Making Christianity Manly Again: Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, and American Evangelicalism

by Jennifer McKinney

A look inside one of America's most politically consequential churches

Mark Driscoll, the founding pastor of Seattle's Mars Hill Church, indelibly impacted American evangelicalism. Driscoll's brash, authoritarian, and profanity-laden leadership grew Mars Hill Church into one of the fastest growing, most innovative, and most influential churches in the country--not an easy task in one of America's most secular cities. Driscoll's gender theology put men at the forefront of American Christianity, rebranding Jesus from a "gay hippie in a dress" to a sword-carrying, "robe-dipped-in-blood" warrior. This type of rhetoric paved the way for evangelicals' embrace of hypermasculine Christianity, priming the pump for their unprecedented support of Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 Presidential elections.

Making Christianity Manly Again places Driscoll's gender theology in its social and historical contexts and analyzes the contemporary social patterns that explain how a hypermasculine theology helped create a megachurch empire. By addressing the rhetoric of Driscoll's movement through his sermons, along with narratives from former Mars Hill Church members, sociologist Jennifer McKinney leads us to a better understanding of the dynamics of the evangelical impulse to reclaim and glorify men's power. These dynamics, as McKinney shows, have fueled a growing Christian nationalist movement, with enormous implications for religion and politics in America.

Genres: Nonfiction

279 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 3, 2023

Reviews

[Kate Elliott]

I totally understand rooting this in church history, but am kind of surprised it doesn’t address the tech angle.

Because SO much of it dovetails with certain Seattle norms and trends. Letting a pastor get away with bizarre things because he has a strong vision? Same thing you’re already doing with founder CEOs, so it doesn’t feel that weird.

Also if you look at the time frame of founding & ascendance—a lot of the early years are happening when tech is a power player but not quiiiiiite as much as it is now.
And it predates much of the whole bio-hacking/power-lifting/intermittent-fasting swole tech bro trends. This is a time when there’s still stigma about techies being nerds and just shy of the stereotypes of American masculinity. So there’s that insecurity floating around.

And what’s significant is that this church doesn’t just say “be masculine”— they offer to teach you how to do it. A playbook, a set of mentors, a whole social structure that will give you a step-by-step.

All of this gets elided because of the hipster factors, and don’t get me wrong, a lot of the cachet was there because of the cool aesthetics. But places like this aren’t just stocked with cool people—they’re also stocked with people who desperately want to be.

What better way to make up for being the high school nerd. And you get a gutsy founder like you’re used to working for at your day job. And a system to learn how to be the man you want to be, because Lord knows you love a system or two.

Driscoll didn’t come from tech background, but the regional luck is astounding. The susceptibilities line up so well.

[Chris Estey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author obviously enjoyed Biblical Porn by Jessica Johnson, which she should cite specifically far more often for her research.

[max theodore]

read the first 100 pages for class and do not have the time to finish but wow. evangelicalism is so much more fucked up than i even guessed at. they are inventing new forms of violent gendering

[Traynor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill, complementarianism, American macho “masculinity”—what a train wreck it all was/is.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear to god Mars Hill was a cult.