Warren Throckmorton

Hopefully, he won’t be replaced but there are those who come close.
By now, most people know that the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, died earlier this month (March 19). Phelps was the personification of hatred toward gay people along with the church which was mostly his family members. I am sure others have speculated about who could replace Phelps so this might not break much new ground. However, I thought of this list while reading about Martin Ssempa’s march to celebrate the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda.
Most people, me included, do not want to see a replacement for Phelps. It is tragic to be known for one’s hatred and such a stance is surely a misrepresentation of Christianity. But there are those who seem to want the position. I’ll start with the reason this post even came to mind.
Martin Ssempa: Today, Ssempa is leading a march in Uganda to celebrate the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill late last year.  A person who would celebrate a law that makes life in prison a possibility for simple affection between two consenting adults has to be on the short list for a Phelps replacement. Once known primarily for his work in Uganda against HIV/AIDS, now he is known world wide as one of the most vocal and absurd anti-gay crusaders. His pornography shows in Kampala and hateful rhetoric rival Phelps for showmanship and degradation. Ssempa seems to revel in his status as an anti-gay icon in Uganda and in the United States. In fact, he is on the list while bill sponsor David Bahati is not, because Ssempa has cultivated his image in the U.S.
Paul Cameron: Paul Cameron has been discredited widely but still finds his way to the media, recently telling a talk show host that he would be open to the death penalty for sexually active gays. In the past, he has suggested that the Nazis methods of handling gays might also have merit. Cameron has for years called for criminalization of homosexuality and has produced mountains of junk studies to attempt to vindicate his views.
Scott Lively: Many might place Lively at the top of the list because he is widely believed to be the force behind the Uganda bill and the tightening of laws in the Soviet bloc nations. He favors laws which limit free speech on homosexuality but doesn’t favor the death penalty as did Ssempa before the law was amended. He says he favors rehabilitation and has often cited NARTH as a favored organization. Where he rivals Phelps is with his historical fiction book, The Pink Swastika, which essentially lays blame for the Holocaust on homosexuality.
James David Manning: Like many people who yell fire in a crowded room, this New York City preacher posted provocative rhetoric and then said he didn’t mean anything hateful. Manning posted “Jesus would stone homos” on his church sign and then said later he is not a hater. We’ll have to see if he escalates his rhetoric once the attention dies down.
Christian Reconstructionists: Many adherents of Christian reconstructionism (like this supporter of Ron Paul)  think gays along with disobedient children and adulterers should be stoned.  I am not sure any one of these fellows is going to rise up to the status of Phelps but their belief in their view of Mosaic law could be a foundation for such a move.
Some might object to my omission of Bryan Fischer. Fischer gets a dishonorable mention because he parrots some of Lively’s and Cameron’s views but doesn’t seem to want to kill gays. Criminalize same-sex relationships yes, but not kill them.
I hope it is clear that the focus here is not disagreement over biblical interpretation or moral objection to same-sex behavior, but rather the obsessive effort to demonize an entire group of people. Certainly, Ssempa, Cameron, Lively and Manning have demonstrated the latter. We don’t yet know the full consequences of their work.
Update on Ssempa’s march: At least three dudes showed up.

In June 2012, Mark Driscoll told the media and his church that Mars Hill Orange County might be the victim of religious discrimination because the city of Santa Ana said the church was in violation of the city’s zoning ordinance. According to the OC Weekly via a Mars Hill video, the church was lawyering up:

Driscoll said the church has hired lawyers to look into the matter, and “if we do find that we’re just getting bullied by a political discriminatory agenda against Christianity and the church, we’ll hold our ground. If we find out as well that it’s just somebody on a council somewhere with an axe to grind against Christianity, we’ll hold our ground.

The May update and June 2012 video of Driscoll telling the congregation about the matter has been removed from the Mars Hill website and is now private on You Tube (the update from Mars Hill Orange County lead pastor Nick Bogardus is on the Internet Archive).
Now the Executive Pastor of Mars Hill Orange County at the time Kyle Firstenberg claims that he had made Mars Hill leaders aware of the zoning problem months prior to the June article.

Several months after being sent down to Orange County to help launch the OC location of Mars Hill as the Executive Pastor, I identified a new location for the church to meet. It was at a night club called the Galaxy Theater. Shortly after we began meeting there, I discovered that the City of Santa Ana prohibits churches from meeting in that part of the city, regardless of the building. I notified Pastor Sutton and the Development Team of my findings and suggested we start planning for a move. I was told by Pastor Sutton that we were not going to move because we had no place to go, even though we could move back to the building we were using months before.
I began searching for another place to meet and discovered a comparable venue to the Galaxy Theater. I notified Pastor Sutton and the Development Team and was told that we didn’t want to lose momentum and growth by moving and that we were not going to move until the city kicked us out. Sutton said the city wouldn’t do that because they don’t want the bad PR of kicking out a church that is trying to make a difference. I made it very clear to Pastor Sutton and the Development Team that I was not OK with staying, as we were breaking the law. The decision was made and I was advised to not challenge it.
A short time later I discovered that we as a church needed to have a business license in the city of Santa Ana to operate legally as we had separate office space in the city. I completed the paperwork and advised Pastor Sutton and the Development Team that I would be submitting the application. I was told not to submit it because it would draw attention to us and they would discover that we had not moved as instructed by the certified letters that we had received from the city. The decision was made and I was advised to submit to my leaders. I challenged that decision along with the previous decisions that our very actions were disqualifying us from pastoring this church, not to mention the non-Christian landlord we were trying to be a witness to was encouraged to participate with us in our defiance of the law.
I continued to raise my concerns on a weekly basis for several months as the city continued to send certified letters to cease and desist and started fining us. As a previous law enforcement officer and a pastor of Jesus’ church, I had extreme ethical issues with these decisions and my name was on all official documents for the Orange County location. At that time, I requested that my name be removed from all official church documents with the city, as I did not want my name associated with this civil crime.
I also continued to provide alternative meeting locations that were turned down. Some months later, as the City of Santa Ana increased its fines, the decision was made to plan for a move. Sutton then removed me as the lead overseeing the property search and told me it was because I was not all in and not available 24/7. I believe this occurred because of my vocal push back to our breaking the law and continued pushing for us to make a move. I stepped aside and assisted where I could.

The Firstenbergs left Mars Hill OC in mid-2012 about the time the religious discrimination theory was being floated to the media. Eventually, the church moved as fines were being paid to the city for being out of compliance with the ordinance.
Firstenberg raises some extremely troubling questions for the leadership of Mars Hill. According to Firstenberg, the leadership of Mars Hill knew the venue was not zoned for a church long before Driscoll commented about it to the church and media. If Mark Driscoll really did not know what the problem was then who is responsible for that? If he did know, then why tell the media/church that he didn’t understand. One may disagree with an ordinance, but that is a different matter than not knowing the problem.  The picture painted by Firstenberg is that Mars Hill leaders knew the OC church was out of compliance, ordered subordinates to continue in non-compliance, willingly paid fines using church money, and then appeared to distract attention by raising the possibility of religious discrimination.
I would be happy to provide any alternative explanation or facts that Mars Hill might provide.
Update: Kyle Firstenberg provided me with an email which supports his claim that the Executive Elders of Mars Hill knew the situation with the Orange County property around the same time as Mark Driscoll was telling the media and MHC that the situation might be religious discrimination.

From:
Date: Friday, June 1, 2012 9:25 AM
To: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>
Subject: Woodbridge
Kyle
Sutton would rather us keep looking, and meet in a park if need be, than have only an afternoon time slot.  It sounds like this is the opinion of all 3 EE, no just Pastor Sutton.  I pulled the plug on the LOI.  We’ll keep focusing our efforts on other options.

The correspondent here was a person in charge of handling properties at Mars Hill. Firstenberg had provided numerous other possible sites and then in this one about a particular venue, the answer was still no. Firstenberg’s impression from this communication was that all three Executive Elders were agreed.

A new website devoted to repentance among former Mars Hill leaders has opened up at Repentantpastor.com. Repentant Pastor is about:

We built this site to provide a safe place in which we can confess our sin and share the stories and experiences we had while serving and attending Mars Hill Church. Our hope is to bring about repentance for ourselves and reconciliation with people whom we have hurt. If you are one of those people please connect with us personally through email. You can also comment on the posts. Each one of the people who has written in the confessions section has an email address at this url. The email addresses are [email protected] Thank you for reading our confessions, letters, stories, and apologies.
Each of these posts are confessions from Mars Hill leaders and members who agree that the culture of Mars Hill has many problems, and that more could have been done by each of us to challenge those problematic attitudes and behaviors. In staying at Mars Hill, we were complicit in those structures, and problems whether we employed them or not. We recognize and confess that Mars Hill has hurt many people within the Mars Hill community, as well as those outside the community including those who don’t believe Mars Hill’s religious beliefs, and we want to acknowledge the hurt we may have caused. We humbly ask your forgiveness. These are our individual confessions, letters, stories, and apologies.

With posts all dated today (3/29/14), former Mars Hill Orance County executive pastor Kyle Firstenberg, former Leadership Pastor Dave Kraft, former Mars Hill Everett Pastor Scott Mitchell, and Mars Hill co-founder Lief Moi have provided a powerful call to re-examine events in Mars Hill’s history.  In particular, the change in bylaws and firing of Bent Meyer and Paul Petry take center stage.
On March 17, twenty former Mars Hill pastors approached the Board of Advisors and Accountability with a request for mediation. Thus far, no direct response to this call and those who made it has come.
Firstenberg’s official charges are stunning and can be read here.

I will have more to say about these posts later but for now, I want to provide the links to Kyle Firstenberg’s posts where he details his charges against Mark Driscoll and Sutton Turner.
Letter to Board of Advisors and Accountability
Charges Against Mars Hill Executive Pastors
There is much here but one surprising charge is that the Mars Hill leadership knew the Mars Hill Orange County church was out of compliance with the law but told the pastors there not to move, even authorizing the payment of fines.

A little while ago, former Mars Hill Church Leadership Pastor Dave Kraft released a statement on his Facebook page which accepted responsibility for his part in the firings of Paul Petry, Bent Meyer and Lief Moi. Saying that the elders were “unfairly terminated,” Kraft expressed remorse for being “in the group that saw to it that they left.”
Then today on his blog, Kyle Firstenberg also expressed remorse because he shunned the fired elders as he was instructed by Driscoll. Firstenberg also provided his perceptions of the bylaws changes dating back to about 2007 when more power was placed in the hands of the executive elders. Eventually, the Board of Advisors and Accountability was created with the purported purpose to provide outside accountability. Firstenberg described a video call where Driscoll discussed the changes. After some push back from elders, according to Firstenberg, Driscoll shut down discussion:

Mark’s response was simply, I don’t give a shit what you guys think. I brought this in front of you guys trying to be nice and make you feel like you are involved in this decision. I don’t even need to get your permission to do this; the last change to the Bylaws gives me permission to do what I want and we are doing this. It doesn’t matter what you say.

With that, the change was made with little protest because if you want to keep your job you don’t cross Mark. My push back is simply, if Mark can make statements like that in front of the people who are his peers as elders/pastors and the people who he has put in place to hold him accountable to begin with, then what makes us think that he would submit himself to a group of people who are outside of the church?

I have heard other Mars Hill pastors describe this meeting with very nearly the same language. If Mars Hill Church would like to dispute this account, I would be happy to post their account.
This is a powerful vindication of the three elders and one which the Mars Hill BOAA has not publicly addressed. I have noted before that the controversy/firings of these men, and other events from about 2007 onward are reverberating today. Mars Hill BOAA has abundant evidence of the issues but has still not contacted these men, preferring instead to talk about some vague reconciliation hunger.