In the online world as in meatspace, complementarianism is a treasured ideology for the Religious Right. They might use different names for it, like tradwife/tradman, but these regressive marriage rules form a bedrock foundational belief for them. But it keeps failing. More than that, it fails spectacularly. But its failure Read more…
Last time we met up, I showed you an evangelical woman who wasn’t sure anymore if she could create change in her religion from within. Her admission was a response to the terrible story told by a complementarian pastor, Josh Howerton. The whole situation is still blowing up across the Read more…
In complementarianism, evangelical leaders demand that women reject leadership roles in their churches—alongside any hopes of achieving equality with men. And many women do obey these demands. It’s not uncommon at all to encounter evangelical women who gleefully stomp on other women’s talents and futures in the name of Jesus. Read more…
The reason evangelicals invented complementarianism was to win a denominational slapfight. That’s it. The architects of it just wanted to demolish feminism. So they simply did not care how complementarianism would play out in the everyday lives of their increasingly-authoritarian flocks.
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been focusing on a doctrine in authoritarian Christianity called complementarianism. This doctrine informs much of right-wing Christians’ thought processes and behavior. Especially for complementarian men, their doctrine writes them an easy permission slip for so much of the awful stuff they want to do. Today, I Read more…
Respect is such an important concept to understand when one discusses this ultra-authoritarian, misogynistic flavor of Christianity. Hop aboard! Today, we ride the Respect Train right past these control-freaky zealots.
We return now to Gary Smalley’s terrible Christian marriage-advice book If Only He Knew. This time, we examine advice that appears in every single such book: that to maintain a happy, harmonious marriage, spouses should prioritize their god over their partners. This book continues that tradition. But is this advice really useful? And how can Christians actually put it into practice? Today, we ask questions about one of the mainstays of Christian marriage advice.
While reading this awful book, I quickly realized that Gary Smalley wasn’t suggesting his readers make any big changes in their behavior or attitudes. Rather, he only wanted to show them some techniques to ease the worst of their marital crises. But those efforts are doomed to fail. Today, I’ll show you why his suggestions represent the weakest of all weak sauce.
Author Gary Smalley coaches complementarian men in repairing their failing marriages. And as we all know, the first step in fixing a problem is identifying it. Right? So today, come watch my husband, Mr. Captain Cassidy, take a quiz to find out how much trouble our marriage is in. Who knows? Maybe we really need Gary Smalley’s help!
Hi! Lately, we’ve been talking about a terrible Christian marriage-advice book, If Only He Knew. In it, author Gary Smalley promises his readers surefire techniques they can use to save their ailing marriages. Last time, I offhandedly mentioned my surprise at seeing Gary Smalley described as kindhearted. This dude’s anything but! Today, let Read more…