American Evangelicalism and Hypermasculinity: Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church

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This book analyses how Seattle's Mars Hill Church, led by Pastor Mark Driscoll, permanently affected American evangelicalism by normalizing a hypermasculine gender theology. It argues that the establishment of this type of hypermasculine theology is foundational to the rise of Christian nationalism in America, and was crucial to Donald Trump's progression to President of the United States of America. Driscoll's authoritarian leadership propagated a “neo Muscular” Christian movement that grew Seattle's Mars Hill Church into one of the fastest growing, most innovative, and most influential churches in the country. Driscoll's gender theology put men at the forefront of American Christianity, redefining Jesus from a “Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,” to a “prizefighter with a tattoo down his leg, a sword in his hand, and the commitment to make someone bleed.” Using revealing sources from the Church's significant online presence, including Driscoll's infamous "pussified nation" thread, Jennifer McKinney examines Driscoll's innovative gender theology and his construction of Christian masculinity, femininity, and family relationships. McKinney argues that by understanding the roots of Christian nationalism via its most prolific proponent-Driscoll-it is possible to situate and predict the relationship between gender theologies and the rise of future populist political movements.