How Evangelical Men Try (And Fail) to Pick Perfect Wives

We’ve been talking lately about right-wing Christians’ conceptualization of marriage. Uniformly, their marriage rules don’t work well, and their expectations of mates skyrockets well above what they can reasonably ask of anybody. But there’s one aspect to the evangelical dating game in particular that stands as a disaster amid everything else they do around marriage. Today, let me show you how evangelical leaders advise the men in their group to choose wives — and then we’ll check out who they actually pick.

Single Evangelical Women Ask ‘Where Have All the Good Men Gone’

I recently ran across a 2008 book by A.J. Kiesling called ‘Where Have All the Good Men Gone?’ Its subtitle reveals its main focus: ‘Why So Many Christian Women Are Remaining Single.’ And we’ll all be happy to know that she landed on some explanations for the growing number of frustrated single women. Today, I’ll offer up a review of this book — and present its main failing, an over-reliance on false narratives.

If Only He Knew: First, Assume Women Aren’t People

Lately, we’ve been discussing the terrible Christian marriage-advice book If Only He Knew. Written by Gary Smalley, the book seeks to walk men through repairs to their failing marriages. But his fans only want advice that will allow them to keep the ideology destroying their relationships. They especially protect one central idea, the pillar of complementarianism: women as less-than-human. Indeed, complementarianism only works if women aren’t really people. Here’s why.

J.D. Greear knows how to solve the SBC’s misogyny problem, too!

Poor J.D. Greear. Dude literally just got elected the Grand High Lord Poobah of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and he’s already stomping on my last nerve. Last time we touched on his solutions to the SBC’s years-long decline. Today, we’ll look at his non-solution to the problem of misogyny in his blighted, embattled denomination–and why it won’t work at all. And then we’ll look at why that’s the point.