Patriarchy in the Pulpit

March 27, 2018

Writing for the Huffington Post, campus minister Brandi Miller shows that even as patriarchy is being increasingly challenged in society today, it continues to thrive in the church.  She begins her article with an emphasis on the many positive images of women throughout the Bible. “Yet in modern churches where patriarchy has found its way into the pulpit,” she says, “women are easily interpreted out of relevance in the scripture and stripped of their power to liberate other women in church spaces, to lead and to be heard.” She then points out the numerous consequences of this “patriarchy in the pulpit” and how it fosters beliefs in women’s inferiority, dangerously breeds toxic masculinity, and contributes to the abuse of women. She expresses concern about how patriarchal views are flourishing in these times of what she terms  “state supported politicized evangelicalism.”

Take some time to read Brandi Miller’s new article, “Patriarchy has found a home in the pulpit,” our chosen link of the day.

 

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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