So… maybe you heard that Mark Driscoll appeared on Glenn Beck’s show last night. Why was he there? To inform Glenn Beck about everything that’s wrong with today’s American men.
“…guys have no vision of future, career, no intent of taking a gal on a date, maybe to get a wife out of the deal, maybe have a kid,” Driscoll told Beck.
What’s the solution for America’s lazy, porn-loving American male species? Driscoll knows.
“You’ve got to tell them that they’re wrong! That they’re absolutely wrong, and they have no idea what they’re doing. And that the culture has sold them a bunch of products, and it’s just trying to make them addicted to porn and pot and substances and to take all the money out of their wallet…because the fool’s parade keeps going to the ATM and handing away their future.”
Apparently, Driscoll is the only person concerned about America’s dude population. “No one else is doing it. The world is just filled with noise, and if you can cut against the grain, say something in a different tone with different content … initially you’re offended by it … but now I’m interested because maybe, maybe I’ve been lied to. Because my thing ain’t working … maybe the bus I’m on is headed over a cliff and it’s a good time to consider getting off.”
He continued: “Nobody looks at these guys and says, ‘You didn’t have a dad. You’re addicted to porn. You don’t have a clue. You don’t have a plan. You’re part of the problem. Stop smiling, because you’re the joke.’ Nobody just tells them that, but that’s exactly what they need…”
You can watch clips from the interview here.
Driscoll isn’t entirely wrong here. But he’s not entirely right either. Not all of America’s twenty-something men are lazy and addicted to video games. He assumes a lot. He makes no distinctions between what’s good and true about today’s young men and what could be improved. That’s because Driscoll is going after a certain segment of the “lazy young male” population, those who are in such disarray that they are looking to be led and looking to be told what to do. He wants men who can be put in their place and then made into mini, less popular versions of himself. It’s almost like he’s looking to become “Daddy” to America’s fatherless generation.
Notice how he does nothing but shame young men? I believe that is a very intentional calculated tactic. It’s not his intention inspire young men. Mark wants to beat them down. Take off his belt and give them a good whippin’. Because he knows that inspired young men are less likely to become manipulated. And too, he knows that his “you’re a joke!” message often speaks to the lowest of the low. And his type of fundamentalism offers a solution.
Fundamentalism always feeds off the most vulnerable.
Viagra is for the treatment of inability to get or keep an erection and similar states when erection is of low quality. When you buy remedies like cialis from canada you should know about cialis online canada. It may have a lot of brands, but only one ATC Code. Erectile dysfunction, defined as the persistent impossibility to maintain a satisfactory erection, affects an estimated 15 to 30 millions men in the America alone. Sexual soundness is an substantial part of a man’s life, no question his age etc.
This also does nothing to help men like I might qualify myself. I know that I”m lazy at times and pre-disposed to play a video game instead of being productive. But I know that and want to be better so I can be a better husband and father (though maybe being married with kids already disqualifies me from Driscoll’s gang).
So what to do with those who know better but still feel like they’re slipping up? We don’t need shame. We’ve got enough for ourselves already.
Unbelievable….women and men both get shamed so much, as if they need more of it. How about we take effort and time to actually poor into people instead of telling them everything they’re doing wrong. So friggen upsetting.
Thanks for posting this.
Matthew, As one who lives in the shadow of MD, the word you use “tactic” is IMO, absolutely accurate. I know several young men that have been profiled to become mini-marks (I use the lower case intentionally).
As a father of an 18 year old male, who on occasion plays video games and might sleep in on a Saturday. I would never consider using shame to mold him into anyone’s image. He is a godly young man who loves his friends and gives of himself to make a difference. Shame is not God’s tool.
I trust God to speak to him and me, along with every woman and man about how He loves us, and what He wants to talk to us about.
“the culture has sold them a bunch of products” <—- yeah, he’s upset because they’re buying “the world’s” products instead of HIS.
Also, “get a wife out of the deal” is pretty telling what he thinks about women (and has stated over and over and over in various forms, which have been pointed out by many). Women, in his belief system, are a status symbol that you earn by playing by the rules. Chronic Nice Guy Syndrome stamped with Jesus’s name!
I have a real question, are the tactics working? Are they really working? I know they work in ticking off most of us who see that they are shaming, anti-women, and such, but on an aggregate scale? Among the friends I have that love his stuff and others like him they are all predisposed to this type of thinking anyways. The friends of mine who could be shamed into the thinking already have the thoughts of inadequacy because of how they’ve been told a man supposedly acts.
I do not often comment on your blog, but this has spoken to me as I have under went a type of conversion, basically returning to practicing in the RCC. What flipped, not being told I was scum, but entering more deeply into prayer life and the Sacraments. Ultimately, inspired by His Holiness Francis, I ask Driscoll where the joy in his gospel [deliberate] is.
“Mark wants to beat them down. Take off his belt and give them a good whippin’. Because he knows that inspired young men are less likely to become manipulated.”
This may be the best, most insightful summary of Driscoll’s, er, ministry that I’ve come across.
Driscoll has many signs of being a narcissist. One of the most common “tactics” of a narcissist is the use of shame to devalue an individual and convince him or her that they need the narcissist. The narcissist feeds off that. Unfortunately, there are a lot of narcissists in pulpits across America and when you get down to it, they really aren’t there for anything other than themselves.
Us…
and
Them…
And after all, we’re only ordinary men.
(w/ rec to Roger Waters)
he is a train wreck