Reading this article by The Stranger’s Brendan Kiley on Mars Hill Church got me to thinking again about the limits of religious and spiritual tolerance. On the one hand, I’m fascinated by all forms of faith and spirituality, and feel that people should be free to determine their own beliefs, no matter how whacked-out they may seem to the rest of us. And as a Goddess-worshiping Pagan Buddhist, my Whacked-Out Factor is pretty high.
On the other hand, there must be limits. You can’t tolerate intolerance, or make room for religious systems that are nothing but thinly veiled systems of control and oppression. There’s a clear line between “religion” and “cult”. And by many accounts, Mars Hill is crossing it.
To be frank, Mars Hill is on my shitlist anyhow. Its pastor, Mark Driscoll, is an intolerant homophobe who thinks masturbating makes you gay. Even worse? He had the temerity to take shots at Avatar. This man is EEEEEVIL, I tell you.
But that’s nothing compared to the stories of control and submission rounded up by Kiley, some of which would make the Scientology high command blush. When one young man quit the church over a dispute around a building safety issue, one of the pastors called his girlfriend’s father to warn the man what a dangerous individual his prospective son-in-law was. Others tell similar stories of hounding. On those occasions when Mars Hill couldn’t get its way, it brought out the favorite weapon of all cults: shunning.
None of this should come as any surprise. Mars Hill places undue stress on authority and submission to the church (another black mark, for those of you keeping score with the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame). Pastor Driscoll has made it clear in his sermons that submission is critical to the Mars Hill Way, and that if you’re asking questions, you’re practically having sex with Satan:
Some adults are just always questioning… these are people with critical spirits. These are people that if you answer their question, they’ve got 25 more questions, and they’ll have questions forever. And it’s not that they have questions, it’s that they’re sinning through questioning. The heart is not good.
I don’t have many litmus tests for faiths, but one of my strongest is that one’s faith should be open to inquisition, examination, and even dissension. One woman’s heresy is another woman’s doctrine. Any church whose leader would use the phrase “sinning through questioning” without a drop of irony isn’t worth the $31 million in cash and assets it’s sitting on.
Small wonder that so many people these days are finding Jesus outside of church, huh?

(Note to Readers [all three of you]: This is my response to this week’s
In general, I declare jihad against vegan dishes that attempt to imitate meat. It’s mostly psychological. Faux meats never live up to the taste expectations aroused by the words “steak” and “chicken”. Anyone who eats Tofurkey with the memory of “turkey” running along their taste buds is in for the letdown of a lifetime.

[An oldie from my old Web site, TheZeroBoss.com. Originally published to the Internet on November 29th, 2004.]
[An oldie from my old Web site, TheZeroBoss.com. Originally published to the Internet on November 29th, 2004.]


