Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll seethed as Alex Magala, described by two fawning onlookers as “the finest swordsman in all the world,” slowly circled a pole on stage, peeled off his red leather top, slid his tongue up to the tip of a sword, swallowed the sword all the way down his throat, and began to climb the pole erected for the opening of this weekend’s Stronger Men’s Conference in Springfield, Mo.
Driscoll was so enraged by the two onlookers that he claimed to wake up at 1:00 a.m. to pray for the men. By the time he took the stage, his voice was hoarse. But he was ready to go. “They’re nonbinary,” he began going after LGBTQ people. “Their sexuality shifts on a spectrum. They are transgender.”
Driscoll blamed the presence of LGBTQ people on demons who deny male and female binaries and claimed America has become a cult of tolerance. Then he turned his sights on the sword-swallowing male pole dancer.
“The Jezebel Spirit opened our event,” Driscoll declared. “There was a platform. It was a high place. On it was a pole, an Asherah pole, the same thing that’s used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel Spirit to seduce men.”
A few nervous claps began to spread through the stadium.
“In front of that was a man, who ripped his shirt off like a woman does in front of a pole at a strip club,” Driscoll continued to describe. “That man then ascended … and then he swallowed a sword.”
John Lindell, the event organizer and lead pastor of James River Church, called out, “You’re out of line, Mark!” And when Driscoll continued talking, Lindell added, “Mark?”
Then Driscoll stood up and replied, “Okay, Pastor John, I’ll receive that.”
“You’re done!” Lindell yelled.
“Thank you,” Driscoll responded, putting his hat back on and looking down at his pulpit.
Loud cheers and boos began to fill the arena as Driscoll walked off stage. Then suddenly, the Great Southern Bank Arena transformed into Kendomland: Land of the Free and the Men, as the Kens went to war, not against the Barbies anymore, but against the other Kens.
“Bring him back! Bring him back!” the men roared as Lindell hopped up onto the stage to respond.
“Mark was out of line!” Lindell barked amidst the thundering wrath. “If Mark wanted to say that, he should have said it to me. He didn’t. Matthew 18. If your brother offends you, go to him privately.”
“I talked to Mark for a half hour! There was not one word of that! He’s out of line! If he wants to say it, he can say it to me!”
And gazing up at it all, soaking it all in, was none other than the man who has dominated religious news headlines over the past month, megachurch pastor Josh Howerton.
Crowning dishonorable men as kings
Howerton’s controversy began when he told women to crown dishonorable men as their kings. “Give him a crown and then he becomes a king,” he claimed.
One of those dishonorable men would be Driscoll, who was fired from Mars Hill Church in Seattle due to spiritually abusing his congregation, especially women, whom he called “penis homes.”
When he was still employed by Mars Hill prior to being fired and starting a new megachurch, Driscoll threatened: “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace, it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus. Those are the two options.”
As Howerton has become mired in controversy over his own sexually coercive jokes from the pulpit over the past month and due to his attempt to move on through a pathetic apology, many people made natural comparisons between Howerton and Driscoll.
Apparently, there is substance to the comparisons.
Johnna Harris, who hosts the Bodies Behind the Bus podcast, posted a screenshot from Howerton’s Instagram stories over the weekend. In the story, Howerton’s picture is taken from close to the front row. And it’s a picture of Mark Driscoll preaching at the Stronger Men’s Conference.
So apparently, what these dishonorable men do when you crown them with pulpits and power, is that they become so obsessed with toxic masculinity that it climaxes into a game of “Who’s the King of the Mountain” at the Stronger Men’s Conference.
What happens at the Stronger Men’s Conferences?
The promo video for this year’s Stronger Men’s Conference opens as a montage of men lifting weights, revving motorcycle engines and boxing. Then as the song soars with lyrics of being “ready to fight,” a wrestler smashes a chair into the head of another man dressed up as a superhero, a monster truck flies through pyrotechnics, a bull rider gets bucked, a cowboy snaps his whip and more chairs get smashed over superhero’s heads interspersed with sermon clips.
“Pyro and explosions and guys coming down ropes, man, and the bikes,” one attender from a previous year’s conference salivates.
In a video from the 2023 conference, the American flag is displayed on the screen as heavy metal music blares and a man screeches, “I present to you! The Tank! Yow!”
Then as the tank rolls onto the arena floor, the screecher yells, “Driven by none other than Chuck Norris! Yow!” Then as the tank smashes over cars, flames and fog shoot up while Norris drives another man who is sticking his head out of the top of the tank while shooting fake machine guns.
While Driscoll has been a regular speaker at the conference, it also has featured the likes of Louis Giglio of the Passion movement and Sen. Josh Hawley of the insurrection movement.
Empowered for battle
According to their purpose statement, the event’s mission is “empowering men to rise up bold and courageous standing strong and determined to live out God’s purpose for their lives.”
The event’s mission is “empowering men to rise up bold and courageous standing strong and determined to live out God’s purpose for their lives.”
Notice the key words: “empowering,” “rise,” “bold,” “courageous,” “standing,” “strong” and “determined.” Each of these words is specifically chosen by a marketing team to tap into a certain set of desires while ignoring other desires. They could have chosen to use words such as “quietness,” “stillness,” “wholeness,” “gentleness” or “beauty.” Why aren’t those words included?
Perhaps because their marketing is gendered to call out specific values and power structures for men in contrast to women, who presumably would have an entirely different set of values.
And it’s all for the purpose of fighting for the King.
God as the strong King
Noticing what key words they use in marketing reveals how this group sacralizes their power and slips it past the intuitive defenses of well-meaning Christians.
During one of the sermons from a previous year, Giglio said, “We’re in desperate need every second that we’re alive of a great and awesome and glorious God to intervene on our behalf and to do through our weakness what truly is strength.”
Notice the words he chooses for God — “great”, “awesome” and “glorious.” It’s hard to identify how Giglio is sacralizing male power because most Christians, including progressive Christians, would use those words to describe God. What Christian wants to say God isn’t great, awesome or glorious?
But there are many words people could use to describe God. So why choose those words and not others?
“They are marketing a particular image of God they want to reflect as men.”
The reason is they are marketing a particular image of God they want to reflect as men.
With the image of a muscular man holding out his arms, the 2019 promo video explains: “God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. It is he who made us. We are his.” The repetition of male pronouns there is on purpose. But because they come straight from the Bible, many people don’t recognize how a connection is being made between a vision of God’s masculinity and a sacralization of a specific human masculinity that reflects those particular words.
“We are chosen by God for a high calling,” the video continues, “to do his work. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.”
Thus the connection is made: God is a great, awesome, glorious strong king who delegates absolute authority through strong male image bearers.
Men ascending to the top of the mountain
The 2020 promo video opens with a question: “Who may ascend to the mountain of the Lord?” as the image of a man floats up toward the top of a snowcapped mountain. Then it closes with the question, “Are you ready to ascend?”
The image here is of a particular view of masculinity ascending.
“He would put you in this moment in history,” Craig Groeschel preaches.” And he would put you at this place for his kingdom purposes because he has a divine task list for you.”
John Gray adds, “It is time for the men of God to emerge and for us to get face to face with our purpose.”
So what exactly is on this divine task list? And what does it mean for men to emerge? Does anyone in this arena have any self-awareness or systemic awareness of the power men already hold in their homes and in Western society? Do they actually think we need to ascend to more of it?
Apparently, they must think we need more power because it’s all heading toward a fight.
Tim Timberlake shouts: “Can God trust you to go into battle, get wounded, and have the mentality and the mindset, ‘I’m still gonna fight!’?”
Kens argue in the “Barbie” movie.
Kens copying each other or fighting each other
As all of the explosions, punching, chair smashing, tank riding and sword swallowing are happening, one cannot help but be reminded of Ken’s experience with patriarchy in last year’s Barbie movie.
“Why didn’t Barbie tell me about patriarchy,” Ken asks, “which to my understanding is where men on horses run everything?” Later, Ken suggests that “everything, basically everything exists to expand and elevate the presence of men.” And his favorite song is “I wanna push you around.”
On one hand, the Kens of Kendomland are just like each other. They have the same name, play with the same toys and say the same things. But on the other hand, their passion for ascending up the mountain of patriarchy leads to the big fight as they turn against one another.
Howerton is normally the Ken in charge of his own Mojo Dojo Casa Church with tailgating and ESPN playing on big screens between services while cooking up hamburgers and hotdogs that his church charges people for.
Just as the Kens copy each other, Howerton loves to copy other pastors. As Sheila Gregoire has demonstrated, Howerton once plagiarized four different people in one 8-minute section of a sermon.
So as Howerton sat wide eyed looking up at Driscoll, people began noticing over the weekend how Howerton’s supposed apology for his coercive sexual joking from the pulpit also was plagiarized.
Josh Howerton giving his “apology” to Lakepointe Church
Howerton’s plagiarism
Notice just a few of the comparisons between Howerton’s 2024 apology and the 2022 apology of another megachurch pastor named Joby Martin as each of them directed their congregations to turn in their Bibles to their sermon passage for the day.
Martin: “I just need to address a thing.”
Howerton: “I need to address a thing.”
Martin: “The Bible says in Proverbs 12:18 that careless words stab like a sword and wise words lead to healing.”
Howerton: “Careless words can stab like a sword, but that wise words lead to healing.”
Martin: “Like if I was careless with a pocket knife and it slipped out of my hand and stabbed you in the face.”
Howerton: “Even if somebody had a steak knife and they like had the intent to cut their steak and their hand slipped and accidentally stabbed you in the face.”
Martin: “Church, I need you to hear this. Three things. I love you.”
Howerton: “I need you to hear three things. Number one. I love you.”
Martin: “Thank you for the grace that you give me every single week to stand up here and do what I get to do. And I hope by God’s grace, I’ll get to do this for decades and decades to come.”
Howerton: “Thank you for your grace to me. I want to be doing this with you for decades and decades and decades.”
It’s like these guys are a bunch of Kens who are walking around saying the same things.
The sacralized hierarchy of task list authority
Unfortunately for the Kens, saying the same thing works in patriarchy as long as everyone is subjected to your authority below you. But what happens when all the Kens get together and another Ken challenges your spot?
After all, the sacralized hierarchy starts at the top with God as a strong king who gives a task list to men, calling them to ascend as strong kings. Then as divine image bearers, these men also give out task lists to those below them.
And in the world of conservative evangelical complementarianism, the people below these strong kings are women and children.
In Voddie Baucham’s Kendomland, this means daughters must serve their fathers for life until a man comes along to marry them.
In John MacArthur’s Kendomland, this means slavery is “the perfect scenario.”
In John Piper’s Kendomland, this means women must not compromise men’s masculinity when giving them directions to the freeway.
In Josh Howerton’s Kendomland, this means telling women on their wedding night to “stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do.”
But when all the Kens get together in the Stronger Men’s Conference Kendomland, there are no women beneath them. So Driscoll couldn’t help himself.
Like Ken, Driscoll stayed up all night seething, while thinking, “We go to war … against the Kens.”
Why did Driscoll initially target LGBTQ people?
One of the interesting things that happens when writing stories like this is that Christians who are affirming of LGBTQ relationships, egalitarian Christians who are not affirming of LGBTQ relationships and others who identify as “soft complementarians” all tend to agree with each other about the harm these men are causing by posturing themselves over women.
But the elephant in the room is that, despite our agreement about how these men are harming women, we disagree with one another about LGBTQ relationships.
“He attacked LGBTQ people not as an attempt to be biblical, but because he sees any paradigm of nonbinary sexuality as a threat to his power.”
The purpose of this article is not to iron out those differences. But one thing I would ask non-affirming Christians to reflect on in this story is why Driscoll began confronting the other Kens by calling out LGBTQ people.
And my suggestion is that he attacked LGBTQ people not as an attempt to be biblical, but because he sees any paradigm of nonbinary sexuality as a threat to his power.
Consider what these Kens have set up. They have described a theology of God as a strong king who rules through men who are strong kings. That power dynamic requires strong gender distinctions. Otherwise, who would rule and be ruled?
So when Driscoll says nonbinary people have a sexuality that “shifts on a spectrum,” he understands that spectrums are threats to binary based power. That’s why Driscoll said, “If you tolerate, they will dominate.”
I realize that affirming LGBTQ relationships is a decision many readers of this article cannot make in good faith. But despite our differences with each other, we’re meeting here in our agreement of the harm these men are causing. So in our agreement in this space, I ask for non-affirming Christians, who recognize how men like Driscoll and Howerton use language to harm women, to reflect on how these men depend on gender binaries and authority hierarchies to wield that same power over LGBTQ people.
My suspicion is that much of the theology these men espouse as biblical and unchangeable has more to do with Kens emerging and ascending than it does with loving their neighbor as their self.
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
Related articles:
Pastor’s wedding night advice to women opens a conversation on harmful evangelical teaching on sex
Here’s how toxic male supremacy keeps on infecting the church, even in a supposed ‘apology’
Reflections on The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill | Analysis by Tyler Tankersley