Mark Driscoll, An Innocent Moment and a Shattered ‘Cult:’ A Book Review of Vince Manuele’s ‘Kiss and Tell’
By Janet Mefferd - Posted at Substack:
Published April 25, 2026
It’s been almost 13 years since I confronted now-disqualified Pastor Mark Driscoll about his plagiarized book on my radio show and watched as the dominos of his celebrity-pastor con game began to fall, one by one.I last wrote about him in 2014, in a fit of frustration that this scandal-riddled charlatan was somehow still at the helm of Mars Hill Church, even after everything that I and others had revealed about him (he left Mars Hill soon thereafter to launch The Trinity Church in Scottsdale, AZ).
I said in that article that I was done, and I have been done ever since. I can only take so much, after all. But I’ve decided to come briefly out of self-imposed Driscoll hibernation after reading Vince Manuele’s new book, “Kiss and Tell: The Innocent Moment that Shattered Mark Driscoll’s Cult.”
Manuele is a former junior intern and worship-team member at The Trinity Church whose family was ejected from the congregation and then – reportedly and mind-bogglingly – surveilled after they left. What heinous transgression did Manuele commit to deserve such draconian action, you may ask? As he recounts, the then-15-year-old was discovered to have kissed Mark Driscoll’s then-17-year-old daughter, Alexie, with whom he had struck up a friendship and innocent teen romance.
“Kiss and Tell” tells the whole story behind that forbidden kiss, but it also reveals a lot more about Driscoll and the latest church he’s managed to sucker.
