Last time we met up, I told you about a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor named Chris Gore. Of late, he and his little Oklahoma church have been deeply entangling themselves in the divorce of one of their menfolk. (But to be fair, what else is there to do in the middle of nowhere besides participate and instigate messy interpersonal dramas?)
Fortunately, Chris Gore’s attempts to control and subdue the wife of this congregant have all backfired hard, making him a laughingstock online. Today, I want to show you what his internal user manual looks like—and why his programming works so poorly outside of his very insular little fundagelical bubble.
(Fundagelicals are simply the product of the 90s fusion of evangelicals with fundamentalists. Please see: A strange evolution. This post went live on Patreon on 10/29/2024. Its audio ‘cast lives there too and is public!)
Dysfunctional authoritarians ahoy!
Back when Roll to Disbelieve was still on WordPress’ free site (2013-2015), a religion researcher left me a nice comment. In that post, I wrote about seeing two kinds of Christianity in America: one focused on charity, love, and compassion, and one focused on controlling other people. To vastly paraphrase, he said that I’d given him a whole new approach to studying religion.
That was extremely kind of him to say. I’ve never forgotten it. Since then, though, I’ve developed a far more sophisticated way of looking at group dynamics. Now I look at groups through the lens of how they organize their power structures.
In Chris Gore’s case, he is solidly authoritarian: He is the supreme power within his church. There, he allows no backtalk or questioning. He expects instant obedience from those in his congregation. When defied, he goes to nuclear lengths to bring the defiant back to heel.
However, his authoritarianism follows dysfunctional rather than functional lines. That means it is guaranteed to enable the abuse of the group’s powerless members. Really, it’s just a matter of when we find out, not if it happens. So I doubt the current drama is his first trainwreck meltdown. Either way, it won’t be his last.
The magic ingredient that makes authoritarianism functional
When I talk about authoritarianism these days, I make a distinction between dysfunctional and functional forms of it. Not all authoritarianism is inherently evil or abusive. As an example, most military organizations in Western countries operate along authoritarian lines. Though they do generate abuse cases sometimes, it’s not the norm because their form of authoritarianism is more or less functional.
In functional authoritarian groups, those who break their rules get caught. In turn, those caught face trials. Those convicted during these trials face whatever punishment the org has set up for such cases. Even those at high levels within the organization are not exempt from this process. In fact, they may face even more stringent rules and punishments because they violated far more trust and their betrayals affect far more people than any scandal a scrub can commit.
As you might already have guessed, the magic ingredient that makes authoritarianism dysfunctional is a lack of real accountability.
At the very moment that accountability is peeled away from an authoritarian system, the group using that system breaks—usually irrevocably. Once an authoritarian group becomes dysfunctional, it transforms into a power conduit for its leaders. Those leaders no longer care about whatever that group was formed to do. The group’s purpose only matters at that point as a recruitment tool and control measure.
All the group’s leaders care about from then on is gathering, growing, protecting, and flexing power against those under their rule.
The Principles of Power for leaders like Chris Gore
Dysfunctional authoritarian leaders live according to what I call the Principles of Power. Mainly, the Principles of Power describe how leaders operate within groups:
- Leaders’ commands are law and their decisions final; the group allows no appeals to leaders’ dictates
- Only leaders have power; members are completely stripped of power
- Rank-and-file members only accrue power as they rise in the affection of leaders or draw upon family connections
- Leaders appoint their lackeys to positions according to their loyalty rather than their skills and merit
- The more powerful someone is within the group, the more rules they may break with impunity; rules are for the powerless, not the powerful
- When a powerful person breaks the group’s rules, the group allows it and may even shield and protect that person
- Breaking rules becomes a strong indicator of power: the more taboo the rule, the more powerful the person breaking it must be—and the fewer people who can rein them in
- Members in these groups jockey hard to reach a position where they obey the fewest number of higher-ups while commanding the largest number of underlings; thus, whoever occupies the top rung of the ladder obeys nobody but commands everybody
- A crony network of high-level leaders protects its own (as long as the person needing protection is useful, at least!)
- Any leader’s admission of weakness (like an apology) becomes the prelude for attacks from all sides—and there is always someone gunning for every position of power within the group
- No powerless person within the group can impose accountability on the powerful
- Only the powerful can make big changes to the group, and they won’t do that because it’d cost them far more than a weakening of their immediate power (see above note concerning admissions of weakness—change is one of the biggest admissions of weakness in these groups)
- Any show of disobedience among followers must be brutally stomped down by leaders, or they will be interpreted as weak (again, see above note)
- Power must be flexed, or the one holding it will be perceived as weak (yes, see above note for this one too)
- One potent flex of power is forcing another person to do something they absolutely don’t want to do, like performing unwanted sex acts, enduring molestation, or gestating against one’s will, etc; in fact, the more repulsive and unwanted the deed is, the more powerful that leader feels and the more certain it makes their other followers feel of their allegiance
- All tools are at the disposal of the powerful, even ones not intended for retaliation (like Chris Gore’s homemade cease and desist letter, which violates the Bible’s rules for Christian-on-Christian lawsuits and maybe even his state’s anti-SLAPP laws too)
What I’m describing here sounds completely dystopian. I know. And it is. It is horribly dystopian. But it’s how these groups and their leaders operate.
Practical considerations for dysfunctional authoritarian leaders like Chris Gore
As I mentioned last time we met up, I’m not surprised that someone with such piss-poor leadership skills as Chris Gore became a pastor in the SBC.
He’s a dysfunctional authoritarian, so he can’t become a leader for a functional group. Those groups have way better discernment than the dysfunctional ones do. If one sneaks in somehow, they have ways of removing them before they can do too much damage.
That’s why we almost never hear about sex and abuse scandals in mainline churches. Mainline churches rarely follow authoritarian power structures in the first place, but they’re also way more functional than evangelical churches tend to be. Well-run businesses are like that as well.
Mainline leaders have never expected to use Jesusing as a substitute for real-world accountability. They have always been strict about vetting and background-checking staff and volunteers. These churches have already shut the door to those who want an easy path to unilateral power over others.
So for Chris Gore to scratch his leadership itch, he’d have to involve himself with some flavor of extreme right-wing religion. They use loud Jesusing as a substitute for all kinds of things: character growth, integrity, honesty, accountability, discernment, you name it. All he has to do is fake the walk long enough to trick the hiring committee—or else start a church to avoid the hiring process, then trick his first few congregants.
More than that, though, I’m not surprised that Chris Gore ended up as an SBC pastor in the tiny town he did. In fact, his church’s location tells us volumes about what kind of dysfunctional authoritarian he is.
The avenues of opportunity keep shrinking for low-effort evangelical abusers
Larger churches, particularly denominational ones like the SBC and especially ones in larger cities, have grand expectations of their ministers. They expect all kinds of degrees and training. They may also expect candidates to have good connections in the local ministry scene. I’ve even seen seminary students’ memes about the disconnect between those expectations and the salary the hiring church offers!
I don’t think Chris Gore has much in the way of credentials—if any. He really strikes me as a more 90s-style self-taught fundamentalist who just hung out a shingle one day. That was a very common path to power back in my day. It was so common that even Babylon Bee has poked fun at it. In fact, even my Evil Ex Biff was going that route. I can see why, too! It’s so much easier to hood-slide sideways into a pulpit gig than to spend many years gathering proper credentials.
Nowadays, though, about the only place in America someone can still do that is tiny little towns like Beggs, Oklahoma (population: about 1100 and falling).
What all of this means is that Chris Gore is a dysfunctional authoritarian—and a low-effort one at that.
I’m more surprised that he’s SBC at all rather than nondenominational. For now, he may find the benefits of SBC membership worthwhile. But if accountability comes a-knockin’ too loudly, he may withdraw his church from membership to avoid a spanking from the mother ship. Just a couple of years ago, we saw another scandal-causing SBC pastor do exactly that!
Chris Gore has been pretty quiet of late
Since this incident, Chris Gore’s been pretty quiet about what he did to Brenda Bicskey. Since this incident, Chris Gore’s been pretty quiet about what he did to Brenda Bicskey. (I’ve had the opportunity to message with her—she’s a sweetheart. She says it’s been “crickets” out of him since the cease and desist blowup.)
Gore’s Twitter page is a weird but sparse mishmash of personal observations he mistakenly thinks are grand realizations, like this one:
It’s like he has no idea that farmers have worked long weeks since the dawn of agriculture. Or that American laborers would still be forced to work 6-day weeks (and 12-hour days!) if it weren’t for his hated enemies, those dang dirty ickie liberals. We also won’t mention that in his idealogy, women never get a day of rest. That’s likely why he specifically addressed men in the post!
He’s also retweeted someone else’s observations about the Overton Window, which I’ve seen the alt-right discussing of late.
But I see nothing on any of his social media about the divorce that he has happily made his business.
Why this sudden quiet isn’t surprising
I strongly suspect that Gore never expected his misbehavior and control-lust to get noticed outside of his very narrow social milieu.
Someone like Chris Gore can’t really function in an environment where he’s not in control. He’s like one of those baby monkeys in the wild whose mothers step away for a moment: First they’re a little confused, and then they grow increasingly frantic till they’re back in their mothers’ arms again. Baby monkeys’ entire programming tells them to cling to their mothers. If they can’t do that then they freak out.
For people like Chris Gore, their mother monkey is a sense of control over others. Authoritarians learn to make the association between control and safety very early on. At any sign of their control weakening, we can and should expect them to do everything in their power to regain it.
In a functional authoritarian environment, clear and fair paths exist to get back to that state for those who legitimately hold power. But in a dysfunctional authoritarian group, nobody holds power in any kind of legitimate way. Only loyalty matters to the group’s leaders, who portion power out however they please.
I strongly suspect that Chris Gore will get emboldened again at some point, but he’s likely learned a lesson about the limits of his control. If he wonders what the results of not learning it are, he only needs to look at the example of Steven Anderson. Anderson is well-known in the Christ-o-sphere as a hate preacher. He not only accepted criticisms of his doctrinal stances, but welcomed them. He gloried in being known as a creepy bigot.
Then, a month or so ago, we found out that Anderson is also into domestic violence and child abuse.
I’m not kidding. With pastors like these, it’s only a matter of when, not if we find out what they’re doing in the darkness.
What to do if you discover your own group’s leader is unsettlingly similar to Chris Gore
For Chris Gore’s immediate victims and subjugated congregation, there’s not much they can do beyond putting as much distance as possible between the two of ’em. Here’s why:
In such a small church, the pastor is the power structure. He’s had plenty of time to assemble a court around himself that he knows is loyal. His court winds an impervious hedge of protection around him. In times of trouble, they will close ranks around him.
But here’s the worst part: Firing Chris Gore might feel good, but it wouldn’t do anything to change that church’s loyalty-based, accountability-evading power structure. He’s ruled over his fiefdom for decades now anyway, so I’m sure his underlings and favored ass-kissers feel very comfortable with things as they are now.
Even if someone found a way to eject all of the church’s leaders along with Chris Gore himself, it wouldn’t change the group to a functional one. As I once found out to my dismay, the rank-and-file members who like Chris Gore’s leadership style will resist any big changes to their culture. Only a few ass-kissing pew-warmers are needed to torpedo any attempts to make positive changes.
I want to stress this point:
Nobody can make changes in churches like the one Chris Gore pastors. The mere fact that someone like him could climb into power and stay there for years is the only red flag you need to see to know the group is bad news. Chris Gore’s congregants are well-advised to get out before they face the same overreach and abuse as Brenda Bicskey.
Undoing dysfunctional authoritarians like Chris Gore, but from afar
Luckily, there are ways to undo these tin-pot dictators. First and foremost, we must refuse to give them even one inch. There is no reasoning with dysfunctional authoritarians. They see such reasoning as weakness. Weakness merits only one response. By vocally refusing to humor even the mildest of their overreaching demands, we show their underlings that it’s possible to disobey. At the same time, we do not start down a path of appeasement. That’s important. Such a route can only end massively in the overreachers’ favor—at our expense.
Mocking dysfunctional authoritarians helps enormously too. At this point, it’s hard to imagine this dumbfuck pastor ever rising too far in the SBC. He’s been thoroughly mocked on social media for his hamfisted attempt to silence someone he wronged. His fake cease-and-desist letter might just be the stupidest thing he could possibly have done in his situation. Thanks to his poor judgment, even the most hardline of the SBC’s Old Guard might find him a distasteful presence in their crony network.
Extremely relevant example: SBC pastor Tom Buck acted up in 2021. He was the lackey of one of the big names in the Old Guard, Tom Ascol. Despite his association with Ascol, everyone mocked Buck for his poorly-considered actions and false accusations. Someone even made a parody account of him as “SBC Sheriff Deputy Tom Buck” on Twitter! Then, we all found out he was a violent ragebeast toward his wife, and that destroyed his credibility for good.
Since then, Tom Buck has largely fallen off the Old Guard’s map. He’s only barely begun occasionally writing again for one of the hardline sites, G3. He last popped up on Ascol’s site, Founders Ministries, in 2022. It’s such a dramatic fall from grace. At one time, I think Buck seriously thought he’d be running for SBC president before too long. Alas, he’s destroyed whatever chance he might have had at the king’s crown. (Press P to piss on his ambitions from a great height.)
Similarly, Chris Gore’s poorly-considered cease and desist letter and its endless hilarity will follow Gore no matter where he goes in his career.
And it should. Chris Gore, like Tom Buck before him, is everything repulsive and wrong about fundagelicalism. That he has achieved any power at all speaks to their sheer dysfunction and untrustworthiness. He is all the reason anyone needs to laugh at fundagelicals’ threats—and then of course to reject their sales pitches. If fundagelicals can’t stop the Chris Gore-like pastors in their group from achieving power and then keeping it, then their broken system is not safe for anyone.
NEXT UP: A new wave of anti-divorce screeds from evangelical leaders. See you soon!
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