Mojo Dojo Casa Church

Hoooooo boy. Where even to start…

OK, let’s start by dropping in at the James River 2024 Stronger Men’s Conference, held in Springfield, MO, April 11-12, featuring Pastors Mark Driscoll, John Lindell, Louie Giglio, and other regulars on the evangelical men’s conference circuit. I’ll post a video here, a snapshot of the controversial moments. (Apologies, ignore the cover images; only one is relevant.)

If you’ve read Jesus and John Wayne, The Stronger Men’s Conference is exactly what you’d imagine it to be. In previous years, men have boxed, revved motorcycles, set off fireworks, waved American flags, and watched a tank crush cars, as one does. (In 2003 Chuck Norris drove the tank.) Other special guests have included Josh Hawley; as journalist Rick Pidcock put it, “the conference “has featured the likes of Louis Giglio of the Passion movement and Sen. Josh Hawley of the insurrection movement.”

Pidcock covered the event with aplomb over at Baptist News Global.

Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll seethed as Alex Magala, described by two fawning onlookers as “the finest swordsman in all the world,” slowly circled a pole on stage, peeled off his red leather top, slid his tongue up to the tip of a sword, swallowed the sword all the way down his throat, and began to climb the pole erected for the opening of this weekend’s Stronger Men’s Conference….

Driscoll was so enraged by the two onlookers that he claimed to wake up at 1:00 a.m. to pray for the men….Driscoll blamed the presence of LGBTQ people on demons who deny male and female binaries and claimed America has become a cult of tolerance. Then he turned his sights on the sword-swallowing male pole dancer.

“The Jezebel Spirit opened our event,” Driscoll declared. “There was a platform. It was a high place. On it was a pole, an Asherah pole, the same thing that’s used in a strip club for women who have the Jezebel Spirit to seduce men.”…“In front of that was a man, who ripped his shirt off like a woman does in front of a pole at a strip club,” Driscoll continued to describe. “That man then ascended … and then he swallowed a sword.”

John Lindell, the event organizer and lead pastor of James River Church, called out, “You’re out of line, Mark!” And when Driscoll continued talking, Lindell added, “Mark?”

Side note: “Jezebel spirit?” How do women get blamed for everything with these guys?! But I digress…back to Pidcock:

According to their purpose statement, the event’s mission is “empowering men to rise up bold and courageous standing strong and determined to live out God’s purpose for their lives.”

Notice the key words: “empowering,” “rise,” “bold,” “courageous,” “standing,” “strong” and “determined.” Each of these words is specifically chosen by a marketing team to tap into a certain set of desires while ignoring other desires. They could have chosen to use words such as “quietness,” “stillness,” “wholeness,” “gentleness” or “beauty.” Why aren’t those words included?

Perhaps because their marketing is gendered to call out specific values and power structures for men in contrast to women, who presumably would have an entirely different set of values.

And it’s all for the purpose of fighting for the King…

Noticing what key words they use in marketing reveals how this group sacralizes their power and slips it past the intuitive defenses of well-meaning Christians.

Pidcock offers a theological reflection on what’s going on here:

The 2020 promo video opens with a question: “Who may ascend to the mountain of the Lord?” as the image of a man floats up toward the top of a snowcapped mountain. Then it closes with the question, “Are you ready to ascend?”

The image here is of a particular view of masculinity ascending.

“He would put you in this moment in history,” Craig Groeschel preaches.” And he would put you at this place for his kingdom purposes because he has a divine task list for you.”

John Gray adds, “It is time for the men of God to emerge and for us to get face to face with our purpose.”

So what exactly is on this divine task list? And what does it mean for men to emerge? Does anyone in this arena have any self-awareness or systemic awareness of the power men already hold in their homes and in Western society? Do they actually think we need to ascend to more of it?

Apparently, they must think we need more power because it’s all heading toward a fight.

Tim Timberlake shouts: “Can God trust you to go into battle, get wounded, and have the mentality and the mindset, ‘I’m still gonna fight!’?”

But there’s more to this than a theological scuffle. Here, Pidcock draws not just on the Bible, but also on Barbie. Or, rather, on Ken.

As all of the explosions, punching, chair smashing, tank riding and sword swallowing are happening, one cannot help but be reminded of Ken’s experience with patriarchy in last year’s Barbie movie.

“Why didn’t Barbie tell me about patriarchy,” Ken asks, “which to my understanding is where men on horses run everything?” Later, Ken suggests that “everything, basically everything exists to expand and elevate the presence of men.” And his favorite song is “I wanna push you around.”

On one hand, the Kens of Kendomland are just like each other. They have the same name, play with the same toys and say the same things. But on the other hand, their passion for ascending up the mountain of patriarchy leads to the big fight as they turn against one another.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

There’s more background here. If you’re on “Christian Twitter” (now X), you’ll know that the last couple of weeks have been wild. In a nutshell, Sheila Gregoire called out megachurch pastor Josh Howerton for “joking” about how women owed men sex on the wedding night.

Here’s more on that.

Then, after several days of outrage, Howerton “apologized.” With a plagiarized apology.

Click here for that. Really, it’s worth a look.

Now, it turns out Howerton was enjoying choice seats at the Stronger Men’s Conference. So, back to Pidcock:

Howerton is normally the Ken in charge of his own Mojo Dojo Casa Church with tailgating and ESPN playing on big screens between services while cooking up hamburgers and hotdogs that his church charges people for.

Just as the Kens copy each other, Howerton loves to copy other pastors. As Sheila Gregoire has demonstrated, Howerton once plagiarized four different people in one 8-minute section of a sermon.

So as Howerton sat wide eyed looking up at Driscoll, people began noticing over the weekend how Howerton’s supposed apology for his coercive sexual joking from the pulpit also was plagiarized.

Mojo Dojo Casa Church. That pretty much sums it up. The special effects and stereotypes, the allure of power and prestige, the consumer comforts, petty infighting, and the aburdity of it all.

As a Christian, I can’t help but feel the distance between the way of Christ as I understand it and this ego-driven masculine pissing match (excuse my language; I searched for a more respectable alternative but nothing seemed sufficient to describe this travesty).

I joked on Twitter/X that people have been asking for a Jesus and John Wayne documentary, but with the video from this event going viral, any J&JW documentary feels redundant.

I wasn’t joking when I said that the Kens in Kendom analogy feels exactly right, and that we may have a window here into what we can look forward to if Christian nationalist types hold political power. Grasping for power, playing to the crowds, shifting alliances, demonizing enemies. Unchecked “God-given” authority might sound like a great idea if you’re the only Ken in Kendom, but it only really works if you are the only Ken in Kendom.

A week before the Mojo Dojo Casa Church event, an article on another Christian men’s event was published in Men’s Health. I’d spoken with the author, Jason Rogers, a couple of times over the past several months, and it’s an unusually sensitive treatment of this macho-Christian-bonding experience.

Rogers approached the event not just as a skeptical journalist, but as a spiritual seeker. Listen to where he ends:

“I couldn’t think back on the rock concert and rah-rah faith I’d witnessed at Man Camp without feeling at least a little spiritually checked out. But perhaps this was the belief I could get behind—the kind steeped in a private stillness, far from the fervor of a crowd.”

In addition to all the obvious absurdities of an event like the Stronger Men’s Conference, for Christians, it’s worth not losing sight of what is lost when ministering to men is reduced to canned, ego-stroking performances of some imagined, power-hungry “masculinity.” The medium becomes the message, a message that many Christians would agree has nothing to do with the core teachings of the historic Christian faith.

**Addendum: Jessica Johnson, author of the excellent book Biblical Porn: Affect, Labor, and Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Evangelical Empire, makes some astute points here. (I wasn’t sure where the post originated, but I searched until I found a copy of the video not on a suspect site). Here’s what she says:

Re:Driscoll content I’ve seen on here of late. Remember he thrives on controversy. The OP from the latest Jezebel accusation video montage is pro-Driscoll in message and tagged Crowder, LibsTikTok, and mentions Fuentes later in thread. Criticize w/out promoting. MD wants clicks.

It’s a balance, I know. My account is small, my reach limited, but I’m careful and refrain from engaging a lot. Screenshot. Think abt if/why it’s worth engaging. I was asked lately if he’s making a comeback, based on a rise in profile, and he will w/help on social media.

That scene reminded me of a wrestling match. It could have been staged to play out as it did. Driscoll rarely leaves the spotlight or “pulpit” that quickly, esp if rebuked. Just a thought, not scolding or anything.

It’s rich to have a guy who was encouraging Christian wives to play strippers in the marital bedroom for their husbands to say and act as he did the day after the man’s performance. I write about his use Jezebel and Elijah in my upcoming book, so no spoilers, but there’s a link.

**Note: I’ll be on the road again this week, speaking in Buffalo at Canisius College on Wednesday at 7pm, and then at an event sponsored by the Institute for Christian Studies and Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, Ontario, on Thursday and Friday.