diff --git a/flake8/options/config.py b/flake8/options/config.py
index 9bd7e19..48719a8 100644
--- a/flake8/options/config.py
+++ b/flake8/options/config.py
@@ -52,7 +52,13 @@ class ConfigFileFinder(object):
     @staticmethod
     def _read_config(files):
         config = configparser.RawConfigParser()
-        found_files = config.read(files)
+        try:
+            found_files = config.read(files)
+        except configparser.ParsingError:
+            LOG.exception("There was an error trying to parse a config "
+                          "file. The files we were attempting to parse "
+                          "were: %r", files)
+            found_files = []
         return (config, found_files)
 
     def cli_config(self, files):
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/config_files/broken.ini b/tests/fixtures/config_files/broken.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33986ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixtures/config_files/broken.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[flake8]
+exclude =
+<<<<<<< 642f88cb1b6027e184d9a662b255f7fea4d9eacc
+    tests/fixtures/,
+=======
+    tests/,
+>>>>>>> HEAD
+    docs/
+ignore = D203
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_config_file_finder.py b/tests/unit/test_config_file_finder.py
index 8d7e920..2c56685 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_config_file_finder.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_config_file_finder.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import mock
 import pytest
 
 CLI_SPECIFIED_FILEPATH = 'tests/fixtures/config_files/cli-specified.ini'
+BROKEN_CONFIG_PATH = 'tests/fixtures/config_files/broken.ini'
 
 
 def test_uses_default_args():
@@ -115,3 +116,12 @@ def test_local_configs():
     finder = config.ConfigFileFinder('flake8', None, [])
 
     assert isinstance(finder.local_configs(), configparser.RawConfigParser)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize('files', [
+    [BROKEN_CONFIG_PATH],
+    [CLI_SPECIFIED_FILEPATH, BROKEN_CONFIG_PATH],
+])
+def test_read_config_catches_broken_config_files(files):
+    """Verify that we do not allow the exception to bubble up."""
+    assert config.ConfigFileFinder._read_config(files)[1] == []