Mark Driscoll, MacArthur Bros, And Woke Conference Hypocrisy

It’s been a while since Clear Truth Media has been in the news, as they have sort of rebranded as Clear Truth Churches, and announced the lineup for the Clear Truth Churches Conference. With the unfortuanate death of Voddie Baucham, Clear Truth’s Steve Whitlow replaced Baucham with Mark Driscoll. And people lost their minds.

This was mainly embodied by the liberals led by Mike Cosper and the MacArthur Bros, who want to continuously relitigate Mars Hill. But the conference is not meant for the effeminates of Christianity Today. Rather it is a bringing together of the Reformed and not-Reformed camps to emphasize a post-denominational path forward for Evangelicalism. Thus, Driscoll, being ascendant, is a strategic choice for selling tickets.

But the choice brought heavy criticism from Phil Johnson, Justin Peters, and others, as many are not welcoming of Driscoll because he resigned from Mars Hill, which is viewed as fleeing church discipline. Thus, they believe him to be permanently disqualified, even if the Mars Hill elders never declared him as such and offered terms of restoration, however dubious. I’ve come to the conclusion that Driscoll and Mars Hill is the Watergate of Evangelicalism, as with Nixon, it is massively overblown.

Nevertheless, the MacArthur Bros are loud about Driscoll, but silent as their premier conference (since G3 is toast) is ShepCon. The lineup fopr ShepCon includes 4 unrepentant woke pastors, seminary heads: John Piper, Mark Dever, Al Mohler, and Ligon Duncan.

On November 16, 2016, John Piper wrote “Structural Racism The Child of Structural Pride” to “reduce the instinctive, white, evangelical reaction against the idea of structural racism or systemic racism.” Consider how Piper defines structural racism which he states is synonymous with systemic racism.

Racism is an explicit or implicit feeling or belief or practice that values one race over other races, or devalues one race beneath others.

John Piper’s definition of racism is so vague that stratifying data could be considered racism.

Racist, as a noun, refers to a person who is characterized by racism without hating, renouncing, and seeking to eliminate his own racist attitudes and actions, and the harmful effects of them. The implication is that while everyone, as sinful and self-centered by nature, is tainted with racist tendencies, not everyone should be labeled a racist.

According to John Piper’s definition, you are a racist unless you are antiracist.

“Structural racism is the cumulative effect of racist feelings, beliefs, and practices that become embodied and expressed in the policies, rules, regulations, procedures, expectations, norms, assumptions, guidelines, plans, strategies, objectives, practices, values, standards, narratives, histories, records, and the like, which accordingly disadvantage the devalued race and privilege the valued race. Implicit in this definition is the important fact that structural racism, therefore, may have its racist effects even if non-racist people now inhabit the institutions where the racist structures still hold sway.”

John Piper’s framing of these issues implying that it is ideal for one to become anti-racist and that racism can exist without racists are ideas straight from Critical Race Theory. But even worse than his wokeness was when he said he would not defend his wife if under attack using lethal force. This is utterly disqualifying, as pastors are called to protect their flock. And if a man wouldn’t defend his own wife, he has no business being a pastor.

Mark Dever is perhaps the hardest to pin wokeness on, since he strategically let Jonathan Leeman and others at 9Marks do it for him. But 9Marks wen woke in 2014-2015, and this is a reflection of Dever’s leadership, as well as all the militant woke pastors he has helped train up.

In 2017, Al Mohler appointed a committee of six persons to prepare a report on the legacy of slavery and racism in the history of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The committee’s members were Dr. Curtis Woods, Dr. John Wilsey, Dr. Kevin Jones, Dr. Jarvis Williams, Dr. Matthew J. Hall, and Dr. Gregory Wills. Before George Floyd, Al Mohler was putting his seminary through a struggle session and disgracing the forefathers of the faith and the Southern Baptist Convention. Curtis Woods, whom Mohler hired, would go on to spearhead Resolution 9 in 2019 which endorsed Critical Race Theory as an “analytical tool.”

Lastly, Ligon Duncan wrote the foreword to Eric Mason’s Woke Church.

All four of these men wear Reformed theology as lamb’s blood, so the MacArthur Bros passover them with their selective outrage.