Should We Listen to Church Failure Porn?

Upon learning of the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan, king David lamented:

19 Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!
    How the mighty have fallen!
20 Tell it not in Gath,
    proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon;
or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,
    the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.

(1 Sam 20:19-20).

That line, “Tell it not in Gath,” is quite famous, it also occurs in Mic 1.10. It pertains to not announcing news that gives your enemies cause to rejoice over your misfortune.

One has to one wonder, in light of the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, are we gossipping in Gath about the failure of Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll? Are we giving succor and ammunition to the enemies of the Christian faith? Or at least giving #exvangelicals reasons to keep their disgust with the church fresh? Will this lead more people to #deconstructingfaith.

Liam Thatcher has a good article on the Unintended Consequences of Failure Porn, where he worries that the podcast - which I quite like - is not journalistic but feeds into a kind of celebrity fetish where we love to see celebrities crash and burn. Is Mark Driscoll just the Lindsay Lohan of the evangelical church?

In my craven desire for a sequel about Bill Hybels or Paige Patterson, I confess that I think Liam might be right. Mars Hill is a train wreck and I’m perversely enjoying the slow-motion detail by detail explanation of how it came off the rails.

But it is not because I enjoy the failure or the ruined lives. It is because a narcissistic misogynistic jackass finally got his comeuppance. It is because I’ve seen things similar to this and just shook my head, walked away, or else said nothing when I should have spoken up. I think Mike Cosper’s podcast is cathartic for the people involved and a cautionary tale for those who are tempted to aspire to the throne of evangelical sub-culture.

I’ve already given reasons why there’s much to learn from this podumentary. The show is a cautionary tale because:

• This is what happens what narcissism comes to church.

• This is what happens when misogyny gets baptized at the pulpit.

• This is what happens when platforms matter more than people.

• This is what happens when Christianity imbibes the worst of consumerist and celebrity religious culture.

• This is what happens when your church leaders are nothing more than sycophants to a narcissist power-hungry and fame-seeking frat boy.

• This is why character matters and why theological education is not an optional extra.

• This is why mentoring is necessary for anyone in church leadership.

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast is a salutary reminder that it is possible to expose the bully for what he is, take stock of the damage, and have a massive and public debrief over what went wrong and what we can learn from it.

But yes, it possible to gossip, have schadenfreude, and get addicted to church train wreck stories.

Besides ironically feeding into celebrity culture by gushing over the fall of a celebrity, Liam has other concerns like this one:

I spoke to a guy a couple of weeks ago who hasn’t returned to church since the pandemic restrictions loosened and says he’s not likely to, because this podcast has shaken him. When I asked if he had any concerns about his own church in particular he said ‘none at all… but you just never know do you?’

Yeah, I know that the whole #exvangelical scene is gonna throw this saga in the face of every sincere churchgoer they come across for the next 20 years. But let’s consider also the many people who were involved with Mars Hill and who have walked away from church and faith as a consequence. Yes, the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast will allow critics of the church to keep their disgust fresh, but I’m more concerned about leaders abusing the flock to the point that some sheep think that they’d rather take their chances with the wolves.

Liam also worries about the use of social media to air grievances:

But what if an unintended consequence of this series was a shift towards the online space being the main place or the first place people turn to work out their grievances? I’m not convinced that would be helpful to bring about either justice and healing for the victim, or repentance for the perpetrator. We need some serious, thoughtful reflection on how, when, and where it is appropriate for social media to fit in a godly approach to spiritual abuse.

Well, yes, perpetrators, victims, and slanderers can all use social media for their own ends. That said, social media has been great at exposing the abuses of church leadership and cover-ups and bringing public pressure to bear against the old-boys-network. Liam needs to consider things from the perspective of someone without access to advocates, justice, and fairness, and social media is a great equalizer. I imagine Liam would agree with this. But Liam needs to think about this from the perspective of woman abused by her husband or a teenage girl abused by a youth pastor who is the senior pastor’s son.

At the end of the day, there are some leaders who commit such acts of arrogance that a ritual excoriation is required. As God said over the King of Tyre in Isaiah 14:

12 How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
    on the heights of Zaphon;
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
    I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
    to the depths of the Pit.

I have no intention of being a newsreader in Gath about the failure of Christian leaders, but the fall of the Senior Pastor at Tyre Community Church can be something to rejoice over (he was exposed for who he was) and lament for (how could we let this happen and how do we care for the victims)!

So I’m gonna keep listening to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, but true to Liam’s warning, I’ll try not to crack open the popcorn and gasp with glee over other people’s failures and misfortunes. Like he says at the end:

‘If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’ (1 Corinthians 10:12)

‘Consider carefully how you listen’ (Luke 8:18)