Why do I think that Mr Patterson's "apology" was on the order of, "I'm sorry IF I offended...." Damn, I am so tired of non-apologies, I could just spit. I won't accept 'em.
10
As a Christian, a 2 time lapsed Catholic (my 2nd & presumably last, because of the way the Catholic Church treats Women & for Still Not dealing with the Pedophilia Abuse by holding almost no one at the top - Cardinals & Bishops - Responsible), I've found it Deplorable the way Women are far too often treated by the Church. Too many Priests, Ministers & Church Leaders buy into what Paul wrote about Women being subservient to their husbands etc. These Men do not seem to realize or understand, nor did Paul, that he was describing the way that Society of the Time treated Women & conflating it somehow with God. They thus ignore the way Jesus treated Women, especially in the Gospel of Luke. And does any Believer really think it was an accident that Mary Magdalene was the first Witness of the Resurrection?
As Mr. Wehner relates in his OpEd far too many Southern Christians see the Republican Party as somehow more Christian than the Democrats? The Founders were Smart by Not making a State Religion & thus making America a bastion of Religious Freedom in name if not always in deed. I've written many times challenging any Republican Christian to show me Any Legislation that their party has proposed or enacted that could be considered Christian based on the Gospels. Republicans don't seem interested in helping the Poor & despite Christ's Teachings Against violence - Put down the sword & Blessed are the Peacemakers, stand with the NRA against even Common Sense gun legislation?
51
Well put, Mr. Wehner. I wonder if there is a point in time when the early Christians abandoned the rights of women, because most of the history seems to be pretty patronizing. My cousin's very large Presb. church has absolutely no women in any titled positions. On the other hand, my mother's church is totally progressive. I imagine political leanings will correlate closely with the respect shown for women.
Pythagoreans supposedly treated women as equals. Early Islam was less misogynistic than it later became. It's too bad these early religious texts are not more explicit. Instead we have to infer. It strikes me as pretty pathetic that our major religions can allow such behavior. So many moral authorities are shown to be shallow materialists and cowards. It's no wonder so many people have abandoned the faiths. The faiths have abandoned morality.
23
It's gratifying that the #MeToo movement is spreading to the evangelical Protestant world. However, putting aside the fact that an institution of faith should be the last place you find sexual abuse, I find it even more disturbing that it is a church that is following a movement of moral awareness which began in the Hollywood entertainment industry, rather than the other way around.
22
If you want churches to change, you have to hit them where it hurts most: money.
Don't give any money to organizations where women are mistreated.
30
Evangelicals should have led in this, not followed. I would not be surprised to learn they have earned some contempt from inside and outside their congregations.
14
On the digital NYT some time ago, David B Hart wrote about the nature of the fellowship surrounding Jesus. Relevantly, Hart also mentioned the difference in the meanings of words between the time of Jesus and today. In addition, the mission of Jesus itself was so new and innovative that even many of his contemporaries did not understand or resented Jesus. In a very different way, today’s Christians may not fully understand the words of Jesus. ***** I simply wonder whether terms such as “abuse”, or “forgive”, carry the exactly same connotations between - when said by Jesus - and - when understood today, (if Jesus ever used the word equivalent to “abuse”, in the case of the former). ***** What would be the difference, then? It may not be very correct, if all the words of both Jesus and saints are transposed upon and conveniently adapted to any of our social and domestic situations, without careful considerations, I would say.
2
The language to explain the universe without God didn’t exist 2000 years ago, but insightful people already knew that nature has nothing like a human personality making fickle decisions.
7
The problem for Baptists is their literal belief that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is a spiritual work written in a the tribal context of the times that tries to codify how tribal societies should live. If they reflected on the last line of Matthew's gospel 'I will be with you until the end of the ages" they might see that the spiritual interpretation will change through the ages. Usury was an excommunicate offense for 1500 years but when the mechantile age appeared it was an offense no more. The insurance industry was started by pastors at Scottish Widow
11
Wehner says "However we feel about these developments, it is clear that large segments of evangelical Christianity have a serious problem related to women." I would suggest that Wehner revise that statement to reflect the more accurate view that large segments of hypocrites have a serious problem with Christianity.
For those of us not tied to any religious persuasion, these wolves in scarlet vestments have stuck out like sore thumbs for eons. Protestants, Catholics, you name it, they're all waiting to take our money and rape the most vulnerable of us, women, children, people black and brown.
They've taken the words and deeds of the great people of the ages, Christ, Gandhi, Mandela, Buddha, King and others and twisted them to serve themselves in their never-ending struggle to control those less powerful.
And still, the people fall for it. God help us.
38
As long as religion continues as a power force that cannot be criticised in the US, the abuses will continue. Any religion.
31
Religion teaches people to disobey the Constitution. These people absolutely cannot abide by "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".
18
I personally know of one female and one male who were raped as children who became homosexual.
I don't say this is a symptom but I do think our reluctance to confront the issue of predatory behavior by (usually) men upon boys and girls is a big issue we hide and results in a society that prevents honest family and social interactions.
3
I realize today is mother's day so the author focused on women's role in the Church, I suggest he should next address the Evangelicals role in removing the 6th,7th, 8th and 9th commandments from the mix so they can continue support for Trump.
32
NOW I understand evangelical support for Donald Trump. Thank you for the thorough explanation.
20
My own experiences with “evangelicals” here in the Deep South led me to conclude many years ago that for a vast majority of them their professions of faith were little more than a handy cover for deep-seated racism, misogyny and chauvinism. Their persistent support of the moral blank slate that is our president shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody who’s been paying attention.
93
Where would evangelicals be without sinners, backsliders and those whose lapses of faith require that they be 'saved'.? What would happen to the evangelical movement if they ran out of people to convert or wayward sheep needing to be brought back into the fold? It's a spiritual form of perpetual motion. How can you define yourself as righteous without the 'other' (nonbelievers and the 'sinful')?
It makes the world so much less complicated and frightening. Hard not see its appeal (hard but not impossible).
8
The trick is to take Jesus as one's "savior" to accept the responsibility for all the bad things one does.
4
Evangelicals give Christianity a bad name with their support of hard edged wacko conservatism. Many seem mean and self-righteous, certainly never in doubt. There is nothing in the teachings of Jesus (New Testament Gospels) to support this kind of behavior; to the contrary Jesus taught compassion, humility, forgiveness and redemption and nothing about holding monetary prosperity as a goal. And he certainly did not advocate political involvement: Matthew 22:21 Jesus said "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
23
Me. Wehner’s appeal is important but too accepting of the #MeToo identity politics borne of left wing rage that Hillary did my break the “glass ceiling.”
The movement, as movements do, has swept up the guilty with the merely suspected or rumored. The “movement” has been used to silence critics and apply extra judicial shaming. All this would have fit neatly into social mores prevalent in anti-bellum South. That it is a “progressive” invention makes it no more egalitarian than its predecessor movement to “save womanhood.”
We all oppose, for example, predations against children. However, we well remember the rush to judgment in the 1980s which led to indictments against teachers for abuse, which were later overturned on appeal. Not before many lives were ruined.
So be wary of “movements” which promise “salvation “ before equal justice, even if spawned not by the “deplorables,” but rather by the “best” people in our society, the Dem left wing as true champions of family values.
2
Siding with the powerless against the powerful is far more difficult when you are part of the powerful. The Bible, at least the New Testament, did not seem to anticipate this.
8
If you really want to tackle how the evangelical church has a problem, don't stop with the treatment of women, but with the treatment of all mankind and the planet we are charged with nurturing.
The propsperity gospel is just a theological justification for the selfishness and acquisitiveness characterizing this gilded age. The prospecrity gospel gives the lucky a "free pass" on neglecting the poor, the needy, and our planet. It underpins the ridiculous and shameful blindness to our leaders' faults.
That is the next story. It isn't just certain pastors who are rotten, but the whole enterprise.
43
Well said.
9
I am grateful for your thoughts, Mr. Wehner, and I encourage you to look within. You attend a church in a denomination that does not recognize the ordination of women as Ministers. Your own congregation has no female pastors. Until the day when women are seen and heard in the pulpit, this kind of abuse will continue.
29
This article supports what I’ve been saying for quite a while now. Somehow, Evangelicals have moved away from the teachings of Jesus Christ. I don’t see how many of them can even call themselves Christian and maybe that’s why they are generally called Evangelicals without the word “Christian”. They can’t possibly believe that there is still a place for them in heaven.
14
I guess it's time to get out one of my favorite t-shirts that shows a holy icon of Jesus with the caption: "I never said that."
So much of modern Evangelical Christianity flies directly in the face of how we know the universe truly works; it emphasizes belief and faith over fact and science; and, worst of all, it's used by people at the altar to tell their followers why they should give 10% of their cash to keep the "altared" upon high.
When humanity finally casts aside belief and faith for verifiable truth, we'll all be better off. Nowadays, when my Evangelical friends tell me something unbelievable - like "Trump deserves a mulligan" or "Evolution is a religion too" - I simply ask "Show me the data."
Crickets.
14
What is called "Christianity" today was negotiated by the Nicene Council 300 years after the crucifixion to massage Christianity into an imperial state religion.
18
So Mr. Wehner you really believe that one of the most staunchly paternal cultures on earth is going to become a champion of gender equality? You indeed have proved to me that you do believe in miracles. I remain skeptical.
3
It would be hard to imagine a religious group which worshipped raw unadulterated male power more than evangelicals and fundamentalists. Catholics, despite the prohibition on female priests have Mary and nuns to moderate their sexism. Pentecostals have a marginally better record on female power but no strongly institutionalized support of it. To expect evangelicals to change is a pipe dream in my view.
15
The Greek word Arsenokoitai in the Christian New Testament has been homophobically mistranslated to mean homoeroticism. It's actual original Greek meaning was the erotic exploitation of a person of lesser authority by a person of higher authority. The mistranslation of this Greek word shows us just how clever Patriarchy can be in concealing such abuse. If there is no proscription can there be any abuse? It's time for the #Times Up movement as well as Christianity to rescue the original meaning of this Greek word from it's patriarchally enforced obscurity.
9
Answer: Oppression of women masquerading as religious piety, and political policy and always demanding that the world accommodate and enable the oppressors and their oppression.
Question: What do conservative Republicans and conservative Christian have in common?
16
But it’s what your evangelical movement and your patriarchal religion is based upon I’m afraid; the subjugation if women in prescribed roles. Nice that your getting ‘woke’ but the ‘malignant root’ is a bit deeper you’re accounting for even if you do count yourself among the ‘good guys’.
9
I thought Christian pastors and leaders are "led by God". They pray to God frequently for wisdom, to do what's right, they preach on a Sunday about how God has led them, then they malign and treat women with disrespect. If God is leading them how can this be?
3
Somehow they never get to hear from God. It's always some man, claiming to speak for God. That seems to have been a pattern for thousands of years, with no end in sight.
9
The deal with the devil which White Evangelicals made with Donald Trump will live on in the annals American political infamy.
In addition, it will be a turning point as significant to young Christians as Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses on the church door.
These young people see right through this disgusting hypocrisy and they prefer the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount to the jokester God who supposedly singled out the deviant Trump to be his point man here on earth.
As for women, the double-whammy of being shut out of the top levels of the Evangelical power structure, and in many cases also ineligible for ordination, results in an enforced subservient and submissive position which lends itself to being vulnerable.
Most young women do not choose to participate in institutionalized subservience, neither in their marriages nor at church. Nor should they. There are dozens of Christian sects and churches wherein women have the equal right to be treated with respect and to be safe from bullies in the bedroom and the pulpit.
Any pastor who tells a beaten wife to suck it up and pray is as guilty of abuse as the husband, and has no business whatsoever leading a flock.
24
Hypocrisy in religion.....how shocking. Round up the usual suspects.
10
It's probably good that #MeToo is provoking some Evangelicals to reassess their attitudes toward women. But the problem is bigger than that. The basic problem is that most Evangelicals do not seriously attempt to model their values and behaviors on the example and teachings of Jesus. The Evangelical movement is primarily a conservative white club, not a system of spiritual belief that effectively governs behavior. Evangelicals are the original American separatist tribe, and loyalty to tribe for them has become the sole determinant of value.
The good news is that the cure for this deviance is quite simple: every Evangelical should read the Sermon on the Mount once a day, then spend some time pondering how to apply it to his or her own life.
37
Actually he solution is for the us to stop recognizing evangelism as a for of christianity, which it is not, and revoke all the privileges that come along with it. That, and a general shunning of their members for belonging to a manipulative cult devoted to political domination of society. Treat them like we do radical islamicists. Remember, evangelicals offer no rights to anyone who doesn't support their agenda, most of them like the falwells wish to take away your rights.
15
Wehner's appeal for an evangelical purging of sexism covers many kinds of abuse but omits the one that would have the greatest impact on their churches: stark inequality in leadership. Christianity has mainly been influenced by an egalitarian ideology from the surrounding culture rather than taking the initiative itself, and will continue to reflect the direction of that secular trend. That's fine so far as it goes, but unless evangelical churches stop discriminating against women as church ministers and leaders on every level, an untreated abuse will continue to fester. It is that issue that raises the strongest opposition and perhaps is the reason Wehner doesn't touch it.
17
There is certainly a lot to complain about regarding Christians' treatment of women, but how about equal time and column inches for other religions that oppress women, Islam and Orthodox Judaism, to mention only two.
14
I don't think there is any shortage of articles critical of Islam and Judaism. If this article offers us anything, it is that it is written by an insider/Christian.
I'm fine with him sticking with a critique of his own.
8
The southern baptist convention’s history of misogyny, support for slavery, Jim Crow racism & other forms of bigotry is reflected in their support for Trump like politicians and their long embrace of reactionary southern conservatism. Anything said to the contrary is just window dressing. I put no faith in phony me too moments & grudgingly given apologies. Evangelical domination of the nations political & social agenda’s under the banner of god, guns & whatever comes first, any other consideration is irrelevant. After all it’s their God’s work isn’t it?
24
Their God is just themselves projected to the far side of the sky and gifted with superpowers.
9
A thoughtful article about a very difficult problem. Fundamentalist Christianity, especially in its Protestant form, has a pair of beliefs that make sexism almost inevitable: bibliolatry and literalism. In fairness, one must recognize that parts of Islam, Judaism, other Christian denominations, and other religions are similarly affected. But these things seem to be a *sine qua non* of the groups that have appropriated for themselves the term “evangelical.” These beliefs inescapably tie their adherents to a pre-rational worldview.
For all its imperfections, the Thomistic imperative of combining faith with reason could provide them a way forward, but they will have none of it. They reject everything from after the second century.
21
Then how about the gospel of thomas?
America -- citadel of freedom, justice, and equality -- has become something of an anomaly in the world. Devout Christians support misogyny and pederasty. Warmongering patriots (Bush II, Cheney, Trump, Bolton) who never served one day of combat duty, gamed the draft system through the National Guard, Army Reserve, and trumped-up medical disqualifications. America leads in medical innovation and state-of-the-art treatments but ranks high in infant mortality and preventable illnesses. It's the richest country in the world with a capital city (D.C.) dotted with drug-economy ghettos. It has the best private universities and excels in technological innovation (for now) but ranks at the bottom of industrialized nations in math on standardized testing.
And the proposed cure for corruption in government, influence peddling, sabotaged elections, and possible conspiracy? Attacking the very institutions that oversee and prosecute those abuses. But let us not forget the panacea for all these problems: blind faith, devout prayer, family values, and everything that contradicts all that.
34
The US is the last country in the world still counting things on its fingers and toes.
3
Unless I missed it, the one word glaringly missing from this piece is "hypocrisy." "Do as I tell you, not as I do" is the credo of the evangelical, bible-thumping, holier-than-thou movement. Before one tells everyone else how to behave he should at least get his own house in order, and even then silence is still golden.
21
If the victim had gone to a female minister, do you think the minister would have been so blase about the husband's continual abuse? Probably not. But then Evangelicals don't have female ministers. That lack is the source of their corruption.
18
While many evangelical churches do not allow female ministers, there are some which do.
"Saving the Catholic (universal&Christian) Religion from the failing institutional Roman Church" reminds us that what has been lost and forgotten, since the Age when the three monotheisms ran over the Goddess Religions: Is The Mother.
Among Catholics, the Mother of God has been relegated to a side chapel, while among the Protestants She is not there at all. Faith is rewarded, even if belief gets corrupted.
Hasn't helped that unNatural science insists (vainly) that there is no reality to spirit, and that everything can be explained by positing there is only matter - the anti-Christ Spirit as noted 2000 years ago by the writer of John I.
A counter-Copernican movement exists today, adolescent and barely noticed, but with such remarkable minds as Goethe, S.T. Coleridge and Emerson - leaders in both Romanticism and Transcendentalism resolutely standing in the Way of the unfeeling abstractions dominating an immature science today.
Through Rudolf Steiner a science of the spirit has been born, although as with natural philosophy in its early years it is little known on the scale which will be its destiny.
The truth can be denied, but it cannot be stopped, any more than culture, and music, and humor, and all that Art born of pain, can be defeated - by the crass and indifferent minds the drive the heart from public dialogues.
She's always been there.. Soon a future folk will begin each day knowing scientifically that the Planet we all share is a living Cosmic Being.
3
The Christian Right has ruined Christianity. It is unbelievable that these practitioners of “faith” cannot see past their own noses to the damaging effect.
Jesus was neither republican or democrat.
Look into your hearts to find the truth about who you are and if you really follow His teachings.
16
The problem with that is evangelism can't follow christ. It is obsessed with personal salvation and nothing else. They attack other beliefs out of fear of losing own prize. Jesus taught people to deal with their own problems but worry solely about how one can help others. And no, that has nothing to do with how evangelicals "save" other people's souls, especially since they force conversions and don't practice the teachings of christ
2
As long as senior Christian religious leaders remain obsessed with power, control, and money, and as long as they persist in being players in the secular political arena, nothing will change. They’ve strayed as far from Christ’s message as they can get.
20
Evangelicals are strongly committed to being good. They spend hours in prayer, trying to achieve this. We have seen over and over again, however, that their notion of what good is (and what being Christian is) is deeply based on social conditioning, and in fact on the rather narrow conditioning Evangelical churches allow, even though they try try their best to find some timeless truth.
Evangelicals broadly (there are exceptions) deal with this piecemeal, and far more slowly than the rest of society. Many (not all) Evangelicals have come around to acknowledging problems with racism. They are still dealing with homophobia and trans-phobia. And of course attitudes towards women. Also Islamophobia.
Each of these issues does need to be dealt with. But at some point I would hope that Evangelicals would ask themselves why they as a body (there are exceptions) process these things more slowly than other segments of society.
4
The god of trump and his supporters is not worthy of worship. Similarly, the country of trump and his supporters is not worthy of allegiance.
#calexit - it's time to start over.
6
As has been pointed out, evangelicals don't read the NYT nor would I hold my breath waiting for change. There's too much money in it.
7
I have had a problem with many "Christians" that are not following the teachings of Christ but rather are following the writings in the Bible. The Bible is a man made collection of recollections of men from decades and centuries after Christ lived. The Bible is therefore a Graven Image and deserves the same respect as the Golden Calf Moses' followers were worshiping when he came down from the mountain.
The best prayer I have heard is "Christ, protect us from Christians."
The Capital C Christians typically cherry pick from the Bible to further their personal views and protect the profits of their church's hierarchy.
9
Mr. Wehner writes that Jesus often sided against religious authorities of his day, men who were powerful, controlling, legalistic and devoid of mercy.
That sounds like the Republicans and Trump Administration: devoid of mercy.
What are our children learning these days?
The administration won't even apologize for actively demeaning a military veteran-- tortured during the Vietnam War-- which Trump obtained several deferrals to avoid, as the veteran is dying of cancer.
Orwellian.
14
All major religions treat women badly. Actually, they treat badly everyone not part of their group. I am amazed that in the time of immunotherapy for cancer and the ability to thread a stent through an artery using an tiny camera, people are still so absurdly superstitious as to believe that a book written by human beings millenia ago has some magical authority over our behavior.
19
Women and girls are at least 50% of these major religions.
They are being treated as if they are less worthy of respect and decency than their male counterparts.
We're not even disaggregating for people of color or impoverished backgrounds.
4
Thanks you, Mr. Wehner. I have been waiting for someone to connect the dots between #MeToo and religious institutions that are not merely reflective of but structurally founded upon misogyny, sexist, and gender hierarchies.
Singling out a Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey for their transgressions, however necessary, is relatively easy compared to singling out religious texts and so-called spiritual leaders who maintain sexism and misogyny in the name of religious "tradition." For every Weinstein there are hundreds of pedophile priests and millions of husbands empowered by religious texts to beat their wives to keep them in line.
Until the orthodoxies of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam that sustain gender and sex hierarchies, are challenged or overturned, #MeToo will only pertain to the secular world. For most of the world, that day cannot come soon enough.
11
Sorry in advance for any skepticism - Schneiderman was ostensibly our savior from strangulation...
1
“So much of [Jesus’] ministry was aimed at caring for the marginalized, the brokenhearted, the abused. He often sided with them against the religious authorities of his day, men who were powerful, controlling, legalistic and devoid of mercy. He offered tenderness, grace and healing to a fallen world.”
Mr. Wehner: Can you give me recent examples of your Republican Party taking the side that Jesus did? Even one example?
You refer to the “biblical ethic of standing with the powerless against the powerful.“ Can you give me recent examples of your Republican Party doing so? Even one?
19
Church scandal could harm the name of Jesus? Really? Who controls the power in most churches? Men. Yet women do so much of the work that creates a welcoming environment for churchgoers. Scriptures teach us that Jesus revered women and spoke up for them and that they responded by supporting him and spreading his teachings. Yet in some Christian denominations women are given secondary roles and responsibilities. Is this because men are afraid to share power with them?
If on accepts Jesus's teaching that we are all sinners, we cannot excuse a person's sexist behavior towards girls and women as Patterson seems to have done repeatedly by telling women to be obedient and accept male behavior. He is not acting as a true follower of Jesus's teachings but as someone trying to hang on to power.
5
It's just sad to see these decent people who happen to be Christians struggling to find a path Evangelicals can take to redeem themselves.
Anyone who sets out to right this deplorable group of "Christians" who refuse to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ; who want the US to be a theocracy of some distorted version of Christianity as its ideology; who are lock-step in support of probably the most amoral, unChristlike, phony, repulsive, crass, demagogue as their leader; has a long hard way to go.
Good luck. Start with small steps and don't get discouraged. It ain't gonna be easy.
7
Those who deeply believe in the bible have already accepted a mother load of misogyny; creationism and the rejection of science cannot bring us forward. They do not hesitate to ram their theology down the throats of others by sponsoring legislation that is a direct violation of the Constitution. Their position on abortion and birth control is obscene. Myths are not religion. If you take way a woman's right to control her own body, that is not or ever shall be #MeToo - it is authoritarian tyranny.
11
Nonesense.
First, the Christian man will always tells himself, on those rare occasions when he acknowledges his own bad behavior (insteading of blaming the woman for being Satan's tool in tempting him to sin), that he repents and is, therfore, forgiven. He may even receive a standing ovation in his church for his "courage." Thus, the Christian man NEVER has to own truly up to his own bad actions. He is saved, that is all that matters to him.
Second, there is reason why sexually assaulting a woman didn't make it into the Ten Commandments, while a man coverting his neighbor's wife did. This difference in how "God" views men and women (also shared by Jews and Christians) speaks volumes about the possibility of "redemption."
Anyone, of any faith, who truly wants to do something positive needs to renounce the male's divine right to domination of women.
15
Today is Mother's Day and this is a very valuable article to be written on this very important day. The clergy made previous mistakes when dealing with female abuse but it is not too late to correct the past.
One of the things we are learning from the #MeToo movement is that there is no area of society that is immune from abuse. We have found it politics, Hollywood and even in religion. No faith has escaped this abuse against women which we are now seeing. It has occurred in the Christian and Jewish religions and probably Muslim mosques too. What is very important is to report abuse as soon as it occurs and put a stop to it. An abused woman or man should tell a trusted clergy or Church member and take action immediately. Only when this occurs will we be rid of this horrific behavior.
3
The failures of formal religion continues to amaze me, but then religion is just another "country club" concept, where people come together simply for identity,
6
In the past when we talked about the American mind in literature, we rated highest tales of rafts and whales; for women the best picture of American life is "The Scarlet Letter."
Sexual scandals among American clergy date back to the colonies These aren't a few bad apples (pun intended); this appears to be a universal truth about religion. Part of its mission is to control women
13
One explanation for this rings true. Those people supporting Trump are not Christians. They are of a carnal nature and racist, a virulent strain of distinctly American Christianity. The best supporting evidence for this is how they perceive Barack Obama. As far as moral character goes there is no comparison between Trump and Obama. Add to that Trump pandering to them with his flip-flop on the issue of abortion and there you have it. Once again these people do not practice the teachings of Jesus Christ. Best example to support homelessness. How many churches sit empty while the streets are filled with homeless people.
11
There should be no disagreement between feminists and Christian conservatives that sexual harassment and sexual abuse are never acceptable.
9
No one is attracted to Evangelical Christianity by the theology, any more than people used to read Playboy “for the articles”.
14
When I think of the evangelical Christians who played so large a role in the abolitionist movement, I can only note with sorrow and anger how low your cause has sunk. But then again, your gang left John Brown and Dr. King behind a long long time ago. You now worship the power of your false, political idol, Trump—not the redeeming power of the cross.
16
This story and many others make me wonder why any thinking person still goes to church or supports one financially. Religion, based exclusively on mythology and superstition, was invented by man for power and control (and for TV evangelists - money) over the masses. Worked centuries ago. Still works now. The most moral, ethical and honest people I know are non-religious.
15
Christianity lost me in the 1970's, during the "I found it" movement back then. I was tired of being accosted on the street by enthusiastic strangers who kept asking me if I too had "found it" -- meaning Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And being harrassed if I questioned them. What happened to their lord and savior's admonition to "Let not thy right hand know what thy left does" when praying and doing good works. Keep it to yourself, people. It's in the First Amendment, besides the New Testament.
2
"He told her to pray quietly beside the bed at night, counting on God to intervene." What more ridiculous example do we need?
The best thing that could happen to evangelical Christianity is to be relegated to the dustbin of history.
17
The sooner the better. I'd quote malcom x, but then this probably wouldn't post
Shakespeare knew this brand of Christian:
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”
18
Perhaps evangelicals who subordinate women and support a serial-lying President who disrespects them, too, should familiarize themselves with Mark 8:36:
What profit a man [or woman] is he gains the world and loses his own soul?
7
Evangelicals wield Christianity like a "get out of jail free card." It's a game they know all too well. The actual foundation of the Christian religion is the golden rule -- all the rest is smoke and mirrors, used in a parlor game by the preachers who have found how easy it is to "monetize" their flock. Have you ever seen ONE of them take Luke 14:33 to heart?
"In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples."
They disgust me.
11
Christians disgust you? So much for tolerance. Why do you care what other people believe in?
Because those other people are very interested in controlling what the rest of us do. They can believe whatever they want as long as they keep it to theirself. Unfortunately, evangelicals can't do that, it straight up in their name. Monstrous people who do terrible things
1
As far as I'm concerned the whole Evangelical project has been a scam since, ironically, Amy Semple McPherson. It's been a money making project for charismatic swindlers who sole motive is enriching themselves and who shrug off women and men who have genuine distress in their lives and who have been injured by the false "pastors"indifference to their problems.
Unfortunately it seems to be one of the most enduring features of American Christianity in our culture. There is such a thing as true evangelical Christians, but they need to more forcefully distinguish themselves from the swindlers to bear their name.
11
. Why do you care what other people believe in? I don’t care. I don’t know anybody who cares. It’s called tolerance. Also known as the Golden Rule. It’s a new concept. Give it a try.
1
Mr. Wehner has written that "something has gone amiss" in evangelical protestant churches. This construction stimulates in me the inference that he considers that the issues relating to the lack of respect for women are recent developments. Nothing could be further from the truth. The recorded words and deeds of Jesus have illuminated some christians through the ages to a radical transvaluation of cultural values and have led some christians to actually attempt to reconstruct their lives and consciousness to embody Jesus' teaching. But for the most part, christian churches and congregants have been shaped by secular cultural values, rationalized and normalized by selective proof texting, embedded within doctrine, canon law, moral teaching, and essentially reinforcing the ecclesiastical power structure. The church, and churches, have always been characterized by male dominance. The perversions of power (money, autocracy, adulation, moral insulation) within churches is a historic and systemic flaw. One might look at it as the organizational analogy to concept of original sin.
17
I agree. It has been and is all about social control and this human drive predates the rise of Christianity. The early church took over so many customs from the Romans and other societies and incorporated non-Christian symbols and beliefs into the church. These have come down to us. One of the most insidious "controls" that Christian churches have upheld is that of Original Sin - we are all guilty from the day we are born because of the Fall of Adam. And the church hierarch has used this as a means of social control through shaming - especially against women.
3
There is no better voice for change than that from within. Like every group, outside critics lack authority. I would hope that this is an example of thoughtful introspection that results no only in change in the Evangelical community but prompts the same kind of reflection in the Muslim, Orthodox Jewish and Conservative Catholic communities.
5
Thanks for speaking truth to power. It may take putting more women in charge, though. Good luck with that.
As the SBC stands, it really does seem that Trump is their kind of man--and Jesus is not. They're more like the money lenders in the Temple, wouldn't you say?
24
I'm gland that an evangelical is pointing out the shortcomings of his community.
Now if the Manhattan elites would also be more self aware. Trump, Weinstein, Schniderman, Weiner, Spitzer are not from the Midwest - they are from the epicentre of the NYT world.
6
All communities have serial sexual abusers and the NYT covers it exhaustingly. Let’s have men talk to and deal with men.
8
How can Christians give "mulligans" to serial sexual predator Trump, or anyone else for that matter, who doesn't 1.) recognize that he has a problem, 2.) admit it, and then 3.) turn to God in humility and contrition for help? Of course, the Trump cultists pretend that he has undertaken step 3, but that is impossible without steps 1 and 2. His facile denials and continued mistreatment of his accusers -- one of whom was just 13 when the alleged rape took place -- are proof positive that Trump is not only unrepentant, but feels proud of and entitled to his sexual predations. This is precisely the misogynistic mindset that the #MeToo movement stands against.
18
Southern Baptists truly believe women are inferior. They are to obey their husbands, walk behind their husbands, and produce children. They have become political in that only Republicans, especially White Republicans, are moral beings. This belief is as immoral as it can get. Their support of Trump, Roy Moore, and others is driven by only these two things: making America a white Christian nation and overturning Roe versus Wade. Trump could literally sexually assault a woman not named Melania on national television, and these followers would find a way to blame a black Muslim (Obama) and a Communist woman (Hillary) for his actions. They have sold their souls to evil, yet they just don't care.
45
Nice to hear an Evangelical voice speak out. I'd like to point out one obvious historical omission though. Christianity has indeed advanced women's rights but the evolution had little to do with biblical scripture. Depending on what version of the Bible you're reading Jesus' teachings may or may not promote a pro-female interpretation of events. For every example there is a counter example depending on your interpretation. The sanctity of the Virgin Mary is a case in point. The mother of Jesus is scared but only so long as she remains a virgin. That's an interesting bit of double speak.
More practically though, Christianity advanced female rights through their interaction with elite aristocracies and the resulting norms concerning inheritance and property rights. Property was power. The ability for women to own property advanced women's rights far more than any religious dogma. In other words, Christianity positively influenced the representation of gender in law although not always intentionally. Some of the best and worst examples come from post-Roman Briton. However, you can date the origins much earlier and across much broader sections of the world.
For that matter, we might want to talk about matrilineal descent patterns or matrilocal marriage structures. There are many examples that predate Christianity by a wide margin. Judaism and Hinduism come to mind. Modern codified law though is mostly thanks to the strange case of Catholicism in England. Who would have thought?
4
Thank you for this article! Unfortunately, I don't think too many Evangelicals read the NYT but hopefully, Christianity Today and Religious News Service will pick it up.
I spent three hours reading about Bill Hybels this past week. Why do we Christians put our leaders (again, mostly males) on pedestals instead of loving them enough to know they're weak and needy like the rest of us?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/12/opinion/sunday/the-great-metoo-awaken...
4
oops I meant to highlight an article from the Chicago Times on Bill Hybel....
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-hybels-willow-c...
1
Ah, if only! If only there was a great religion that actually followed the principles of equality, justice, open hearted love and respect for all human beings — and for the entire living planet we’ve had the privilege to be born on. But alas. It is not to be, I’m very sorry to say.
I learned my values early in life, in large measure from the espoused ideals of Christianity. By adolescence, I realized, to my great disappointment, that those ideals were just a great sales pitch for an institution that systematically ignored many of them in practice. For me, it began with the obvious: how come girls could become nuns, but not ministers or priests? And that led to a tougher question: why was God a father, and not a mother? (Only much later did I think to ask why God was white and not some other colour.)
I don’t know how anyone can get past these fundamental issues. But I guess if you’re willing to accept the moral logic of prejudice that’s this blatant, the many less obvious failings and hypocracies of the major religions can be swallowed down, and perhaps that’s the cornerstone of faith itself.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to try to stick to the idealized values and principles Jesus is said to have espoused, and skip the institutional Christianity that, in my opinion, fails to do the same.
14
"We are accused of sexual assaults or misconduct by several women or former aides but we changed", "I used to be homophobic and still can't watch Brokeback Mountain but I changed", "I used to strangulate women during sexual encounters but I changed", for some reason the "but I changed" is accepted for some people but rejected for others because "they will never change"
4
It's even worse than that, Mr. Wehner. Women's rights are threatened. This administration does not care about women. It's led by a president who's had multiple complaints from women who said he made unwanted moves on them or assaulted them.
He + the GOP could care less there is a wage gap. Family leave was ignored as an issue, as was child care. Their health care bill left pregnant women with no medical coverage if a state decided maternity care was not required to be given by an insurer.
Poor women face cuts to Planned Parenthood + fewer clinics. A corporation's CEO can decide not to make insurers to pay for birth control. Mr. Trump even said that a woman should be punished is she had an abortion.
The GOP House passed a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks despite those later weeks being the ones where a mother's health is at great risk--or the fetus.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos rolled back any application of Title IX as far it's applicability in sexual assaults at universities. Another loss for women.
Average women are victimized by the power evangelicals have over this woeful president, who uses them for votes, while paying off women he wants to silence from past extramarital affairs. It is crazy that he remains in office.
35
It was a thoughtful article until the writer attempted to explain how Jesus, a fictional character, treated women as equals while the other fictional characters did not. Religion has always oppressed women and minorities because it’s all about the white man, not a god.
7
Whether fictional or not, the character of Jesus as described in the Bible did practice egalitarian ideals against the cultural norms of his time. Considering that there are more religions far beyond the "white man's" purview, Islam and Hinduism in India before the British conquest quickly come to mind, with their own levels of oppression, to label it all as being solely for the benefit of the white man is a bit over the top. To say such is for the benefit of men in general is, I think, more accurately framed.
4
Whether or not you believe in the divinity of the figure of Jesus, he was a real person. Historians widely agree on this. I’m not sure where you are coming up with the idea that he’s a fictional character.
2
So far, the me too movement seems to be hovering somewhere in the grey area between impartial justice and one-sided revenge.
It’s at best a themed version if justice, only interested in certain types of victims and certain types of wrongdoing: the ones that fit its social narrative.
I don’t think individual crimes should be strung together into a social narrative for political purposes. This is the same thing that has been done to support racism and xenophobia, and I don’t think targeting men in general is any better.
6
Male privilege IS a social narrative informing political programs and, as such, contributes to individual crimes So it needs to be met on the same grounds. That you don't see that is evidence for what I just said.
This movement is less about retribution than changing that narrative to stop it from continuing It is about awakening and empowering women and our dignity. It is hoped that men will see the justice of it as well but the only real way to stop the unseen abuse in homes, workplaces and houses of religion is to make it public and condemned.
10
I have never heard any woman associated with MeToo say, "All men are the problem." What I have heard is women saying, "Perhaps if ten women all say that a man groped them, we should believe them, even if there were no cameras in the room" rather than the standard response of saying, "Well, they have no real proof, it's he-said/she-said, ya know, no point in ruining a man's career over hearsay, the women probably just want money, they should have come forward at the time even though they thought they were the only victim, it's all a witch hunt, maybe they liked it, etc."
This isn't vigilante justice. It's justice by using common sense. We may never be able to prove that a guy groped a woman when they were alone in a hallway five years ago -- but if fifteen women who don't know each other all say the same thing, then he's probably guilty. Maybe you can't prove it in a court of law, but you can prove it in a court of public opinion. And that's better than letting predators continue forever because they choose to be predators in places where the only witness is the victim.
6
James, I think you are quite correct to say "individual crimes should (not) be strung together into a social narrative...". What those crimes do, however, is suggest a larger, more pervasive problem, they do not prove the existence of the larger problem nor do those crimes actually suggest a solution. We should be beyond such simple formulations. It should never be Weinstein+Wiener+Wynn+Charlie Rose+everyone else, Bingo!, now we know the problem and how to deal with it.
Each individual transgressor had their own development and pathology. I think it is fair to consider whether the roots of their actions can be found in a male dominated society, but it is not reasonable to lump everything together into one big indictment. We don't use bank robbers as an overarching explanation of social problems and we should be much slower to use all of the known bad actors in sexual matters as proof of what is wrong with all men or their role.
Having said all of that, it has become clear to me that we have a larger problem than I ever realized and probably larger than most people believed. For what it is worth, I believe that some of the roots of this problem lie in sexual repression and our society wide failure to develop healthier attitudes toward sex in general. We are between eras, anchored in some ways to Victorian attitudes and complete license to do anything on the other hand. It will take time and effort to sort through this mess.
3
"Yet again and again, elements within the faith have veered away from Christianity’s egalitarian roots"
This is basically the most relevant point in the article. Mainstream Christianity has very little relation to Jesus's original teachings anymore, particularly evangelism. I'm an atheist now, but I was raised Catholic and studied the Bible for it.
From that, I know that Christians don't have to be atheist to be better people. The tools to be a better person are and have always been in the Bible. At the time it was written, it must have been the most progressive book ever. That's right: like Mr. Wehner wrote, the Bible was progressive for its time.
5
But remember the early church marched backwards quickly throwing out the real egalitarian’s - the Gnostics. The patriarchy wasn’t able to tolerate such equal footing for women. Only lip service. Even today their are a number of denominations (eg Catholics) who do not allow women to be priests or pastors.
3
"Jesus is all about transparency." This could be a great book title. But, evangelicals would rather return to the 50s when women were subservient to men. Evangelical pastors want a subservient flock that will donate to the church coffers. Of course, those proceeds are tax exempt. Could it be that is their ulterior motive and they only pretend to follow Jesus? The mega churches have been at the forefront of this antiquated philosophy about women for decades. Why the surprise all of a sudden?
12
Nice beginning for a mea culpa, but sexism within the Christian community, regardless of the type of Christianity practiced, is wide spread. I attended, for the first time in my life, a Methodist church in a small Southern town with my step-mother this past Christmas Eve. The reverend was a woman and much loved by many of the members. I liked her service and what she has done to support my step-mother through what has been a very difficult time for her over the past few years due to my father's deteriorating mental health and his awful treatment of her. He was finally diagnosed with frontal-temporal lobe dementia but it's still been a very hard time. You know what the church member friends of hers were talking about after the service when we were at dinner? The reverend has been forced out after four years because she is a woman, period.
21
Jesus treated women with dignity and respect and revered his mother Mary greatly. He would condemn any abuse inflicted upon women loudly and severely. He would call out the abusers and tell them to sin no more.
Let's not forget that Jesus held women in high esteem but the 12 apostles were all men. That is the way the early Church was established and in some religions they still adhere to an all male clergy. There are many very important roles that women play in the Church today and they do not all have to be clergy members to be still be held in high esteem. They serve communion, read from the altar and take up the collection. Many are very pleased to play a lesser role but still feel valuable members of a congregation.
3
But why should they? And while we're at it, why the custom among so many Christian churches the women only wear skirts? And why must the man be "the head of the house" instead of both being equal? And why the consistent refusal to support same sex marriage? If it walks like a patriarchy and talks like a patriarchy.........
4
I am far from convinced that Christianity is facing its own reckoning, when its own members are ready to forgive and look the other way (not out of genuine forgiveness, since they will be ready to crucify Hillary, abortion supporters and welfare recipients outside their congregation).
These scandals have been going on for decades, as I recall, but nothing changes, not if it threatens the most fundamental aspect of their lives, their faith.
The ones up in arms are outside the faith, the tribe, as it were, and thus criticism of a leader, who slyly condones misbehavior by quoting the Bible, becomes a religious affront that must be fought at all costs (see all religious wars)
The only real changes come either from an enlightened new leader (eg a Pope, tho he will inevitably be constrained by tradition), or a schism with new religious groups - these may start well, but ultimately power corrupts and the problems reappear
16
It is a sad reality that all religions. including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as practiced today and defined by a patriarchal tradition, broadly suffer from misogynistic attitude, treating women as inferior and treating them as mere objects created to satisfy male desire. It is against the spirit of all these religions but how does it help women who have been, and continue to be, victims of sexual aggression by religious leaders of all stripes and persuasions? There has to be a reckoning and it has happen now rather than later. One way to make this happen is that whenever a priest, rabbi or imam is asked to lead a congregation, it must be a part of the contract that if anyone claims sexual misconduct against these 'custodians of religion,' they must immediately give up their post pending further investigation, including trial in the court of law. The clergy must be subject to the same law as everyone else. Wearing the cloak of religiosity must not shield anyone from justifiable prosecution.
24
The American Evangelical movement, particularly in its megachurch manifestation, needs to be seen as the anomaly it is, whose roots in historical Christianity go no deeper than the trappings and vocabulary used to disguise a ruthless political movement based on insaatiable hunger for power and wealth.
128
Wake me up when I read a story like this about Islam.The women that do speak up about problems in Islam have a death sentence placed upon them. The unequal treatment of religions in the Times is disgraceful.
16
By your logic, one need not repent for one's own sins as long as there are other sinners in the world. That is precisely contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Since we are all -- individually, socially, and as a species -- sinners, your position provides an infinite pass not only to sexual predators, but murderers, thieves and liars too. That amounts to ethical nihilism, which not only corrodes the very trust that makes human society possible, but, when disguised as religion, gives rapists, murderers, thieves and liars the conviction that they are doing it in the name of God. In this, the Christian and Islamic worlds are virtually identical. That is why the most rabid exemplars of these traditions hate each other -- they can't stand to look in the mirror.
6
Didn't Jesus say something abut removing the plank from your own eye? I don't think it's very Christian to ignore one's own shortcomings because others are worse.
In any case, you may have missed the coverage in May 11th's NYT of Noura Hussein and the many Muslim women and women's rights orgs who have mobilized to protect her.
3
But not in the USA. The death sentences happen in countries with state sanctioned intolerance, many of them Muslim.
Unfortunately, I fear the word “Christian” has been made synonymous with the word “hypocrite.” Right wing Evangelical Trump supporters have done serious damage to the moral authority of Christianity. It will take a long time, and a very public counter-movement dedicated to the true meaning of Jesus’ teaching, to undo it.
115
Mainstream media includes Fox News and a whole host of hypocritical pseudo-Christian sex predators who have been given a "pass" by evangelicals because, well gosh, they hate liberals.
59
" Religion Poisons Everything " - Christopher Hitchens.
Amen, Brother, Amen.
34
Biologist/writer Richard Dawkins calls U.S fundamentalist Christians 'the American Taliban.' So true. Just another form of 'American exceptionalism.'
67
There is no moral equivalence between Protestant Fundamentalists and Islamic fanatics. Protestant Fundamentalists do not engage in acts of terrorism.
It's more than a disregard for women's full humanity that mainstream conservative evangelical Christianity must confront. How about it's denial that climate change is being caused by human activity? How about it's denial of the science that some human beings are genetically disposed to be sexually attracted to members of their own sex, or that gender dysphoria is a real medical condition? How about their view that poverty is a result of personal failing? Or, that it is perfectly okay to base political decision-making on religion-based concepts? Mr. Wehner, it would be good for you to discuss these issues too because they are all equally disturbing.
49
Exactly what I was thinking while reading this.
2
"Mainstream evangelical? That's a contradiction. Mainstream branches of Christianity are Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and several others. They don't engage in science denial or meddle in politics, but they get a bad name because of people who confuse them with evangelical pseudo-Christians.
1
As soon as religion finally dies, the world will start to be a better place in which to live.
21
As we saw in the Soviet Union, Maoist China and so many other examples, humanity's capacity for evil is infinitely hydra-headed and adaptable. Without religion, the ego simply fixes upon other things such as politics, race, national identity, sex, philosophy, and even freedom from religion, around which to organize and set itself apart from the other. That, and not anything exclusively inherent in religion, is at the root of what ails the world.
2
In capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. ;)
I am shocked, shocked ! that evangelical christiandom is infected by sexual predation !
I mean, what could possibly go wrong in a religious cult where the enter mystical notion of 'god' itself has been translated and transmogrified into a white male ?
How convenient ! for white men.
(BTW Jesus would disapprove)
40
Fortunately 99.9% of Evangelicals don’t waste a minute reading The New York Times continuing onslaught on their religious practice and faith. Let’s see, take a harrowing account of wife abuse and broad brush it across the Evangelical community as if it were a commonplace occurrence. Yes, prayer and redemption are critical to the Christian life, but nowhere in the gospels are women instructed to submit to physical and verbal abuse. In fact, Evangelicals have programs that help women escape violence. We are not the backward people the Times writers would have everyone believe. Both my sisters are Evangelical ministers and they work everyday to help female congregants deal with all types of problems in real, productive ways—spiritual and secular.
13
This author isn’t broad brushing and has addressed your concerns; he mentions that many churches don’t have these problems, including his own.
18
I read a lot Mr. Ruland, and what the experts say is that America is moving towards more liberal, tolerant, and progressive values for both Republicans and Democrats and that it will be coming soon. Perhaps, the 99.9% of Evangelicals you are talking about should start preparing for that future instead of fighting so hard against it. I am sure that if that there ever was a figure like Jesus Christ that he would be the first to be in agreement with the change.
13
Maybe Mr. Ruland and his sisters are helping other evangelicals overcome their tendencies towards authority worship, clannishness, and putting women "in their place". That would be good.
BTW (everyone): "everyday" (= ordinary) does not mean "every day". I get tired of this confusion.
1
Wow, a voice for compassion, reason and justice - from a Christian!
A long time ago, a really smart, caring person named Jesus was killed for challenging the authority of the rulers of the time.
Subsequently, all manner of myth and fabrications have added misery, torture, warfare and general mayhem to Western culture. Did I mention bigotry? From the Inquistion through the purge of Jews from Spain and the Crusades - people were slaughtered or exiled in the name Jesus. Puritans burned women at the stake. Baptists lynched blacks. Catholics subjugated women - yeah, keep having babies. You may not be able to afford to feed 9 or 10 kids, but your husband has to have sex and you can't use birth control or have an abortion. The right to life seems to end at birth.
Peter Wehner: I love the way you think about the topic in your piece. But perhaps you might want to associate yourself with another faith. "Christainity" is no better than an American Taliban. And I believe that the nice guy who was crucified would agree.
33
I wonder if Peter realizes that this piece points out the fact that these hypocrites are not Christian at all. They are Old Testament patriarchs. Therefore, they are authoritarian dictators who have no place in a constitutional democracy.
11
The Christian community ideally confronts sinners in private. If an initial talk does not work, a small group may try to reform the sinner, and if that doesn’t work there is ostracism. The article correctly notes that Mr. Trump has not been ostracized – perhaps for good reason.
The non-Christian approach seems to enjoy calumny which publishes the sin to shame and shun the sinner (and, of course, to sell newspapers). The Christian approach is easily applied to both sexes while the latter is used almost exclusively against men.
Modern trials of 80-year old men (i.e. Bill Cosby) may include evidence of similar, yet unrelated incidents, from decades ago. Women are protected from inquiry of their promiscuity, patterns of consent, and enticement. Personal attorneys run the show and shamelessly cash in on the circus.
The Christian approach should remain private and those outside the community risk the consequences.
4
Yeah I forgot about that biblical structure. At this point I don’t know which is best, transparency vs. privacy to address a person’s sins. I think exposing abuse is super important though, and it’s against the law. What churches out there have achieved a healthy way of exposing abuse/sins without exiling the sinner?
1
have you not been aware of the history of public shaming of young women in the congregation alongside the humble male offender, who receives forgiveness and support, especially if he is an esteemed pastor or elder. my teenage years in a small non-denominational 'chapel' in oakland, california, opened my eyes about male privilege in the evangelical universe.
7
You apparently feel that women's "promiscuity, patterns of consent, and enticement" are behaviors which deserve as much disapprobation as actual sexual assaults committed by a man like Bill Cosby. I guess it is always the woman's fault. They walk around in public with naked bodies underneath their clothes, after all.
As far as quiet, internal "reform" and "ostracism" being the solution to men who commit sexual assault, we can see clearly that approach didn't didn't work very well at stopping the Catholic priests who raped young boys.
It is time for institutionalized practices that protect the perpetrator and minimize the seriousness of men's sexual crimes to END.
5
Who is Thou in the Ten Commandments? Correct me if I'm wrong but if you break them down (as you would in a literature class) you can't help but read 'Thou' as a married man with children. That excludes a lot of people. You could add men of the Jewish faith as well.
We always see the cliff note version of the Ten but it's in their full readings that it gets interesting.
In the 10th 'Thou' shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Nothing about coveting your neighbors husband.
In the 4th Thou shall do no labor, neither shall your male or female children or you male or female servants (slaves?) or your livestock or those visiting... but nothing about the wife.
Why? Probably because someone has to do the work of cooking, feeding the animals and getting 'Thou' a beer.
The bibles idea of a woman's place is right there. I'll never understand why women are ok with this.
9
SBC, (Southern Baptist Con)just another uniquely American religious cult hellbent on bringing Taliban style operations to a city near you ! Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale provides a good example of what can happen when at least one branch of government doesn’t bother to check the nationalist, nativist, authoritarian tendencies of a Republican party that’s gotten in bed with science deniers & the extreme elements of evangelical & other religious enterprises that America just can’t seem to quit. Sad.
15
No one knows any truth about 'Jesus'. It is most probably a myth. Now, what did Zeus say?
6
Apocalyptic preachers were a dime a dozen at the time of the supposed Jesus. He was a coddled middle class educated first born little prince son who also had a trade and a pretty cushy life, until at age 30 he took on the jewish elders and lost that game 3 years later. Even if Jesus is an amalgam of other apocalyptic preachers, the fantasies of virgin birth (reality check: that pregnancy was the result of either rape or teen sex) and erasing of all the powerful females by male disciples is as old as time. It's also no accident that most of the New Testament and Jesus' "teachings" were co-opted from Buddhism, as were all the subsequent Vatican and Christian rituals stolen from other people and religions - particularly those that were quasi matriarchies.
2
Let me get this straight: The “Rev.” Paige Patterson, in 1997, said of women “everyone should own one?” And “just last Thursday,” some 21 years after this was said, he finally “denounced” it? No hint of slavery or the “ownership” of another person there, right?
This forced (it seems to me) admission after 20+ years of denial smacks of the pride, arrogance and entitlement of the evangelical “Christian” movement. They’re so right; so perfect in their acid justification that they—and none other—count, with God in His heaven or with their strict exclusivity and “election” here on earth. This unthinking, reflexive orthodoxy of white equals right equals the power to arbitrarily harm others and revel in the miserable lives they live is holy? Is good? Ask your president, Mr. Wehner, about the Hollywood Access tape. Ask him about Stormy Daniels. Just “noisy, whining minorities”?—Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice-president.
When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, He did not condemn her sin. When He saved the woman “caught in adultery” from stoning, He said, “go and sin no more.” So why, one wonders, evangelical “Christians” have such a hard time with Jesus’s primary virtue: forgiveness?
Evangelicals can’t “forgive” the poor for being poor.
Evangelicals can’t “forgive“ non-whites for not being white.
Evangelicals can’t “forgive” women for being women.
The entire apparatus of their “belief” system is founded upon a lie and hypocrisy of a most un-Christ-like character.
39
Roy Moore’s 14-year-old victim was not a woman. She was a young girl.
25
All of Roy Moore's many victims were young girls, not just that one 14-year-old.
2
Evangelical Protestants need to start ordaining women.
9
Evangelicals' support for Donald Trump does not "complicate matters", it elucidates them. Evangelicals support the president exactly because he reminds them of their own leaders: corrupt and fraudulent charlatans and con men.
44
I don’t doubt that Christian fundamentalists make many fine contributions to this country,
But mercy and forgiveness for the perceived moral failures of liberals is not conspicuous among them.
9
Paying their fair share of local, state and federal taxes isn't one of those contributions of these ancient cult free loaders, either.
2
When you get a female Pope, you'll know that they've (that is, the male church patriarchy) have finally gotten the true religion of Jesus Christ. Until then, the "mulligan" dispensation offered by evangelical Christians to Donald Trump for his double infidelity (to, of course, his wife, but also to his Playmate mistress of many months) disqualifies them from any semblance of being followers of Jesus. All we have now is male hypocrisy of predatory priest and heretics pretending to be the messengers of Jesus.
6
Female Pope? That won't be any time soon since women can't even be ordained deacons, priests or bishops in the Catholic Church.
This actually happened:
Twenty years ago our parish announced that altar boys would be renamed altar servers, and young girls could apply. My daughter signed up, then found out that even if she completed the training the schedulers would assign masses, funerals and weddings to boys first, and girls would only get assignments if there were gaps or a boy got sick.
She quit.
This too:
All the coaches in our extensive parish sports program were men. Even for the successful girls teams. I have experience as a professional referee, and volunteered to be a coach. They told me only men could be coaches. Out-of-shape men were ok. Men who coached practices from a folding chair were ok. Men who themselves never in their lives set foot on a sports team were ok. Men who had only a passing acquaintance with the actual skills and rules were ok. Men who were frequently late were ok. Just no women, no matter how much experience as an athlete, coach or referee. I made a stink - showed them all my credentials - threatened to go to the local newspapers, so they said if I could find a willing male partner I could be a co-coach. Magnanimous, eh?
It is not just the ecclesiastical stuff. It's the mundane stuff too. Men outrank women. Skills, qualifications, talents, intelligence, experience be damned.
No thanks.
And they wonder why the pews are empty...........
3
For umpteen centuries it has been obvious that many who believe themselves Christians (or at least claim to be followers of Christ) are unfortunately human beings who act in ways at odds with what we have come to know as the teachings, the philosophy of Jesus. From time to time, someone will write a story of Jesus (or a Jesus-like individual) returning, only to be ignored, derided, perhaps killed by those who claim to be Christians.
In the present time of Trumpism and a renewed abandonment of compassion and moderation in political discourse, hypocrisy, ignorance, anger and rampant hostility are on the rise, perhaps in part because the irrational need to denounce and hate others has festered to breakpoint. During World War Two the nation, beset by the Great Depression, found a way to let off steam against real enemies of humanity. It didn't take long, following war's end, for McCarthyism's vile disease to infect national debate, and its progeny is alive and well today
as the nation's leader praises the propagandist Roy Cohn and channels the opposite of "tenderness, grace and healing to a fallen world." Angels in America?
Not "lions and tigers and bears," but Human Beings are the great, inglorious causes of world problems. "Love thyself and hate thy neighbor" is the Gospel According to Now.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
5
Sexism and outright misogyny are deeply entrenched in society, so it is not entirely surprising that they would rear their ugly heads in places of worship. What is most disturbing is that individuals who are supposed to be moral leaders further, rather than counter, such appalling mentalities. Figureheads of a faith group should use their power to elevate, not to stunt, ethical behavior.
5
Wow. It sounds like your Evangelicals are going the way of Trump in more ways than one. Maybe you should consider leaving both groups.
5
Is sexual harassment less of a problem in churches that ordain female ministers? Apparently the Times doesn't care, since they focus all their attention on denominations that don't.
1
The problem with American Evangelicals is that they are obsessed by sex and have forgotten that Jesus was a pacifist. I have not heard one of them regretting that the American military has killed sixteen million people since the end of the Second World War or that the USA dropped 26,000 bombs on Muslim countries last year.
9
From what I've read, Christians recognize 7 main sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. Lust is the least serious sin, but for some reason, that's the one Evangelicals obsess about the most.
3
Stormy Daniels got $130,000. Evangelicals got Gorsuch.
What's the difference?
Stormy Daniels is honest about what she does.
18
When it can be shown, with clear evidence, that "the Church" has acquired integrity and grace, and honesty, I will show the respect that is desired by these "believers," as long as they show me, an atheist, equal respect.
25
There's a very good book "Sex in the Forbidden Zone" by Dr. Peter Rutter that assesses the impact on girls and women when men abuse them in their positions of power. It also provides insightful instruction on how to correct these behaviors. In church, women and girls should be safe and you'd think the behavior shouldn't have to be spelled out to keep them safe. This book should be required reading--and men who have abused their followers need to be fully investigated. No more cover ups.
9
Misogyny has always been endemic and enduring among the Abrahamic faiths from Judaism to Christianity to Islam and beyond.
How could it be otherwise with a male clergy, deity and prophets?
How could it be otherwise when for most of human history maternity has never been in doubt?
14
I don't think so. Men have mothers and grandmothers and sisters etc. There's a natural love for women in all of us. It's all just bad rules and habits. But do note that there is a universal bias in our species towards a subservient role for women -- in every corner of every culture. It seems only "civilization" can correct that seemingly natural pattern; but that doesn't make correction impossible as demonstrated by other spheres of civilized constraint.
4
Pfft. Every rapist and child molester has a mother and grandmother. Every violent predator in prison or walking the streets - or controlling levers of power had a mother. All these virulent and violent males are someone's son. Earth remains a wretchedly dangerous and disgusting place for 3.8 billion females because of the 3.8 billion males.
Blackmamba, please come back and enlarge upon your fascinating final rhetorical question. How does the fact that the mother is nearly always known while the father might be in doubt lead us to misogyny? I would have thought that distinction would marginalize the males. It hasn't. Explain for the blind.
1
Until evangelicals afford others the dignity of being left alone they cannot be redeemed.
54
Jack T--Hear, hear! Right on the mark.
2
In my humble opinion, any group that overwhelmingly supports donald trump, despite the fact that his entire life has been an anathema to their stated beliefs, has zero credibility. The vast majority of holier-than-thou Evangelicals openly worship at the altar of trump. It clearly shows what utter hypocrites they are.
218
That’s the bottom line. As if the overwhelming support American evangelicals give to the GOP isn’t enough, their support of the liar, pervert and cheat who is the current American president reveals evangelicals’ willingness to put their lust for power in above their faith and ignore the explicit teachings of their own messiah.
20
The fact that these so-called "Christians" have given their full support to the most immoral president of the USA ever, proves that there is something extremely wrong with their faith. They either have a faith that has been fully distorted by their hatred, or they don't know how to read.
146
Evangelicals and Donald Trump share more than just a predilection for battering women and filling their followers’ heads with superstitious nonsense. Both Trump and the evangelicals yearn for the return of a day that never was; it seems to be around 1954.
Trump’s idea of manhood is a pure 1950s fantasy, just as the fantasy of the evangelicals is to see repressive Doomsday with their own eyes. In both cases, corruption and self-delusion are the most powerful driver of theirs actions.
It’s long past time for evangelicals to wake up, but as long as there’s money in that pipeline, the charlatans will have their way with the gullible—as will Donald Trump.
24
You have to be honest - the Bible and the Koran specifically and unequivocally require women to be subservient to men.
That is simply not
Maybe that’s bad - maybe that’s good - but it’s the fact.
6
The bible is open to interpretation. This is a case of "what would Jesus do."
7
Cautiously--It's bad, make no mistake.
10
Well, he never married or even had a mature relationship with a woman (if you believe that there was a real man that the mythology is based on), he reproached his own mother and how many of those disciples women? Those disciples were all to be elevated to kings of the twelve tribes of Israel. The author expects credit to be given to Jesus just because there were women around-he didn't shoo them away. Talk about damning with faint praise!
2
How long will it take America to rid itself of the Trump mind set? How long will it take Trump's supporters among the evangelicals to return to the teachings of Christ. How long before we all stop being tribal?
Speak clearly and frequently Mr. Wehner.
15
Beth Moore’s letter explicating the misogyny she experienced as an Evangelical sent shivers up my spine but it didn’t surprise me. All conservative religions, Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam, to name only a few examples, are possessed by a rabid unconscious desire to insure that women are insubordinate to men. The deeper psychological question is why, what purpose is served by subordinating, and often abusing, women?
I have come to think that the reason men fear women so much is that they know in their hearts that women, given a fair chance to succeed, will exceed at the work men do. They’d be better prophets, ministers and priests than men. They’d be less likely to sexually abuse their parishioners. This drives Mormons, Evangelicals and Catholics, among many other religions, crazy. The masculine power structure is inverted. The male ego, always fragile, is shattered.
33
Though the true Christian amazes me with their great spirituality and morality- I think some true Christians really, really are in touch with a higher love- when you say God was a man, you either elevate your fellow man, or you bring God and religion to the gutter.
This is a structural problem with Christianity, and it might take the second coming to cure
6
If Christianity is all about loving one another, about doing unto others as you would do unto yourselves, if it is about believing that we are all, ALL, created in God’s image then all of us, every single one of us no matter who or what we are should be treated equally and welcomed as fellow human beings who live on this earth.
Those decent people out there, Christians, Republicans, whomever . . . they may be decent but they are not good and true so long as they lend, squandor, their steadfast support to President Trump and his ilk. So long as they follow his lead they are betraying their own stated values. They are saying loudly and clearly that their faith in the goodness of God is not strong enough to get them what they want.
13
Sure, the society was wrong about women. I had an egalitarian mother and father team but societal teaching made it necessary for me to be civilized by several wives in order to realize that I was an idiot and they were my equals. Thank God I didn't cross the line.
Today's hypocritical religious-culture dominated movies and entertainment are both violent and sexual in essence: We have them entwined with our personalities all the way from our skin to our hearts. Where do you think all of these men and women learned to "gaslight" not only with each other but also with their children?
This article was a good beginning but only a beginning. The answer is to face our sins, ask for forgiveness and stop the behavior.
I would add that the Christian churches have other behaviors towards other religions, races and ethnic groups that they also need to change.
11
And how were your sisters or other female relatives raised? Likely not to be equal to you.
None of this should be complicated: "Love one and other as I have loved you." - Jesus
Let's imagine a world where this basic commandment was in fact the standard that we all strived to live by. Where would there be room for discrimination of any sort?
Just dreaming...
16
All of the hypocrisy and misogyny exhibited and condoned in these evangelical congregations isn’t about Christianity and spreading the word of Jesus. It is about money and power. Simple as that. I realized long ago that many of these church leaders will say and do anything to remain in their positions of authority. What astounds me is that members of these congregations have bought into an un-Christian system that is the antithesis of Jesus’ teachings and the bible.
55
Fascism is perhaps the most universal phenomenon in the historical and current social organization of human beings and related primates. Similar systems abound through the mammalian class, because it provides stability within the social group, and a boundary against outsiders.
The instinctive drive within us has roots so deep that, with a little window dressing, it is readily elevated to the status of a religion. Nazism, Soviet style communism, Evangelicalism, militant Islam; all share this inner core, though they differ in the expression.
1
You don't need a Mega Church to be close to God. In fact, you don't need any church. Or a pastor. Or a priest. Or a bishop, cardinal or Pope.
Get rid of all these powerful, predatory men running these businesses disguised as places of worship.
If there are no men in charge, then they can't prey on their victims.
18
My own Messianic Jewish congregation would not welcome a female spiritual leader as an Elder or Rabbi.
At the Wailing Wall prayer site in Jerusalem, men and women are allowed only in separate sections.
I ask the same of our GOP leaders who want to control women's health.
Why this misogyny?
13
The root of sexism and other behavior condemned by Jesus rests in the fact that Christianity has never given up the Old Testament, with it's 5000-year-old outmoded views.
The new contract with God, promoted by the Prince of Peace, eliminated the mindless worship of a deity and promoted a new concept, with a new commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself". The New Testament teaches cooperation with others, including women.
The sin of modern evangelical Christianity is the refusal to separate from the primitive, patriarch Israelite religion of the Old Testament.
5
I had an online discussion recently with a proponent of the Ten Commandments as a basis for American criminal law.
"So you believe there should be severe legal penalties for, say, making a graven image? Do the churches know about this? Or taking God's name in vain? Or disrespecting your parents? Or just coveting something, without actually doing anything wrong?"
"Those are part of the Old Testament, which was supplanted by the New; the harshness was replaced with love"
"So you don't advocate the Ten Commandments being made into law?"
"They are the word of God and represent universal moral commands which any society must adopt!"
At which point I have up.
2
With all due respect, the quote attributed to Jesus was from the historical Hebrew/Israelite scriptures. Jesus' followers and the authors of the christian scriptures put those words into his mouth. The brilliance of christianity is that it put a human face on an incomprehensible concept of a universal, all-encompassing god.
Evangelical Christians have not only veered away from Christ's teaching about the equal and respectful treatment of women but they have also abandoned his exhortation to care for the sick, the poor, the stranger and for the least among us. Today's American Christian Evangelicals bear no resemblance to the teachings of Christ.
50
Mr. Wehner, I want to thank you for giving me something good to read on Sunday mornings. You witness to me. I'm a Presbyterian who struggles with faith. My current church has a woman pastor who assiduously edits sexist language out of worship, of which I heartily approve. I especially want to thank you for your column of 12/25/17, "How Can I Possibly Believe That Faith Is Better Than Doubt?" Thank you for keeping the faith and bolstering mine. God bless.
10
All women deserve to be treated with respect and dignity but that also means they need to be held to the same level and standard accountability as they apply to men.
There is an abuse of power and authority and then there is a willing participant in whatever degree and context were involved in the circumstances and situation at the time of the encounter.
Women have agency even when power and authority are abused, short of physical violence and constraint, to refuse and walk away. Didn't their mother or fathers teach them anything about what is right and wrong behavior and how to deal with it?
The #MeToo movement has conflated physical attacks, forcible constraint, and coercion, with an aggressive request as the same thing. It is not. Everyone has a right to live in a world where they are safe from all dangers and hazards but that world doesn't exist in this real world.
Let the discussion of abuse of authority that lead to physical assault, forcible restraint, and coercion be made and the behavior and actions rooted out. But, let's not have #Metoo continues as a witch hunt for #Ichangedmymind hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades after the fact.
I agree that we don't currently live in a world where all people are safe. However, if we don't call out when we have been hurt, or see others being hurt, we will never get to that safer world.
#metoo goes right along with take a knee to protest police violence, student walk-outs to protest gun violence and other causes that have recently sprung up. People are tired of being hurt by those with the power, if they would choose, to stop the hurt.
When we discount the complaint as being too long ago or unprovable, we discount the real suffering, the human cost. It doesn't matter when it happened but people need to know that others hear, they care, and change for the better of all people can happen.
16
Can you encourage colleagues to read this? Abuse starts as a small transgression, growing like a cancer. I witnessed two young boys today, one slightly older, taller, and heavier, "in play", hurting a younger at a church gathering. An adult friend stopped the two as the younger began to cry. The father of the older child saw this, did absolutely nothing, and became indignant, loudly yelling that "this was only play". How does this boy grow up? This was a religious family. Certainly, the Clergy can begin by telling stories such as this as a lesson in moral action. Who has heard the Clergy admonish abuse of women and children in church? Who has heard the Clergy admonish marital infidelity as a form of abuse, too? If this was done consistently, wouldn't our country be a better place? Isn't it the moral duty of the Clergy to consistently (not selectively) challenge policies which are, at heart, anti-life, anti-peace, anti-environment, pro-money, intolerant and racist? When will we hear evangelicals, (especially tele-evangelicals) speak the words of the Bible as if they understand what is written? If they understood, would they, could they then support the current Republican narrative?
13
Boz (Tchividjian) is right. I would add that any Christian that believes it is possible to harm the reputation and name of Jesus, has no faith, no faith at all, in Jesus.
I know or have known a large number of atheists, anarchists, communists; fans of Gwar, King Diamond, Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio; and even a few committed satanists. All of these people in my small, anecdotal sample have very positive feelings about Jesus and Jesus' teachings. It's the faithless followers that have driven my dissenting friends far from the Church.
That's some talent, to take the single best brand concept in history and still manage to drive people away. That bit about gauging the quality of trees and fruit must have been true after all, huh.
17
Jesus condemned divorce. His devotees have turned that into a great weapon against women, denying them the ability to leave abusive or loveless marriages; this weapon is wielded primarily against women because (evangelical) Christianity also denies women any place outside the home. It forces women into dependence upon men, then doesn't let them leave when the men are bad for them. He took a GIANT step backwards in women's rights when he stopped women from ever being able to leave.
Jesus also treated the woman with the sick daughter abominably, and while one can argue that was more racism than sexism, it looks like a mixture of both to me. And he had no female disciples (Mary is never numbered among them), so they're outnumbered 12-0 which isn't very woman-friendly.
10
Esoteric, verbose to say the least, ok let's go over it again, what history has taught us imo, in simpler language.
Discrimination, harassment laws for women did not start today, they started app. 1980.
Since then countless women have come forward, started grievances, sued and won.
Men have gone through countless training regimens at work, telling them what the law is.
What not to do for women of the me too movement is to wait many yrs. to complain, only complain when the raises or roles stop, don't complain if the predator is contributing to their causes, like M. Streep, Hillary, NOW etc. or worse still start the sexual activity.
It should properly be called, Me Too, I am a co dependent and enabler.
The predator will always be there. The way to paint them into a corner is not to be an enabler or co dependent.
Predators live for them.
1
So, as so often happens, men's bad behavior turns out to be women's fault and then the responsibility for righting the wrong is (surprise!) women's job, too.
Yes, some predators will always exist. But surely there also exist far more men unwilling to enable them by assuming that one way or another the woman brought this on herself.
Aren't there far more men willing to broaden their view, and unwilling to let predators always get the last and only word? You seem to assume there are few men willing to join in this "women's work" of denouncing predatory behavior. I think you're wrong sir. I think there will always be strong, good men. My husband is one of them.
12
Thank you for your reply gypsy. The great majority of men are like your husband. That is what you cannot see.
The brave women were the women of the women's movement circa 1980s. They truly did not have the law on their side and changed it. They were NOT co dependents and enablers.
As mentioned the predators will always be there. The enablers and codependents on all sides, yes including many women are the issue now.
The predator will always be at fault. They start the problem.
However like anything in life, if one becomes a enabler or co dependent, they become part of the problem.
In his gracious and well written article Mr. Wehner fails to mention that his church is a member congregation of the evangelical Presbyterian Church In America - a denomination that refuses to allow women the opportunity to be church officers or ministers while teaching that "wives should be submissive to their husbands." It is the mentality (and theology) of patriarchy that fosters the view that women are inferior or somehow ill equipped or unworthy to be on equal footing with men.
28
Very powerful article.
People do forget what a revolutionary Jesus was. He attacked the power of the religious hierarchy in favor of the poor and other outsiders, including women. That is why they killed him.
Victims of sexual assault/violence need to be dealt with, with mercy, compassion and love. That is what was missing from their perpetrators when they assaulted them.
5
I'm sorry, but there is one thing that bothers me when Christians cite history. When Jesus was walking around on earth, Israel was predominantly Jewish, politically, socially and religiously. He was Jewish and his was a Jewish world. He spoke in synagogues. He preached at the Temple. His disciples and followers were predominantly, if not exclusively, Jewish. He spoke Aramaic, the mother-tongue of the people, and Hebrew, the language of the Torah that he had learned in the 1st Century equivalent of Hebrew Schools which had been established years before he was born. The holidays that he celebrated were Jewish holidays. The traditions that he practiced were Jewish traditions. Rome may have technically owned Israel as part of its vast empire, and Pontius Pilate may have been the hapless governor of a "stiff-necked and rebellious" people, but those people were Jewish. And the Jewish people did not ignore or dismiss women nearly as much as the Greeks and the Romans did, or they would have never recorded part of the lives of Rachel, Deborah, Rebecca, Ruth, Esther, Miriam, Abigail, Judith and countless others. (Far fewer women were named in the New Testament.) So if people want to look at Jesus' world, they need to quit looking at it through a anti-Semitic and Roman lens and start looking at it through a Middle Eastern Jewish one.
23
Amen!
Way too many people forget the history that you so correctly wrote about.
As I once heard from a wise Rabbi, "Christianity is the religion about Jesus. Judaism is the religion of Jesus."
Just some religious food for thought!
2
So, you went to church today? Good for you. In another life, I attended a mainline Presbyterian Church in that area of PA known as the T. Liberal blue Philadelphia and some of its suburbs to the right and liberal blue Pittsburgh and some of its suburbs to the left. We in the middle as my grandmother used to say would vote for the devil as long as he had an R behind his name. And they did in 2016. But I digress. Towards the end of living in that god-forsaken area, I served on the Session of the church. One Sunday during the summer we heard a former minister of that church speak as a guest minister about the sanctuary movement he was involved in when he left that church to pursue other interests. I was hugely impressed with what he said, motivated almost to want to do something. Two days later, at the monthly Session meeting, the topic was not about what Dr. Chase said but whether we were going to endorse that only by believing in Christ do you get into heaven. I resigned, effective immediately. Religion does three things quite effectively: divides people, controls people and deludes people. It is very simple.
25
Thank you Mr. Webber. I hope your counsel is taken to heart by leaders on the religious right. Sadly, the moral compass of many who of them has been put aside on the Biblical issues of gender (and I’d add racial) equality so central to the Evangelical message of Jesus (Evangelical as in the proclamation of God’ world-overturning Good news, that you so ably illustrated in your excellent commentary on the role of women in the ministry of Jesus, the work of St Paul, and the leadership of the early church) it seems that the unlimited White House access that a vocal and select group of leaders from the religious right enjoy is more important to them than faithful, consistent, pastoral, moral and prophetic leadership.
“When something does surface, all too often the church leadership quiets it down. Because they’re concerned about reputation..."
to "church" add: congress, educational institutions, (from public k-12 to universities), corporations (include media here), industry (whether personal indiscretion or product failure) and so on, any corner where place-keeping trumps, if you will, the responsibilities of office ...hollywood (a convenient euphemism for an especially uniformed elitism that also tars the thousands of film industry workers who get the movies made while keeping their opinions to themselves for fear of retribution) is a special case, in the time-honed tradition of make-believe, the a-list was actually complicit in keeping the "something" from surfacing in the first place...standing Os for harvey until his cover was blown, and then revoking his pass with great self-serving displays of high dudgeon and disgust...auditions for a place in a post-harvey hollywood.
4
Peter, Thank you for your article.
I did enjoy it and the subject is important, very important.
I am sad to say that I do not think that there will be any immediate awakening from within the mentioned organisations.
9
Well reasoned essay. Thank you Mr. Wehner. Keep spreading the "good news," especially those ideas that have been skipped over.
16
A wonderful piece, well argued and well written. But as someone who passed through various versions of Protestantism in my youth, the scripture cited by Mr. Wehner to me points to a flaw in thinking of Protestantism (or even Christianity) as a reform movement.
“There is neither Jew nor gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
You are all one in Jesus Christ, but you keep you day job -- as Jew, Gentile, slave, free, man woman. It is in the post-rapture future that all will be adjudicated. We will all come together, as equals.
As the 19th-century hymn puts it:
"In the sweet by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore."
So in the meantime, render unto Caesar, etc. Like all religions, Christianity (and certainly evangelical Protestantism) has become hierarchical and male-dominated in its practice. So it goes, perhaps.
21
"You keep your day job." This is the kind of thinking that makes time real and separates this world from heaven. The time is now, the need for change is now and, being made in the image of God, with all God's creative powers, we have the ability to change NOW. And so we must or stay forever apart from each other and from our Source, Who Is Now.
14
I’m not sure that the point wasn’t you stay and endure right where you are until you arrive on that beautiful shore. Keeping you day job was more about the lack of likely change than separation.
A fine piece Mr. Wehner. Here in supposedly secular Sweden we have another institution in which the same attitudes and behaviors you report from the Evangelical world have been displayed by male members of the elite institution, the Swedish Academy.
Over the past 20 years, these men - I name only one, Horace Engdahl -have given their full support to a non-member, Jean-Claude Arnault who with his member wife, Katarina Frostenson, ran a Culture Club, where members and others gathered.
A young female artist first called to the attention of the then head of the Academy the inappropriate behavior of Arnault directed at her and several other women she knew. The Academy Head dismissed a letter written to him by her in 1996 as being of no importance.
Only in 2017 when DN journalist Matilda Gustavsson published her report on what 18 women told her about their experiences with Arnault did people begin to look more critically at Arnault and his relationship to the Academy and key members of the Academy.
The Academy will not award a Nobel Prize this year, but if it does not first undergo outside review and then start with an entirely new membership I will no longer take its awarding of two prizes in 2019 as having any meaning.
A fine review in English is available at: #MeToo Hits the Nobel Prizes - The Atlantic, May 4, 2018.
The parallels between the Academy and Evangelicals are striking.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
28
"Jesus refused to treat women as inferiors despite living in a culture that treated them deplorably."
The "deplorably" is certainly an exaggeration and does not reflect reality in ancient Hellenistic-Roman-Jewish society, in spite of clear differences regarding norms or proposed norms of today.
I have always been puzzled by the story in John 2:1-11 regarding the miracle of turning water into wine at Cana in Galilee. When they ran out of wine at the wedding celebration, Mary, mother of Jesus turns to him and says "they have no wine", obviously hinting to Jesus that he should do something about it, and she did not mean to make a quick trip to the local vineyard or liquor store. The answer of Jesus is hard to follow. The Greek is literally translated as "what to me with to you woman" (i.e. don't bother me). It is the "woman" (gunai), though, that is most strange.
What Jewish son, any time any place, could turn to his mother as "woman". Not in my world and likely not in ancient Galilee. Commentators bend over backwards to claim no disrespect was intended. I would not want to be close to my mother if I talked to her like that, even if she annoyed me.
Was Jesus a feminist? He certainly seems to be socially progressive for his time, but the equality thing is pushed too much (Cf. Lk 10:38-42 on Martha and housework, a woman's work).
I obviously have nothing at stake in the theological issues, but social history can be bent only so much.
18
I think you should look more closely at the religious and social treatment of women, their uncleanness, the strictures on their lives, work, behavior, sexuality, of that time. You would apparently be surprised to find a strongly patriarchal and, yes, oppressive religious culture. The pretense that Hebrews and Greeks shared a culture is not acceptable in real study.
Even if you do base your claims on certain details of Bible stories, those are insufficient to prove your claim. Read Leviticus and later "church fathers (certainly not mothers) for more.
6
#METOO has allowed countless victims to feel less alone.
I was, for many years as a small child, molested by aunt. My mother, I am sure, knew but did nothing. i learned many years later that they had both been abused by their mother.
Now, thanks to METOO, have felt I could begin to speak up about my experience. I hope other men speak up, and help boys feel they can reach out for help. Male victims have been overlooked recently, as have female abusers. I hope this can change. 1 in 3 child sex abuse victims are boys, and 1 in 5 abusers are female. Neither group should be ignored.
48
I suppose it's good to start somewhere, so why not with Evangelicals' institutional practices, and many individuals' personal attitudes, regarding women. And the endless mulligans and even effusive praise for "baby Christian" Trump must be embarrassing. But since this is a group that has set itself up as the nation's moral scold (let's not forget that we deserved 9/11 for easing up on gays), pronouncing many other candidates morally unfit for office, perhaps it's worth pointing out that separate from his treatment of women, Trump also lies a lot. He cheats people at lot. He disdains the poor. He turns away from the disenfranchised, the discriminated against, the refugee, and all others who are destitute. He enriches the already rich. All of these attributes are exactly contrary to those we associate with Jesus. So really you should ask your Evangelical brethren to denounce them all and to revise their private sentiments and public policy positions accordingly. In short, to completely renounce almost every core Evangelical political position and the attitudes that underlie it. I wish you well. It would certainly make them better Christians. But I fear it's a fool's errand. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a humble man to redirect Evangelical leaders toward a mansion-less kingdom of heaven.
346
The Muslim world also might be a good place to start. Or is that too controversial?
1
It is not at all controversial. In most of America, it is all too easy to dump on Muslims. Also, Muslims don't control the U.S. government. Evangelicals do.
To Shamrock: if you really follow Jesus, I think he had something to say about starting with the beam in your own eye before looking for the mote in the eyes of others. Start by looking at your own blind spots and your own sin.
This "whataboutism" about other religions is telling, particularly in defense of a religion that is explicitly against "whataboutism." When looking for sin, start with you. Jesus was pretty clear about that. That also might be a good lesson for the religious leaders as well.
Beautiful piece, Peter.
You are attempting to live out the spirit of your faith - to make it a living faith instead of a hollow, sanctimonious effort to appear superior to others.
Namaste.
56
Before he follows Hillary Clinton in denouncing the "deplorables" as hypocrites, I suggest that Wehner talk to a few of them. It's the least he owes them if he has been part of the evangelical movement and the Republican party for much of its life.
Salena Zito and Brad Todd talked to them. The striking finding of their book, "The Great Revolt," according to a reviewer, is the Trump voters' " thoughtfulness about the vote. They were fully aware of Mr. Trump’s character flaws and the counterproductivity of his antics, and some of them did not support him in the primary. But they weighed the dangers against the advantages and made a rational decision."
“It was not his proudest moment,” a female CFO of a small tech company in Wisconsin tells the authors, referring to the “Access Hollywood” recording that captured Mr. Trump making coarse comments about women. “But when it came down to Hillary Clinton or him, well, I was more concerned with what she was hiding. I always knew what he stood for, because he always puts it out there.” An evangelical from Wisconsin says that she “just came to the realization that we’re in a broken world. There’s gonna be moral conflicts. There’s no perfect candidate.” In the end she voted for Mr. Trump. “It was the hardest decision I think I’ve had to make as an adult in any voting process.”
The people are miles away from Wehner's crude caricature. Didn't his religion teach him anything about charity?
9
So, a confessed serial killer is preferable to someone who “might” have something to hide. Charity is not the issue here.
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I don't see that you've provided any evidence whatsoever for your proposition. All you've done is shown us the path they followed towards their rationalization.
As for charity, I await the first iota of charity from white Christian conservative evangelicals for Americans who don't agree with them. I await. And await. And await.
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Trump had nothing to hide? We know he has plenty to hide himself because he won’t release his taxes.
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Quite frankly, I will believe a change of heart towards women when I see Evangelical s change their behavior and attitude. Not holding my breath.
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Mr. Wehner makes brief acknowledgement of Paul’s teaching that women should remain silent in churches (but not men), He omits reference to the fact that Paul also said that women, but not men, must cover their heads in Church—a custom at odds with Jewish worship practice in which both men and women were expected to cover their heads in equally humble expression of reverence for God above. He Is eager to cite the “stunning” statement that “There is neither Jew nor gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” But there is an equally stunning statement in the very first chapter of Genesis (verse 27) were God is said to have created human beings in God’s own image-- both male and female in God's image.
21
The Biblical account whereby God creates man and later woman from a part of man, the blaming of Eve for the introduction of evil into the world and consequent statement by God that man would henceforth dominate woman--all are staples of the churches to this day. The fact of male-only leadership with stunningly few exceptions, and teachings of wifely submission, clear church father attacks on women as sources of unclean temptation also testify to the frequent misogyny of these religions. The evidence of inequality is truly immense. I say that, btw, as a Christian-- but the "sermon on the mount" kind, not finding the "Christian" establishment much fonder of Jesus than the religious establishment was then.
8
Paul was the worst sort of mysogyist. He hated women. And that fact shines like a harsh sun in much church and Christian doctrine.
4
Since long before the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church, the worst thing that has happened to women has been the institutionalization of male chauvinism in ALL societies. Protestantism cast away some of the premises established by that church, but kept this one for old times’ sake. And, no, that was not the message of Jesus. Was that institutionalization due solely to the efforts of the Church? Hardly – it was merely further legitimization of an illness that has been notable in any human civilization since we dropped out of the trees, started walking upright and began making serious nuisances of ourselves.
Mr. Wehner wants to consider religion and the abuse of women, but the truth is that #MeToo has affected EVERY walk of life, every demographic constituency that gathers to form a community – and every religion (Eric Schneiderman is not a Southern Baptist and, as far as we know, doesn’t dance during prayers or speak in tongues).
It’s a guy thing, not a God thing.
But this will be a short comment, as Mr. Wehner is talking to an extended flock of which I am not a part. Just wanted to write a few words about guy things and God things.
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If the Church cannot better, it should at the least not be worse.
1
Sexual abuse and sexual politics occur in every sphere of life where men & women interact -- at work, in politics, in schools, churches and synagogues, in sports or entertainment. It's just a fact of life. Can we improve how people behave? yes, of course we can. But to imagine religion is somehow uniquely bad is not true.
1
Well said Peter. It would be tremendously heartening to see American evangelicals pick up the #MeToo banner. My thought is that evangelicals will split on this issue, depending on whether or not they support Trump. The #MeToo movement is motivated by a moral opposition to Trump's Presidency. But American evangelicals overwhelmingly support Trump. What I see from the perspective of a neighbouring country is that American conservatives and Christians that support Trump are not drawing any moral lines. The #MeToo movement does draw a line, and does it very effectively. Trump is destroying one moral barrier after another, and none of his supporters seem to mind. Demeaning women, blacks, Latinos, Muslim refugees - where does it end? Making deals with Mobsters and Fascist Strongmen - How will this turn out? History has shown what happened when leaders who push moral boundaries are not stopped. It never ends well. One of the most destructive things that has helped bring on the Trump Presidency is the politicization of Christianity in the United States. Think of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel, and Myanmar - mixing religion and politics is wrong - it inevitably leads to poverty, ignorance, and bad government. It also leads to false and malicious religious doctrines. Good luck on your mission to reform evangelicals. I believe that Trump's presidency will end badly both for Christianity and America.
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James Madison knew it would be disastrous to mix government and religion. He was an assitute student of history. There have been only a hand full of presidents who had a thorough understanding of history. Clearly trump is not one of them. VOTE November 6, 2018.
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You can hate Israel and oppose her policies, but you cannot say Israelis are either poor or ignorance -- they are moderate affluent for the Middle East and among the most highly educated and literate nations.
1
Far too many ignore what Jesus actually taught and ignore how He actually lived. I am surprised that mega-churches seem to fit in, but of course, they are far too involved in the material things in life to even try to live a more simple life that would perhaps help our planet to continue existing as we know it. The more the merrier and it's even nicer if they have deep pockets. It's as if they never read about his teachings. And they certainly never preach about how it was only women who stood by him while upon the cross and it was a women he FIRST spoke to after his victory over death. This floors me. And Pope Francis has the gall to say, No women as priests, absolutely not. Not ever. No women as priests." And i thought i was going to like this Pope. Well, not so much.
For religion, and too many churches, it's all about their numbers and how big and fancy their churches are. If some man walked in dressed in a shabby suit with a hole here and there, and his shoes looking to be at least 20 years old, he would be shunned. That's what so many churches are doing. Shunning their Lord and his teachings. They know it not.
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I think the Christianists still have a major problem - con artists posing as pious holy men who know the way to God better than anyone else. It's been a big seller in this country for hundreds of years, I wonder if it will ever change.
8
As a presumed "follower" of Jesus and his teachings to care for and comfort the "abused", particularly women who have been sexually assaulted and mistreated, it would be a powerful Christian act and bold message to other evangelicals if Mr. Wehner, and the congregation at his own McClean Presbyterian Church in Virginia, invited some of the women who have been victimized by Donald Trump's "sexual transgressions" to visit and share in a safe setting their stories of his predation, and its lasting harmful effects, with them.
Not only could receiving these women with compassion and understanding be a profoundly healing experience for them, but it would certainly separate the columnist's fellow evangelicals from those who have totally, shamelessly compromised themselves by supporting the amoral Trump and his callous and cruel Administration. Hopefully, Mr. Wehner and his congregants will choose to "walk the walk" in this regard.
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At the time of the apostle Paul's death there were only a few thousand Christians in The Roman Empire. In a little over 300 years the church had grown to 34 million. One significant factor that brought about that growth was how Christians treated women. Compared to the pagan religions of that time, women were treated as equal to men and played a huge role in the activities of the church which were often based in their homes........I am a deacon in the Baptist church in this small town where I live and we have just hired a lady to be our next pastor. Not all Christians are biased against women.
21
Yes profoundly true as a comparison with Greco-Roman culture. But Mr. Wehner seems to be taking a stereotypical swipe at the culture that Jesus was "living in" -- which he says treated women "deplorably". Unfortunately, he gives no evidence. It is true that among Jesus’ devoted followers were women (Mary, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus) and at least one is credited with being the first to learn and then report that Jesus was alive. That they are in the story of Jesus’s life is admirable but not exactly sufficient reason for thinking the movement led by Jesus treated women as full equals and/or in a way that broke from previous tradition. The women identified as “Mary” in the English translations) were all actually named (after) Miriam (in the Greek, Mariam), the sister of Moses. Miriam played an important role in the narrative of the exodus from Egypt—first making sure that her infant brother was rescued by an Egyptian princess, not killed on the order of the Pharaoh; later leading the liberated women in a joyful song of praise to God. Other women with a celebrated role include—Deborah, Ruth (for which a book in the Bible is named); Hannah (who offered a beautiful prayer, to which the “Magnificat” prayer of Mary in the Gospel of Luke is a close parallel), Esther (another book of the Bible) and later—in the Books of the Maccabees, heroic women, e.g., Judith and (another) Hannah.
14
The documentary record on how Jesus treated women is vanishingly small in relation to his purported years lived.
That said, as proper moral behaviour transcends the spiritual realm, so just and proper treatment of women by men requires no religious imprimatur; it stands upright in and of itself.
Misogyny, in and of itself, requires no religious license nor does its condemnation by any religion deserve favor over that of the non religious.
11
You are wrong about this. I wrote a 200+ page master's thesis on Jesus' relationship with women in only one gospel (Women and Liberation in the Fourth Gospel).
The gospel of John is so astonishing in its portrayals of women in the life and ministry of Jesus, that those who read it carefully and objectively, putting aside preconceived notions of the the roles of women in early Christianity, will see women in their full humanity and spiritual power --both encouraged and supported by Jesus.
I am glad to see this article but can't help notice even here the unconscious bias of so many men: all those quoted about Jesus and women are all male scholars!
There are countless biblical scholars who are women:
Karen King
Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza
Elaine Pagels
Phyllis Trible
Sandra Schneiders
Judith Plaskow
Elsa Tamez, to name a few. Not surprisingly, they have written about women in the New Testament.
Women need to have equal voice in any conversation, especially one that concerns them. Until, for example, newspapers like the New York Times have parity in the male-female ratio of op-ed columnists, women will remain second-class citizens in the world of ideas and the mind.
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Yes, great religious writing and scholarship by women.
But the Gospel of John also provides an example of Jesus conversing with a woman in a way that is not exactly loving and respectful (Chapter 4). Yes, preachers will say "look at how he talks with a woman, and a Samaritan woman at that!". But a closer look at the dialogue reveals a condescending tone. He asks her--without a "please"-- to give him water to drink. He then chastises her for not asking him for "living water". He tells her to bring her husband (but why?) and when she says she doesn't have a husband-- he (for what reason?) reminds her that "that's true, you have had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn't your husband." Finally, when she expresses sincere puzzlement about where to worship, he tells her "you people worship what you don't know; we do know". (4:22).
Absolutely. Laura Nasrallah and Amy-Jill Levine came immediately to my mind, but of course there are many, many others.