Mark Driscoll in 2000: “We Live in a Completely Pussified Nation”

I have been writing about Mars Hill Church since late November 2013. In the process, I have met many people who once attended Mars and some who still do (over 100 I think). In these conversations, especially with ex-members who were around from the early days, similar stories come up. One familiar story I have not written about is Mark Driscoll’s proclamation that we “live in a completely pussified nation.” Apparently this material was deleted from the Mars Hill website and is not now available anywhere. According to my sources, some Mars Hill pastors have asked former members to destroy any copies of the thread they had printed out. It has now become available again and I think it may be of some benefit to understand the historical development of Mars Hill Church and the controversies surrounding Mark Driscoll’s preaching and commentary on gender.

In 2006, Driscoll commented favorably on his William Wallace II remarks in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev (see below). To my knowledge, he has not refuted or distanced himself from these sentiments since then. I do offer the observation that the thread is 14 years old and may not represent how he would communicate to his church today.

The image below is of the first paragraph of what turned out to be a thread of over 100 pages of material on the Mars Hill Church unmoderated forum called Midrash.

To read some history behind Midrash and this thread go to Wenatchee the Hatchet’s site.
MidrashPN
Driscoll referred to this thread and his alias as William Wallace II in his 2006 book Confessions of a Reformission Rev:
ConfessionsWilliamWallace
So because Driscoll believed the men in his church were soft and feminine, he attacked them anonymously. His opening salvo as William Wallace II, while clever in its machismo, was quickly challenged by another person who wondered if Jesus was pussified. Driscoll, as you will see if you read the whole thing, dismissed the poster’s concerns. In the excerpts below,

Driscoll belittled those who disagreed with him.

To read the entire 100+ page thread, go here.

Driscoll echos the mom-bashers of the WWII and post-war era. Philip Wylie (“momism“) and Ed Strecker are two I have written about previously.  The jacket cover of Strecker’s 1946 book, Their Mothers’ Sons, proclaimed:

This is a book about Mother, the great American “Mom,” and what she is doing to the young men of America. In its pages a world-famous psychiatrist describes in unforgettable terms a new American tragedy – the millions of young men in this country today who live in confusion and emotional chaos, condemned by millions of well-meaning and unthinking “Moms” who will not cut the apron strings between them and their sons.

Strecker, a military psychiatrist, believed that doting mothers were often at fault when their soldier sons developed psychiatric disorders. Both Wylie and Strecker thought men of the day were unable to achieve maturity because mothers prevented their full development. Driscoll would have been right at home with Wylie and Strecker, proud members of the “He Man Woman Haters Club.”

For the sake of context, here is the entire first post from Driscoll:
PussifiedNationFirstPost
More excerpts:
Pussified NationExcerptsA