William Lindsey 
I just finished reading Cait West's new book Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024). As the title indicates, she tells a story of growing up in a family in which her parents — with the father calling the shots — bought into the Christian patriarchy movement. And it's her story of recognizing the damage her upbringing did to her and breaking away from the world her parents constructed for her.
I'm sharing some passages from the book that struck me as insightful:
“I am calling this a movement because Christian patriarchy is an ideology that cuts across many Protestant denominations. Some might call it a cult, a high-control group ruled by hierarchy and oppression” (p. 4).
“Cover up. This was one of the first rules I learned” (p. 9).
#Christian #patriarchy #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination #FemaleSubordination #gender #complementarianism
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Marcus Marcius Marcellus@wdlindsy "patriarchy is an ideology that cuts across many Protestant denominations"
Well, true, but this is a bit like saying "Use of a spherical object of play -- a 'ball', if you will -- is a practice that cuts across many variants of football".
@marcas Except football doesn't control the world in the direct, apodictic, and dominative way religion frequently does.
@wdlindsy I see that you do not live in Europe or Latin America.
@marcas I suspect Europe and Latin America couldn't hold a candle to North America, especially the American South, when it comes to worshiping at the church of football.
@wdlindsy Ah, see, here we have two peoples divided by a common language...
@marcas And one of us is responding to a writer's painful story of abuse in a Christian patriarchal household and the damage that did to her by changing the subject to football.
@wdlindsy You really must learn to read more closely. The football thing was not changing the point.
The football thing expressed my limited sympathy for those who say "This *specific brand* of religion, that differs from my own and that I personally dislike, is a Bad Thing".
As I said: that's certainly true, as far as it goes; but it is also so narrowly focused as to be of little use in understanding the phenomenon.
And if it's not clear: it isn't West's story I'm responding to.
@marcas I'm interested in sharing West's story and listening seriously to what she has to say.
@wdlindsy Fair enough, and that’s important.
I’m interested in identifying the common thread that leads so many forms of religion, outwardly very different to each other, to the same dire social effects as invariably as a dog returneth to his vomit.
I’m also interested in understanding why both the very worst and the very best humans can espouse religion (often, the same one). I think it’s easier to understand this if one leaves deities out of the analysis altogether.
@marcas These are certainly important questions that deserve careful consideration. My reaction has been to what seemed to me a diversion from Cait West's analysis, to which I want to give careful attention and a receptive ear.