A decade ago, a hip young preacher from Seattle was immortalized in a sense by blockbuster author Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), and his career was never the same. Mark Driscoll, labeled by Miller as “Mark the Cussing Pastor” has since gone on to achieve some measure of fame in evangelical circles. As pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Driscoll moves in some pretty exclusive circles, hosting Rick Warren, James MacDonald, Miles McPherson, Matt Chandler, and Crawford Loritts at his Resurgence conferences. Driscoll is also part of MacDonald’s semi-infamous “Elephant Room” confabs, with such luminaries as Steven Furtick and T.D. Jakes expounding on a range of topics. Part of Driscoll’s appeal is his ability to take dense, staid material (Reformed theology) and make it popular on some level with evangelical audiences. He is also notorious for his loose language from the pulpit, drawing rebukes from John MacArthur. As MacArthur has written about Driscoll’s communication style: “Mark Driscoll is one of the best-known representatives of that kind of thinking. He is a very effective communicator—a bright, witty, clever, funny, insightful, crude, profane, deliberately shocking, in-your-face kind of guy. His soteriology is exactly right, but that only makes his infatuation with the vulgar aspects of contemporary society more disturbing.” In the modern world of evangelicalism, however, none of that matters much to a guy as popular as Driscoll. A tipping point was reached and breached sometime back by the new generation of leaders in the American Church and through sheer numbers of people reached, they don’t have to be accountable anymore. That includes how Driscoll refers to fellow brothers and sisters in the faith. In his April 10, 2013 blog post, Driscoll referred to discernment ministries as “extremist,” an extremely troubling label, considering that a whole host of bad guys in our world today are labeled as “extremists” (see Hamas). Driscoll further bared his fangs due to his contention that certain folks had been criticizing Rick Warren, even in the wake of the horrible family tragedy the Warrens have endured (son Matthew committed suicide on April 5): “Subject to lying, fearful and gullible people are then guilty of lying and gossiping as they swarm like bees around a colony every time some queen bee summons them for orders to head out for online stinging. I make a conscious effort to avoid these and porn sites for the same reason: they are filled with horrible trash that ruins lives.” When I attempted to ask Driscoll for clarification, an assistant for the pastor sent a terse email accusing me of trying to find fault with Driscoll. This is a diversionary tactic, of course, used when someone doesn’t want to answer pointed questions. The assistant went on to say that Driscoll didn’t have time to answer, and that Driscoll’s words in the blog were not “inflammatory,” as I’d pointed out. Herein lies the problem. Of course Driscoll’s crude marginalization of “discernment ministries” was inflammatory. But handlers for these mega-church and ministry leaders are as sophisticated as that of, say, the president of the United States (think of press secretary Jay Carney). Because of the power and influence of their ministries, they often bully and intimidate critics, even alleging that the latter are “jealous” and “envious” and hope to use the notoriety that comes from “criticizing” to springboard out of their “puny” ministries (as compared to the New Evangelical leaders). Further, in his 2006 book, the Radical Reformission, Driscoll disparages those who hold to different eschatological views, calling them: “Nutty, Christian, end-times-prophecy Kaczynskis [who] throw books on the shelves and films into the theaters trying to predict when we’ll get off the postmodern roller coaster.” [page 165] Here again, we see a dangerous escalation in the type of rhetoric used by folks like Driscoll. Ted Kaczynski, of course, is the “Unabomber” who murdered innocent people out of a warped sense of reality. No one in the Christian community—at the national level, at least—apparently sees anything wrong with this. However, this phenomenon of calling “critics” names and making derogatory and dangerous comparisons is in vogue. Two years ago, Glen Stassen and David Gushee wrote an “open letter” to Christian Zionists, accusing them of “sinning” and committing “sin” by advocating for Israel. This is not so different than the language of Brian McLaren, who accuses supporters of Israel in much the same way; he also accuses Bible prophecy teachers and students of practicing an “eschatology of abandonment.” Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina, is another high-profile leader not bound by proper decorum when it comes to venting publicly. From a blog post on October 5, 2011, Noble had this to say: “For the times you have been criticized and slandered against by people who have never even met you and are clueless in regards to your heart for the Lord.  They have misquoted you, taken you out of context and tried to destroy you with their word twisting and hate filled inaccuracies.  And yet you have persevered, you have resisted the urge to fight with them, keeping your eyes on Jesus and refusing to come down off of the wall.” There are several things going on here. First, a leader with a charismatic personality gains a large following and his devoted followers accept whatever he is saying; the defenders of leaders like Noble react fiercely, usually in comment sections of blogs, to anyone who dares question the Leader’s methods. In the above blog post, Noble works hard at making himself sound, well, noble. And yet, his venting at critics is as troubling as Mark Driscoll’s:  “Critics in ministry world are often like savage wolves…just waiting on a piece of a sermon or a blog post that they can rip out of context and prove to the world what a horrible person you are.  They normally care nothing about the people they criticize and most often desire to see them ripped apart…no matter what it takes.”[May 17, 2012] Warren, who has a long mentoring relationship with these men and other ministry leaders, sets the tone for most of them. In other words, whatever is on Warren’s mind and agenda usually filters down to the younger leaders being groomed to lead the Evangelical community. On May 21, 2012, Warren tweeted: “Rudeness is a tool of the insecure.” The only problem is, on March 20, he had tweeted: “Follow positive tweeps. Unfollow negative twits.” Twits. Huh. We have a really interesting dynamic going on here. On the one hand, America’s leading evangelical voices work overtime with their public relations staffs to present themselves as tolerant, peace-loving, “Christ followers.” But when dealing with people who get under their skin (for asking legitimate questions), they are anything but. And no protests are heard at the national level. Not a peep. Where is the accountability? When Mark Driscoll likens discernment ministries to porn sites, to quote Bob Dole, “Where is the outrage?” When Warren wannabes refer to critics as “terrorists” and “idiots,” why do people listen to anything they have to say? Aren’t pastors and church leaders supposed to lace their speech with grace and compassion? Isn’t that…leading? An added curiosity is the willingness of younger leadership to march in lockstep with Warren, Bill Hybels, or Andy Stanley. On January 21, Warren tweeted: “Foolish people claim to know about the future & tell the details but no one really knows what will happen.” Eccl. 10:14 This follows a long-standing effort by Warren to denigrate Bible prophecy teachers and the study of prophecy. So it’s no surprise that Mark Driscoll also denigrates the study of Bible prophecy. Still, it is his wider condemnation of anyone who doesn’t disagree with him that is so disturbing. From an audio recording made at a 2007 gathering of Acts 29 church planters, Driscoll sounds anything but a pastor as he explains how to deal with dissenters: “Here’s what I’ve learned. You cast vision for your mission; and if people don’t sign up, you move on.  You move on. There are people that are gonna to die in the wilderness and there are people that are gonna take the hill. That’s just how it is.“Too many guys waste too much time trying to move stiff-necked, stubborn, obstinate people. (pause) I am all about blessed subtraction. There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus (laughs) and by God’s grace it’ll be a mountain by the time we’re done.” Driscoll’s venomous attacks—and those of his friends—beg the question: Where is the outrage? (Jim Fletcher is a writer, researcher, and speaker. His work has appeared at Beliefnet, the Jerusalem Post, RaptureReady, and Frontpage magazine. He can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com)