Ironically, this whole incident highlights another similarity between Driscoll and MacArthur: besides both being relentless self-promoters who make their names by loudly denouncing others, they also hate when people call them out as self-promoters who loudly denounce others, preferring to be known as quiet, humble men of God who love and respect their enemies – despite all tweets to the contrary.

Professionally brash pastor Mark Driscoll and quintessential fundamentalist John MacArthur found themselves in a sort-of-feud last Friday, as Driscoll protested outside MacArthur’s “Strange Fire” conference and had copies of his book sort-of-confiscated.

It was weird. It was particularly weird given that both men are staunch theological conservatives, strident Calvinists, and megachurch pastors.

For those who don’t know him, John MacArthur is an old school fundamentalist whose church draws over 8000 weekly attendees. He also believes all Charismatics are blasphemers, and ultimately hell-bound, which is the premise of his Strange Fire conference, based on his recent book of the same name. MacArthur spent the conference denouncing the prosperity gospel, the social gospel, charismatics…so basically, everyone except him and his ever-shrinking group of friends.

Driscoll, perhaps trying to distinguish himself from MacArthur, argues that MacArthur’s approach is exclusionary; that dismissing charismatics is to dismiss “the majority of Christianity globally.” Of course, it may seem rather cynical that Driscoll critiques MacArthur for not being big-tent enough while he promotes hisbook A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity have a Funeral or a Future?, which claims that only 8% of Americans are true evangelicals. A little math here shows that Driscoll believes around 11% of self-identified Christians are really Christians.

ANYWAY. In this theological dispute, a sort-of-feud was born. Driscoll happened to be spending the weekend of Strange Fire at his own “Act Like Men” conference, coincidentally held a mere forty-five minute drive away in Long Beach, California. So on Friday, Driscoll took a break from espousing his creepy patriarchal gender philosophy to bring a message of sort-of-inclusion forty-five minutes up the road to Sun Valley.

Once he arrived, Driscoll handed out copies of A Call To Resurgence, shook some hands, and prayed with a few people. But it wasn’t long before trouble started. Driscoll tweeted, “Security confiscated my books.” As evidence, he posted a photo of himself being stared down by several intimidating-looking men in suits.

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