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Muscular Christianity and Spiritual Abuse
Current Anthropology ( IF 2.1 ) Pub Date : 2020-02-02 , DOI: 10.1086/704883
Jon Bialecki

Theory can serve multiple purposes at the same time and work to testify in more than one way. Speaking about the place of theory and the values of truth may seem to be a strange choice when speaking about Biblical Porn, or at least a strange choice to those who know the series of events that the book is based on. Biblical Porn is an account of the meteoric growth and pyrotechnical disintegration of Mars Hill, a Seattle-based multicampus megachurch that was (co)founded, led, and destroyed by Mark Driscoll. Driscoll was known for taking the American tradition of “muscular Christianity” and putting it on steroids; he was a purposefully pugilistic figure who reveled in violent analogies and attention-garnering provocations. Johnson’s book traces out this history, showing Driscoll’s repetitive use of militaristic language and of warfare analogies, his continual creation of phantasmic enemies, the constant barrage of homophobic language, and the use of abusive forms of church discipline that made outcasts of any Mars Hill congregation members or pastoral staff member that would question Driscoll’s tactics or behavior. Also present in this indictment is a discussion of Driscoll’s jaw-dropping exploitation of volunteer labor, work that was compelled at times by controlling and sometimes threatening language from mid-level church authorities and made invisible so that church growth could be seen as a function of the charisma and the anointing of “Pastor Mark.” And then there is the phenomenon that give’s this book its title: Driscoll’s continual recourse to a simultaneous crusade against and complete embrace of pornography. Driscoll would launch invectives against pornography and other “sexual sins.” Rather than renounce pornography, however, he shifted the location and labor of its creation from the internet to the Christian bedroom, making complete female sexual availability to the husband the key component of Christian marriage. Despite, or perhaps because of, this behavior, Mars Hill grew in size and reputation, becoming a potent node in the “evangelical industrial complex.” Eventually Driscoll’s abusive behavior to both pastoral staff and congregants, working in tandem with his misappropriation of church funds, reached a tipping point, and Driscoll was forced to resign. Shortly afterward, Mars Hill, which as Johnson presents it, was as much cult of personality as it was church, disintegrated as well. This story is famous in Seattle; it is also very well known in Evangelical circles in the United States and abroad, thanks to Driscoll’s high profile and the levels of church growth that Mars Hill enjoyed. So Johnson’s book has rightfully received a great deal of attention in the popular press. It is the classic story that tells itself, and Johnson is perfectly poised to tell it, having done participant observation on Mars Hill when it was a going concern and afterward being a part of what can only be called the Mars Hill survivor network, where people would work through the spiritual and emotional violence they had experienced. Although a nonbeliever, Johnson finds herself similarly positioned to her recovering interlocutors, in a unique position to not just understand their pain but to share it. Given the vividness of these events, and the sharpness of Johnson’s descriptive writing, one might not expect that this ethnography would be heavy lifting as far as reading goes. But it is, or at least it is for those who find the pace of reading decelerating when they hit passages of theory. This is not bad theory, nor is it parochial. Johnson draws from fields such as continental philosophy, critical theory, affect theory, feminist theory, media studies, cinema studies, and pornography studies in her work, and does so frequently and adeptly. Indeed, thanks to the skill of the author and the breadth of her readings, this book could almost be used as a survey of these fields. But considering the narrative that she has on her hands, the question still is why the recourse to theory in the first place? Reflection suggests several possible reasons. One is the role of critique in her work. Johnson’s immediate object is Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill, but it is not her ultimate object. An account that leaned in on the empirical to the detriment of the theoretical would make this the story of one bad actor, and one maladapted institution, rather than an account of the wider set of poisonous sexualities, genders, technologies, and social forces that Driscoll was parasitic upon. Of course, there is anthropological intellectual material that can be used to this effect, and Johnson is not sparse in her recourse to that body of literature. But because of Biblical Porn’s critical edge, Johnson is less able to engage with the latest generation of United States–focused anthropology and ethnography of Christianity; while The Book of Falwell (Harding 2001), one of the signal ethnographic works on American Conservative Protestantism, could very well be read in the spirit of critique, many later

中文翻译:

肌肉发达的基督教与精神虐待

理论可以同时服务于多种目的,并以不止一种方式作证。在谈论圣经色情时,谈论理论的位置和真理的价值似乎是一个奇怪的选择,或者至少对于那些知道这本书所依据的一系列事件的人来说是一个奇怪的选择。圣经色情是对火星山的飞速发展和烟火式瓦解的描述,火星山是一家位于西雅图的多校区大型教堂,由马克·德里斯科尔(共同)创立、领导和摧毁。德里斯科尔因接受美国“肌肉基督教”的传统并将其打上类固醇而闻名。他是一个刻意好斗的人物,热衷于暴力类比和引人注目的挑衅。约翰逊的书追溯了这段历史,展示了德里斯科尔反复使用军国主义语言和战争类比,他不断创造幻想的敌人,不断涌现的仇视同性恋语言,以及滥用教会纪律的形式,使任何会质疑德里斯科尔的策略或行为的火星山会众成员或牧师工作人员被抛弃。这份起诉书中还讨论了德里斯科尔对志愿劳动的令人瞠目结舌的剥削,这些工作有时是通过控制和有时威胁来自教会中层当局的语言而被迫进行的,并且是隐形的,这样教会的增长就可以被视为一种功能“马可牧师”的魅力和恩膏。还有一种现象给这本书起了个名字:德里斯科尔不断地诉诸于同时反对和完全拥抱色情的运动。德里斯科尔将发起针对色情和其他“性犯罪”的谩骂。然而,他并没有放弃色情,而是将其创作的地点和劳动从互联网转移到基督徒卧室,使完全的女性对丈夫的性行为成为基督徒婚姻的关键组成部分。尽管有这种行为,或者可能是因为这种行为,火星山的规模和声誉不断增长,成为“福音工业综合体”中的一个有力节点。最终,德里斯科尔对牧师和会众的辱骂行为,加上他挪用教会资金,达到了临界点,德里斯科尔被迫辞职。不久之后,正如约翰逊所描述的那样,Mars Hill 既是个人崇拜又是教堂,也瓦解了。这个故事在西雅图很有名;由于 Driscoll 的高知名度和 Mars Hill 所享有的教会增长水平,它在美国和国外的福音派圈子中也非常有名。所以约翰逊的书理所当然地受到了大众媒体的极大关注。这是一个自述的经典故事,约翰逊完全准备好讲述它,在火星山持续经营时进行了参与观察,后来成为只能称为火星山幸存者网络的一部分,在那里人们会解决他们所经历的精神和情感暴力。尽管不信教,约翰逊发现自己与正在康复的对话者的定位相似,处于独特的位置,不仅能理解他们的痛苦,还能分享他们的痛苦。鉴于这些事件的生动性,以及约翰逊描述性写作的犀利,人们可能不会想到,就阅读而言,这种民族志会是繁重的工作。但它是,或者至少对于那些在遇到理论段落时发现阅读速度减慢的人来说是这样。这不是坏理论,也不是狭隘的。约翰逊在她的作品中借鉴了大陆哲学、批判理论、情感理论、女权主义理论、媒体研究、电影研究和色情研究等领域,并且经常且熟练地这样做。事实上,由于作者的技巧和她阅读的广度,这本书几乎可以用作对这些领域的调查。但考虑到她手头的叙述,问题仍然是为什么首先求助于理论?反思提出了几个可能的原因。一是批评在她的作品中的作用。Johnson 的直接目标是 Mark Driscoll 和 Mars Hill,但这不是她的最终目标。一个倾向于经验而损害理论的叙述将使这成为一个坏演员和一个适应不良的机构的故事,而不是德里斯科尔所描述的更广泛的有毒的性行为、性别、技术和社会力量的叙述。被寄生了。当然,有人类学知识分子材料可以用来达到这种效果,约翰逊对这种文学体的诉诸并不稀缺。但由于圣经色情的批判优势,约翰逊不太能接触到最新一代以美国为中心的基督教人类学和民族志;而《福尔威尔之书》(Harding 2001),
更新日期:2020-02-02
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