Very good article and well stated arguments! My only qualm is that you repeatedly single out “white evangelicals”, but this is also an issue in the black Christian community as well, especially here in the Southern US. I totally understand if you only want to speak of what you know. So I will speak of what I know.
Disclaimer — I am a white male. I am married to a beautiful black woman. Does that give me a right to speak about Black culture? Yes and no. I married into the culture (which isn’t so different than “white culture” as society and media would have us believe). I have had certain experiences, of which I only will speak of here.
I’ve watched a black church fragment because of a woman who was ordained as a minister. The pastor was retiring. A vote went out to the congregation as to who would be the next lead pastor. The woman (who had invited us to join the church, was the only reason we were there, is an amazing spiritual leader and captivating preacher, and was an active member of the church for years) was going against a new male minister who had only showed up to this church after talks of the pastor’s retirement we’re making the rounds. She won the vote, but only barely. The church threw out the vote and installed the male as lead pastor anyway. We stopped going to that church.
Even when my wife and I were going through marriage counseling prior to getting married, by my wife’s aunt who is an ordained minister and relatively high up in her organization’s hierarchy, the strictures of the gender roles were taught to us by her. I am to be the spiritual leader of the household. She is to submit to me (she doesn’t, btw. But that’s one reason I love her!). I knew all of this beforehand so I just smiled and nodded. So these norms are being taught even by women of power and authority in the church.
I know this is just anecdotal evidence. My point to all of this is that it’s not just a white evangelical problem. It’s rooted in legalistic interpretations of the Bible being used to support these social systems of power in which we define our identity and purpose in life. It’s not solely a Christian problem either. I’m sure we can find examples in Islam, Buddhism, and even atheistic science worship as well. Anywhere there’s a system that allows someone to be an asshole, you’re guaranteed to find an asshole zealously defending it.
