and Stalin. Mars Hill is drawing their people into line like good little soldiers. Writing out your faults in close detail is a traditional technique. Say "yes, sir".
8
Wow. Good for Andrew for getting out. I can hardly believe that this kind of church has such a huge congregation in a place like Seattle.
10
@5: Plus, forcing initiates to write out and sign their confessions creates exciting opportunities for future blackmail should they ever find themselves in a position to do the Church a "favor." Win/win!
12
Hey Driscoll, what's up with the whole suit-and-tie schtick? I thought Mars Hill was supposed to be the trendy, hipster version of fundamentalism? Looks like you've been taking advice from those old fuddies over at "The 700 Club".
13
I can't feel bad for Andrew. If he were 15 instead of 25 being "beaten down" in a small town church he was compelled to attend, it would be different. But he freely choose Mars Hill after moving to a big city on his own. He liked Mars Hill and despite any "questioning" in the past year, he felt comfortable enough to stay.
Dude was cool with the he-man-jesus-was-no-pussy-church that preaches that women are "weaker vessels" and takes the invasive approach to its members sex lives. It's an enticing deal for a guy looking for a complacent virgin bride whose church bullies and shames her into spousal submission. And now that that environment has produced some negative consequences for him, he doesn't wanna play anymore? Don't feel bad for him at all.
Dude was cool with the he-man-jesus-was-no-pussy-church that preaches that women are "weaker vessels" and takes the invasive approach to its members sex lives. It's an enticing deal for a guy looking for a complacent virgin bride whose church bullies and shames her into spousal submission. And now that that environment has produced some negative consequences for him, he doesn't wanna play anymore? Don't feel bad for him at all.
15
@13 - i get what you're saying, but i think the better response is to have compassion for the guy for two reasons. first, the "you did this to yourself attitude" is exactly what the church is doing and what has us all riled up. second, and more important, don't forget this guy was raised in this kind of cult-like controlling atmosphere. it takes time, and usually some personally cataclysmic events, to be able to see just how fucked up the whole thing is. when you're raised in it, steeped in it from before the time you could think, it's not easy to see this kind of thing for the heinous manipulation that it is. i give him credit for leaving when he did. it's an incredibly difficult and painful thing to do, no matter how much you know that leaving is the right thing, and being cut off from the community like that is impossibly lonely, no matter how much you know that you're better off without that kind of "community." i feel for the guy.
16
@13, 15 - I agree with you both.
True, he’s not someone who needs to be rescued. He’s an adult and can leave at any time… but, he was bullied by people he felt he needed to trust in order to please God and to get into heaven. Protestants are told we don’t have to pay penance, but having a little punishment can feel reassuring (spanking is no longer considered BDSM, but pretty standard fare, yes? (Is there a font for “facetious”?))
This is what he had been trained to believe from a young age. When Christians quote “raise up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it,” they’ve got the right idea. Even with my own misgivings in the Christian faith early on, it took me ten years to fully drop my childhood beliefs.
It seems one good reason for knowing and sharing Andrews’s story is to highlight how fucked-up their system of discipline is. If more visitors, attendees, members and potential visitors knew about how the church treated Andrew, maybe the more level-headed people will get out of there before the leadership of the church gets totally power-happy and builds an armed compound in the hills.
True, he’s not someone who needs to be rescued. He’s an adult and can leave at any time… but, he was bullied by people he felt he needed to trust in order to please God and to get into heaven. Protestants are told we don’t have to pay penance, but having a little punishment can feel reassuring (spanking is no longer considered BDSM, but pretty standard fare, yes? (Is there a font for “facetious”?))
This is what he had been trained to believe from a young age. When Christians quote “raise up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it,” they’ve got the right idea. Even with my own misgivings in the Christian faith early on, it took me ten years to fully drop my childhood beliefs.
It seems one good reason for knowing and sharing Andrews’s story is to highlight how fucked-up their system of discipline is. If more visitors, attendees, members and potential visitors knew about how the church treated Andrew, maybe the more level-headed people will get out of there before the leadership of the church gets totally power-happy and builds an armed compound in the hills.
17
@14 i think some of us might need to go under cover and score with the wives / daughters / sons / fathers / preachers club. then confess. see what happens.
18
@6 honestly, at this point I'm half expecting to drive down NW Leary one day and see bodies with little Dixie cups scattered all over.
19
I saw "church spankings" in the blog and it totally turned me on. Hmmm....maybe I should explore this...
21
@10: Jehovah Witnesses do this, as do Scientologists, and the Boston Church of Christ, which is now called something else, where you are assigned a Prayer Partner that you must confess to.
Mars Hill is bad, as is most organized religion. I am not a religious person, but I was raised in a very boring church in the south. I do not understand why someone needs a middleman in their relationship with God.
Mars Hill is bad, as is most organized religion. I am not a religious person, but I was raised in a very boring church in the south. I do not understand why someone needs a middleman in their relationship with God.
22
An old friend of my boyfriend went to Mars Hill and was very persistent in having my boyfriend break up with me because I am an agnostic. This guy was a psycho meanie.
23
http://santitafarella.wordpress.com/2012…
Check out this thread. Interesting one. Andrew didn't tell the whole story....
Check out this thread. Interesting one. Andrew didn't tell the whole story....
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