Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave
There are always these saviors and Ron Carpenter who proclaims himself an apostle is just another one. It is one of the maladies of the human race throughout the history of religious belief. It is the problem of the difficulty of thinking for oneself. There is a need in the human condition to latch onto someone who can save us from ourselves. We're all guilty but these guys are just symptoms of the malady.
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I agree that this is appropriate to a Nee/Lee discussion. I read some of the Driscoll/Carpenter stories on the internet, including interviews with the principals, and it was readily apparent that they could only talk about 3 things: Me, me, and me. It looked like the kingdom of self writ large, and it's rather instructive how many people climbed on board before the whole thing imploded.
Here's a snippet on Driscoll:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Seattle Times
For years the edgy, blue-jeaned, hipster preacher used charisma and combativeness to barrel through turmoil, once bragging that he’d mow down all who questioned his vision: “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,” he once said in a meeting. “You either get on the bus or you get run over by the bus.”
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http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...s-hill-church/
Driscoll would snowball people with charm, and bully those who wavered. Those who couldn't get on the Driscoll bus got exiled. Members were told to avoid them. And Carpenter, if possible, seems even more extreme. Self-absorbed and narcissistic. These guys shouldn't have been leading a Bible study, much less a church. And the fact that they got so big before they self-destructed, as
Dave said, tells us a lot about ourselves as well. We'd do well to look in the mirror, here. These examples, and these stories are about us, and our experiences, as well.