Warren Throckmorton

As reported last week, the license of Mark Driscoll’s naturopath, John Catanzaro was suspended by the Washington State Department of Health. According to the complaint, Catanzaro uses unapproved vaccines to treat cancer. Soon after the complaint was filed, Mars Hill Church removed all of the articles written by Catanzaro from the Resurgence website.
Now, Catanzaro has responded indirectly to the controversy. In an article on his website, he defends his approach by citing Frank Zappa and what he claims is an illustration of a successful use of the vaccines.  Regarding the use of the vaccine with one patient, Catanzaro wrote:

She did have very mild reactions from the chemo, but they were minimal because of the immune support. The immune support did not compromise her chemo regimen it enhanced its effectiveness. I considered this a success!

This is a very delicate topic. On one hand, you have Catanzaro and a cadre of satisfied patients who seem to view the vaccine treatment as integral to their successful battle against cancer. On the other hand, the mainstream medical community has a wonderful track record of advances against the disease via careful research and clinical trials. In my reporting on this subject, I do not mean to seem critical of anyone who is trying to do the best they know how to do.
In a future post (possibly today, maybe tomorrow), I want to present some information which can provide full disclosure for those considering vaccine treatments from naturopaths or other off-the-grid providers. The Mars Hill approach of just removing materials without comment (I have asked) and pretending that John Catanzaro never existed or was not promoted at MHC seems less than helpful. My understanding from anonymous sources I trust is that Catanzaro’s treatments costs thousands of dollars and were provided to senior staff at MHC as a benefit of employment. Now, he is a non-entity.  Mark Driscoll recommended Catanzaro and promoted the bogus diagnosis of adrenal fatigue as recently as this month in Christianity Today. Now, he is gone from the Resurgence website.
(H/t to Sean in the combox)

This story is interesting to me not so much because of the relationship between Driscoll and the naturopath, but because of Mars Hill’s response to the news out yesterday.
John Catanzaro is a naturopath with an office in Bothell, WA.  According to this blogger (who apparently was/is using one of the vaccines), Mark Driscoll has “sung praises” of Catanzaro. However, according to a complaint from the WA Department of Health, Catanzaro promotes unapproved cancer vaccines he has developed in his clinic. This practice led to his suspension, announced in this news report.
Driscoll wrote the Foreward to Catanzaro’s book on marijuana:

With the legalization of marijuana in Washington State I wrote a free ebook on the issue theologically and pastorally. I did not address the medical issues because that was beyond my scope of expertise. However, my doctor and friend Dr. John Catanzaro of Health and Wellness Institute was kind enough to research the medical aspects of marijuana usage and write them up. We genuinely hope this helps Christians make wise decisions and provide wise counsel especially parents and ministry leaders.
-Mark Driscoll, Pastor Mars Hill Church

By calling Catanzaro “my doctor,” this recommendation seems to indicate that Catanzaro is a physician. Catanzaro has written over 18 posts for Mars Hill Church’s The Resurgence website but the articles are now missing (Catanzaro’s bio and article list are still available on Google cache).  For instance, there is a series of articles on eastern practices and Christianity (now gone from The Resurgence website), and others on healthy pastors (e.g., this one on Google cache but not on the website).
Perhaps the church is warning the congregation in another way, but it seems odd to simply remove all references to Catanzaro with no explanation.
Catanzaro’s website video is now private.
This is not the first rodeo for Mr. Catanzaro and the Washington Department of Health.
Here is another video with description of the vaccines near the end of the clip.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cD2WInnbSw[/youtube]
 
 

Possibly.
In 2009, Mars Hill Church launched the Resurgence Training Center. Also known as RE:Train, the program is designed “to train leaders and fuel the leadership engine of our multi-site and church planting movement at Mars Hill church.” (p. 3). The program is set up like an academic institution in that there is a catalog of policies and the courses lead to a “Master of Missional Leadership.” (see pages 4-5). Mark Driscoll is listed as one of the teachers in the school (see pages 8-9).
The catalog begins with a warning:

It is the Resurgence Training Center’s expectation that students will follow school policies and procedures. The student assumes personal responsibility for fulfilling the appropriate course of study and completing the graduation requirements for the Resurgence Training Center. Ignorance of a policy which appears in published student documents, particularly the catalog or student handbook, is not a valid reason for granting exception to any policy. (p. 2)

Claiming ignorance might not get you any grace. Readers may be able to tell where this is going.
One of the policies for which students are responsible is the plagiarism policy. The catalog defines plagiarism on page 12:

PLAGIARISM
Students found plagiarizing are subject to discipline. The most common errors in handling written sources are  the following: (1) failure to use quotations marks when quoting, (2) failure to make a thorough paraphrase when attempting to put someone else’s idea into one’s own words, and (3) failure to give credit to the source of the information.
The standard disciplinary response to substantial plagiarism is an immediate “F” for the course and the student placed on probation. This action may be either decreased or increased for reasons determined by the professor or academic dean. appeals for any such actions can be made to the academic dean and the ad hoc appeals committee.

Given the documented citation errors identified here and elsewhere, I think Rev. Driscoll might have to face some form of discipline. He has reproduced material verbatim from sources without citation, inadequately paraphrased and failed to give credit to sources of information (see this post for a summary in just one book).
On paper, this policy is hard to square with Tyndale House’s remarkable statement that Peter Jones’ work was “adequately cited” in Driscoll’s A Call To Resurgence. My point is not to drag out old charges but to wonder out loud if the distance between what we expect from students and what we expect from church leaders has gotten too great. The definition of plagiarism in Mark Driscoll’s own school is more stringent than the one used by a publisher of his books.
 
See also:
Spokesperson: Thomas Nelson Working With Driscolls to Address Real Marriage Citation Issues

I asked Harper Collins Christian Publishing Director of Corporate Communications, Casey Francis Harrell for comment regarding when the print edition of Real Marriage would reflect the changes now seen online. In response, Ms. Harrell said in an email:

We are aware of the issues that have been raised about Mark and Grace Driscoll’s REAL MARRIAGE, and we are working with the authors to address them as efficiently and effectively as possible in all formats.

Thomas Nelson has addressed two of the several issues which have been raised here and elsewhere.

On January 9, I compared a section of Mark & Grace Driscoll’s book Real Marriage to Justin & Lindsey Holcomb’s book Rid of My Disgrace. In that post, I noted that the Driscolls did not give adequate credit to the Holcombs for some material adapted from the Holcombs’ book on recovery from sexual assault. While some supporters of Mark Driscoll have minimized concerns about plagiarism and  inadequate citation, the publishers involved apparently consider the problems to be important. First, Thomas Nelson added an acknowledgment to Dan Allender* in Real Marriage and now the publisher has made more changes in the book to more appropriately cite the Holcombs’ work.
The image below shows the original version compared to the Google version (p. 125) now online:

With these corrections, Thomas Nelson addressed the precise issues that I pointed out in the January 9 post. The current version is much better and gives appropriate credit to the Holcombs.
Thomas Nelson should get some credit for this reaction to concerns over plagiarism. In contrast to Tyndale House, Thomas Nelson apparently viewed the citation of the Holcomb’s work as less than market standards. Recall that Thomas Nelson pulled David Barton’s book, The Jefferson Lies when it became clear that the book was filled with factual errors. Now, they have taken a less drastic course but nonetheless tacitly acknowledged problems which require action.
I would say that the several publishers involved have a lot more work to do to make appropriate corrections. Now that Thomas Nelson has moved to make these changes, Tyndale House may feel additional pressure to rethink the findings of their investigation regarding citation of Peter Jones’ work in A Call To Resurgence.
*This now shows up in the Google version as well.
UPDATE: Thomas Nelson issued a statement to me today regarding the changes being made to Real Marriage. Click the link to read the statement.