http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/unreal_sales_for_driscoll_s_real_marriage
It's worth noting that when the story broke Mars Hill Church representative Justin Dean described the relationship the church had with ResultSource as a marketing investment.
"Mars Hill has made marketing investments for book releases and sermon releases, along with album releases, events, and church plants, much like many other churches, authors, and publishers who want to reach a large audience. We will explore any opportunity that helps us to get that message out, while striving to remain above reproach in the process. Whether we're talking about technology, music, marketing, or whatever, we want to tell lots of people about Jesus by every means available. That's what we're all about and have been since 1996."
As for the contract itself, it has been available for public review for a while.
Warren Throckmorton published the contract here:
http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/03/RSIMHCContract.png
Now the contract was signed shortly before Mars Hill Church began a series in late 2011 called "God's Work, Our Witness", which was also the same title of a fundraising film distributed to Mars Hill members with the FY2011 annual report. In the film Driscoll gently rebuked Mars Hill Church across space and time as generally stinking at giving.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-2011-filmsermon-series-gods-work.html
Shortly after the story of the RSI contract broke the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability issued a public statement:
http://marshill.com/2014/03/07/a-note-from-our-board-of-advisors-accountability
They stated the idea for the use of RSI came from "outside counsel" and that while it was not illegal it was unwise. So while the BOAA has claimed that the idea came from "outside counsel" rather than from someone inside Mars Hill this statement does not establish much. Was this "outside counsel" outside counsel to Mars Hill at the time the idea was proposed or was it possible the idea was proposed from someone or some group that is only "outside counsel" since the time the idea was proposed? Since Driscoll has had a history of saying that headship means it's the husband's responsibility even if it isn't his fault (and an inferential case for this could be made from the OT laws regarding vows that a husband fails to nullify once he overhears them) then in terms of the history of Mars Hill Church and its counsel to members from the pulpit, it seems like it basically shouldn't have mattered who the outside counsel was or even how outside they were.
While the book caused a bit of a stir when it was published in 2012 the question of whether or not the ideas and words in Mark and Grace Driscoll's Real Marriage were entirely their own was not raised until 2014, when Janet Mefferd accused Mark Driscoll on air of being a plagiarist. Mefferd was not the only person to raise questions about whether Mark Driscoll had appropriated the ideas of other authors without adequate citation. Wenatchee the Hatchet presented a comparison of Grace Driscoll's chapter 7 of Real Marriage to Dan Allender's chapter 9 of The Wounded Heart on September 30, 2013 before Janet Mefferd made her on-air accusation to Mark Driscoll. Wenatchee The Hatchet also documented that Grace Driscoll was familiar with Allender's work and publicly said so as far back as 2000, and that at a Mens' Retreat in 2006 Mark Driscoll was aware of Allender's work and listed it as a reference to be consulted on the subject of sexual abuse.
Since the start of 2014 the publishers of Mark Driscoll's books have been amending the citation errors:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/01/another-publisher-in-conversation-with-mars-hill-and-mark-driscoll/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/08/kindle-edition-of-mark-driscolls-real-marriage-adds-dan-allender-to-acknowledgments/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/09/mark-and-grace-driscolls-real-marriage-compared-to-justin-and-lindsey-holcombs-rid-of-my-disgrace/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/21/more-citation-problems-in-mark-driscolls-book-real-marriage/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/23/mark-driscolls-real-marriage-and-robert-brannons-male-sex-roles-coincidence-or-something-more/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/27/publisher-thomas-nelson-alters-mark-driscolls-book-real-marriage-to-correct-citation-problems/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/01/27/spokesperson-thomas-nelson-working-with-driscolls-to-address-real-marriage-citation-issues/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/17/publisher-corrects-more-plagiarism-in-mark-driscolls-real-marriage/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/26/mark-driscoll-plagiarism-update-dan-allender-gets-a-footnote-in-real-marriage/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/03/14/mark-driscoll-addresses-mars-hill-church-about-best-seller-issue-church-discord/
In a letter addressed to Mars Hill Church members since March 5, 2014 that was distributed through The City, Mark Driscoll addressed the subject of Mars Hill Church using ResultSource
http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/files/2014/03/MHCletterMD.png
... First, a marketing company called ResultSource was used in conjunction with the book Real Marriage, which was released in January 2012. My understanding of the ResultSource marketing strategy was to maximize book sales, so that we could reach more people with the message and help grow our church. In retrospect, I no longer see it that way. Instead, I now see it as manipulating a book sales reporting system, which is wrong. I am sorry that I used this strategy, and will never use it again. I have also asked my publisher to not use the "#1 New York Times bestseller" status in future publications, and am working to remove this from past publications as well.
With all that in mind, Warren Throckmorton has published two invoices to Mark Driscoll from late 2011
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2014/05/27/who-at-mars-hill-church-authorized-church-funds-to-buy-a-place-for-mark-driscolls-real-marriage-on-the-nyt-best-seller-list/
Justin Dean has responded to an enquiry from Throckmorton about who at Mars Hill Church was responsible for the Result Source agreement and Justin Dean's reply was that he would not be responding with any comments at any time.
Given Justin Dean's established history of making public statements that end up being countered not only by outside organizations but to a lesser degree by the Mars Hill Board of Advisors and Accountability and even Mark Driscoll himself it may be that in this case, at least in the opinion of Wenatchee The Hatchet, Justin Dean wasn't going to be able to say anything that might not create more confusion anyway.
While Throckmorton reports that Thomas Hurst and Jason Skelton explained that Mark Driscoll was not involved in the ResultSource decision process because he removed himself it remains to be seen if Hurst and Skelton can clarify this for themselves. Since Mark Driscoll has been the legal president of Mars Hill Church since 2011 and it was his book that was being promoted and his name on the invoices Warren Throckmorton has published Driscoll could clear things up by clarifying whether it was his money or the money of the church that was used to pay for the ResultSource agreement. If it was something Driscoll paid for personally would this protect him from what blogger James Duncan considered probable inurement? That the invoice was issued to Mark Driscoll courtesy of Mars Hill Church means we can't know for sure since it's not possible to establish from just two invoices whether the invoices were to the individual courtesy of the organization or to the individual as the legal president of the organization. We'd need to see who actually cut the checks for the payments for these invoices, wouldn't we?
Mark Driscoll's letter to members that was published on The City could make it seem as though he had some clear idea of what the nature of the contract was and he even went so far as to claim that as of 2014 he sees the contract as having been wrong.
But for the moment no one at Mars Hill Church has fielded the evidence of plagiarism in several spots of Real Marriage. The citation problems have been getting fixed, as documented by Warren Throckmorton, but the full scale of the Real Marriage issue has not been publicly addressed and it is not certain that even within Mars Hill Church members and staff have been made fully aware that Mars Hill Church contracted with ResultSource to buy a #1 spot on the NYT bestsseller list for a Mark and Grace Driscoll book that was (to go by the rear-guard amendations Thomas Nelson has been making this year) legitimately stated to have plagiarized the works of other authors ranging from Dan Allender to Justin & Lindsey Holcomb who were still participating in church life at Mars Hill in 2011 at the time the contract was signed by Sutton Turner with ResultSource.
http://wenatcheethehatchet.blogspot.com/2014/01/and-it-turns-out-that-mark-driscoll.html
Since Mark Driscoll mentioned that in 2014 he realized that the contract manipulated sales and that that was wrong let's see if in light of that partial confession there's some context for these Old Testament passages (citations are NIV)
Leviticus 19:35
"'Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16
Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly
Proverbs 11:1
The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.
Proverbs 20:10
Differing weights and differing measures-- the LORD detests them both.
Proverbs 20:23
The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.
Amos 8:4-6
Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
Micah 6:11
Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales,
with a bag of false weights?
Dishonest scales and fraudulent measures don't look like they're things that God overlooks.
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