Driscoll Explains Why He Yelled
Before explaining the backstory of the sermon, Driscoll first scolded his critics, saying, “For my critics and enemies that have used it, shame on you, but here’s the truth.”
Driscoll then shared how he came to realize his wife, Grace, had been sexually abused by one of her boyfriends before they were married. The revelation came years into their marriage.
Driscoll recalled that Grace was folding laundry answering some of his questions and he began to weep uncontrollably because it dawned on him that his best friend had been sexually assaulted by a previous boyfriend.
“It just wrecked me,” Driscoll said. “It just broke me and triggered me.”
Driscoll then said that he got his wife help through counseling and also did a deep dive into researching trauma and abuse. “I read as much as I could on sexual assault and trauma and met with counselors and was trying to figure out a way to help my my best friend just kind of recover from what she had been through,” he said.
“We were processing a lot of that as a married couple and issues like disassociation and trauma triggers,” he added, “and trying to learn all of that to help Grace.”
Mars Hill Church started as a college ministry in Seattle, Washington, and attracted many young adults as the church began to grow. Driscoll described the churchgoers as being “very young, a lot of homeless kids, a lot of punk rockers, and a lot of drug use and abuse.”
“A lot of the men had deep-seated porn habits and sexual addiction,” Driscoll said. He said they were “unsafe” to be around. “A lot of the women were sexual assault victims and trauma victims and abused. A lot of it was sometimes college campus drinking and rape culture,” Driscoll added.
Driscoll explained that as Grace started to share her sexual abuse story, it created “a wave of women who felt that it was safe to talk about it. And so they started reporting to me as their pastor and us as their church their trauma, their abuse, and all that they have been through.”
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At the time he preached the sermon, his wife had only been two years into her healing process. Driscoll also shared that being a father of two daughters played a factor in his sermon delivery.
