Evangelical leaders defended Driscoll because his alpha-male style embodied their ideals.

Evidence

The response of other evangelical men to Driscoll’s fall from grace was revealing. The day after Driscoll resigned, Doug Wilson defended his friend and colleague: “I liked Mark Driscoll before and I like him now.” Wilson thought he knew what was behind “the Driscoll dogpile”: Driscoll was guilty of the sin of being an alpha male. He was “a tough guy,” and his “out-there masculinity provoked resentment among others.” In essence, Driscoll’s downfall could be seen as “the revenge of the beta males.” John Piper, too, came to Driscoll’s defense. Although he confessed to harboring certain reservations concerning Driscoll’s “leadership attitude” and “unsavory language,” and regarding certain “exegetical errors,” he did not regret befriending Driscoll, speaking at his events, or hosting him at his Desiring God Conference. Instead, he chided Driscoll’s detractors and reminded followers that everyone needed renewal and restoration, not just Driscoll. What happened in Seattle was a tragedy: “It was a defeat for the gospel, it was a defeat for Mark, it was a defeat for evangelicalism, it was a defeat for Reformed theology, for complementarianism. It was a colossal Satanic victory.” Yet Piper reminded followers that God still used people to “speak gospel truth” despite their flaws. The Gospel Coalition cofounder and vice president Tim Keller seemed to agree. He admitted that “the brashness and the arrogance and the rudeness in personal relationships” had been obvious from Driscoll’s earliest days, yet he still found opportunity to credit Driscoll with building up “the evangelical movement enormously.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 619

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports Du Mez’s core thesis that militant masculinity, not doctrinal purity, is the organizing value — alpha-male style overrides acknowledged ‘exegetical errors.’ Connects to the book’s continuity-not-hypocrisy argument.
• SEED: The ‘revenge of the beta males’ framing is a striking example of how masculinity discourse operates as a complete moral accounting system inside evangelicalism — anti-masculinity criticism gets dismissed as jealous resentment.