Christian Persecution Really is EVERYWHERE*
*The Phenomenon of (Always) Finding What You’re Looking For
The other day I was on my burner Instagram account and saw a video that Mark Driscoll made about the movie Wicked. (Why was I on my burner account? Well, because Mark Driscoll blocked me a few years ago. It’s one of my shining accomplishments!) It was a video of him watching the trailer to Wicked and then offering his comments. This type of video is something he does frequently, and admittedly, sometimes he surprises me with his commentary. And once, in a VERY great while, he says something that I agree with (gasp!)
But the other day, agreeing with Driscoll was not something that happened. He remained relatively emotionless as he watched the trailer; he does this so that he doesn’t give anything away in terms of what his possible reaction might be. Brilliant trick for someone who wants to make sure that people watch the entire video. I really thought with Wicked it could go either way. Maybe he would say something about not getting caught in cultural trends to amplify a movie. Or maybe he would have seen the underlying themes of Wicked and been able to sermonize them and point people toward Christ.
Unfortunately it was the former of those options. But worse.
The trailer got over, Driscoll didn’t even so much as take a breath before he said that Wicked was a “...Satanic counterfeit using evangelistic appeal through a mainstream movie to convert young people (especially young woman) to paganism and witchcraft (under the auspices of feminism and female empowerment).”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, but my mouth was agape.
He went on to say that he hadn’t watched the movie and had no intention to. However, through that two minute clip, he was able to use cherry-picked scenes intended to excite the viewer (rather than telling the entire narrative), to determine that Wicked was:
“Spiritual grooming for witchcraft and the demonic–create a generation of women who are desensitized toward evil, the demonic, and witchcraft. [And the movie] evangelizes [to] them to cause gender confusion, sexual desires outside of normal male/female relationships, through emotional and spiritual intimacy and connection between the females, and take witchcraft and couch it as good.”
There were so many comments and levels of disgust running through my head as I watched him drone on and on for over 4 minutes (more than twice the length of the actual trailer). Every time he took a breath, the next sentence he uttered was even more vehement about his conclusions. He ended the video by saying, “if you watch this film and don’t tithe, you are funding evil rather than the gospel and you are a part of the problem.” (It’s always about money…)
I took a breath and felt my feet on the ground; I didn’t want Mark Driscoll to take up unnecessary space and emotion in my day. As I glanced around my room, my breath slowed a bit and a thought occurred to me:
Mark Driscoll is finding what he’s looking for.