oh that pagan feminism!

Did you know that having women seen as equals in their households (or in society in-general) will lead to the demise of “proper” Christianity? Who knew! Well, apparently Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky; knows.

You see, according to Russ, evangelical men are letting themselves be virtually and spiritually castrated because they have “embraced contemporary pagan feminism”. I don’t see many evangelical christian men paying homage to Brighid but maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, Russ goes on to state:

Egalitarian views are carrying the day within evangelical churches and homes, Moore said, because complementarians have not dealt sufficiently with the forces that drive the feminist impulse: Western notions of consumerism and therapy.

Egalitarian = men and women are equal; complementarian = men and women are equally created by god but not really equal.

And we learn something else new: consumerism and therapy are what drive “the feminist impulse”. Did you know that? I didn’t. Silly me.

More on the evils of therapy from Russ:

This therapeutic and consumerist atmosphere has led evangelicals away from a view that sees Scripture as the external, objective standard of truth and has pushed them to look inside themselves to find ultimate truth, Moore said.

Because self-exploration is a bad thing. Gotcha.

Oh for chrissakes, this is just more “don’t be worldly” tripe. These sorts of people are so freaking scared of anything that requires exploration of the world outside of the church. Infact, Russ is so freaked out by this that he thinks it will bring down the supremacy of god:

A rejection of male headship leads to a redefinition of divine Fatherhood and divine sovereignty, Moore said. He pointed to open theism (a view that argues God’s knowledge of the future is limited) as an example of the dangers of rejecting biblical patriarchy. Open theism is built upon a denial of the Scripture’s portrayal of God as the sovereign Head of His creation, he said.

“Open theism is not more dangerous than evangelical feminism, or even all that different,” Moore said. “It is only the end result of a doctrine of God shorn of patriarchy.”

Moore also argues that men should not be afraid to embrace the patriarchy because god is described as a man and Jesus was a man and so were Isaac and Abraham. Oh, and “not to let Playboy or Ms. define the grammar of [their] faith”.

To live a patriarchal life is to “offer a living picture of the redemption believers have in Christ”. Oh no, it’s not to live a christian life and live the teachings of, oh I don’t know, Jesus that offers the living picture. No, of course not.

Russ goes on to conclude that:

“Patriarchy is good for women, good for children, and good for families.”

And those poor men involved will just be sacrificing, sacrificing!, to make it happen for the benefit of women, children, and families everywhere. There are plenty of cretins who actually believe this nonsense, an example can be found here (culled by Jill, not Feministe itself).

This is about power and control trying to hide itself behind the guise of god. And it’s utter shite.