We can agree that all of the pastors discussed in this blog are grifters of varying degrees. Today's grifter is one of the worst and most offensive hate preachers brought to our attention. Let us introduce you to Mark Alan Driscoll and his wife, Grace. It seems Mark leaves a trail of anger, despair, and missing money everywhere.
Born October 8, 1970, Mark claims to have been brought up on the mean streets of Seattle. Born into a Roman Catholic family, he converted to Evangelical Christianity and married Grace Martin. Grace's father was Evangelical preacher Gib Martin of Trinity Church (now Taproot) in Seattle.
At 25, Driscoll (along with 3 others) founded Mars Hill Church in 1995.
In 1996, Driscoll founded the Acts 29 Network. At first, the network seems to work like an evangelical church consulting firm. People who wanted to open a church would come to Driscoll for advice and assistance. All churches must share the same political and theological ideologies. Further, all church "planters" could only be men. In return, new churches agreed to be a part of the network. It seemingly created a franchise effect for churches networked across the country.
Driscoll Talks...A Lot...About Sex and Genitals
In the first of "Stupid Shit Driscoll Says...
In 2006, megachurch pastor Ted Haggard was forced to resign from New Life church following a scandal involving drugs and a male prostitute; Driscoll blamed Gayle Alcorn, Haggart's wife. Driscoll proclaimed: "It is not uncommon to meet pastors' wives who really let themselves go... A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in may ways that the Song of Song is so frank about is not responsible for her husband's sin; but she may not be helping him either."
In a sermon given in Edinburgh in 2007, Driscoll was slammed by the Baptist Press for this interpretation of the Song of Solomon. According to Driscoll, in his sermon, "Sex, and a Study of the Good Bits from Song of Solomon," Song of Solomon 2:3 is a reference to oral sex. " Driscoll proclaims, "Men, I'm glad to report to you that oral sex is biblical... The wife performing oral sex on the husband is biblical... Ladies, your husbands appreciate oral sex. They do. So, serve them, love them well... We have a verse, 'The fruit of her husband is sweet to her taste, and she delights beneath him."
Later in the sermon, Driscoll claims, "she [the wife] says, 'I've never performed oral sex on my husband. I've refused to. I [Driscoll] said, "You need to go home and tell your husband that you've met Jesus and you've been studying the Bible, and you're convicted of a terrible sin in your life. And then you need to drop his trousers and you need to serve your husband. And when he asks why, say, 'because I am a repentant woman. God has changed my heart and I'm supposed to be a biblical wife.'"
In his booklet, Porn Again Christian (2009) Driscoll is once again worried about penises. Mark writes, "First, masturbation can be a form of homosexuality because it is a sexual act that does not involve a woman. If a man were to masturbate while engaged in other forms of sexual intimacy with his wife then he would not be doing so in a homosexual way. However, any more who does so without his wife in the rroomis bordering on homosexual activity, particularly if he is watching himself in a mirror and being turned on by his own body."
Mark raised quite a stir in 2014, using the pseudonym "William Wallace II," published a rant entitled "Pussified Nation."
Shortly after ranting about a "Pussified Nation," Driscoll, again writing as William Wallace II, expresses his concern over his penis (and other men's penises.) TL:DR version..women are just homes for penises.
Mark Writes...Kinda...and Screws Mars Hill Church
In 2012, Mark and Grace published Real Marraige: The Truth about Sex, Friendship, and Life Together. According to reporter Mike Cosper of Christianity Today, as part of the marking and promotion of the book, Driscoll contracted a company called Result Source. For $250,000, Result Source would manipulate the New York Time's bestseller list. Sadly, this is a common practice; organizations related to the Trump family bought thousands of copies of Don Jr. book in order to manipulate the best-seller list. What makes this different is that Driscoll signed the contract and used Mars Hill Church money to pay Result Source without the knowledge of any of the church board members.
Having proven himself to be a self-serving, misogynistic, false idol himself, Driscoll decided to write another book, A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianist Have a Future or a Funeral (2013). Described as a "Wake-up call for every believer," Driscoll complains about America's "post-Christian" culture degraded by gay marriage, legalized marijuana, and paganism. The text also attempts to describe Driscoll's reasoning for the fractioning of the Evanglical and Charasmatic churches. Futher, Driscoll attempts to encourage the fractions to lay down their difference and as a united front based on the beliefs they have in common.
Shortly after publishing the book, according to the Christian Post, Driscoll showed up uninvited to Pastor John MacArthor's Strange Fire conference to hand out copies of his book. Driscoll was removed from the conference without much of a dust-up.
One copy of the book landed in the hands of former news paper editor and reporter Janet Meffferd. While originally invited to discuss the issue at the Strange Fire conference, she discovered much bigger story; evidence that Mark Driscoll plagiagerized portions of his book. Mefferd discovered that many of Driscolls passaged were lifted from the writing of theologian Peter Jones. In total, she had flagged about 14 pages of Driscoll's book without giving credit to Jones. November 21, 2013, she confronted hin on her show.
Mefferd additionally posted PDFs of the passage she claims were plagiarized as as passages from Peter Jone's writings.
Mark Gets Fired, Mars Hill Church Desolves
By August, 2014, Acts 29 and Mars Hill Church had lost patience with Driscoll. The Christian Post reported Act 29, the organization Driscoll founded, had removed him and Mars Hill church from their network of 500 churches around the world. A now deleted blog post from Acts 29 states, "It is with deep sorrow that we the Acts 29 Network announces its decision to remove Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church from membership in the network."
After being fired in disgrace from Mars Hill Churh and Acts 29, two organizations he founded, Mark toured the megachurch circuit and Mars Hill Church folded.
Mark Runs to Arizona
Having be fired for his "ungodly" like activities, like any good grifter, Mark moved to Arizona in 2015 and started ANOTHER church.
(The Trinity Church)
While The Trinity Church claims to follow and evangelical theology, it appears that the church is not affiliated with a larger organization. This move would allow Driscoll to run his church any way he chooses...and he does.
According to the Christian Post, Driscoll has, once again, been accused of abusing the leadership and parishoners of the Trinity Church. Citing a former head of security for The Trinity Church, Chad Freese documented his time in his now defunct website deardriscoll.com. (An archive is available here.)
According to Freese, Driscoll made it very clear that the church was a family business and nothing happened without his approval. "In another security meeting, you [Driscoll] told that team that [Driscoll] are the 'head coach,' and no decisions were made without your [Driscoll's] guidance and ultimate approval. You [Driscoll] told the team is that didn't like that, they could find another team," Freese claims.
Freese continues to expand on Driscoll's decent in to paranoia and madness. "You [Driscoll] shared things about what you and your family went through at Mars Hill. You shared with methat many people turned on you, and even your head of security had crossed you... You then proceeded to take about that incident that occurred that morning with a lady telling at Grace [Driscoll's wife], You began to curse and slander the men on your staff, even saying, 'I don't trust any of the men on my staff, and I mean none of them.
Freese, a former Marine, also claims that the Church hired a private investigator to survaille a family in his church. Freese said that Driscoll's teenaged daughter had been dating the son of Angelo and Katherine Manuele. Driscoll had apparently learned that his daughter and the boy had shared a kiss. Driscoll then accessed his daughter's emails and social media, demanding the boy remove all referenced to Driscoll's daughter and the he never have contact with her again. According to Freese, Trinity hired a private investigator to track the Manuele family as they went about their daily lives. Driscoll then pressured other families to shun the Manuele family. Driscoll even filed charges with the Scottsdale Police against the Manueles claiming "threatening communication." The Manueles have denied this accusation.
The claims Freese makes are absolutely astounding and almost unbelievable. In an email to John Welnick, former security team member Ben Eneas writes that he has been kicked out of Driscoll's "inner-circle" for associating with pastor Driscoll had fired. Eneas explained that Driscoll operated on a "loyalty scale;" because Eneas had been seen with a fired pastor, he received a "downgrading on the sliding scale of trust." Eneas announced his resignation from the security team and left the church entirely stating, "...I determined that I can no longer be associated with men of this character."
As any good, grifting megachurch pastor, Mark scammed himself into a beautiful million dollar mansion.
Welcome to the sunshine, Mark. We'll be writing more as we find it. 
