There have been a number of articles and columns in the news recently that may tweak the memory of many people who grew up in the evangelical church. David French, in the New York Times, wrote a column this week addressing the recent documentary Shiny Happy People. The documentary reveals the disturbing truth behind the façade of the Duggar family, who had a reality television show that ran from 2008 until 2015. Some other articles and columns pertained to recent events in the Southern Baptist denomination in which churches with female pastors faced expulsion.
I often think about and remark upon on when Pope Francis said that moral rigidity is always hiding something. He is making a similar point to that of my friend and Orthodox theologian David Goa, who says that moral indignation is actually a form of public confession.
The Duggars presented an almost ridiculous shiny moral rigidity, the kind that puts forward a wonderfully, almost sickeningly perfect family. Any imperfections are only to disarm, as if to say, “our tiny imperfections really are part of how great we are.” The documentary largely focuses on how the Duggars were part of a cult-like movement that had enormous impact on the evangelical church. This movement of so-called “traditional” values was headed up by Bill Gothard and was known as The Institute of Basic Life Principles. A central concept in the movement was “The Umbrella of Protection” which held that God is the ultimate power under which we are kept secure. Next in power is the husband, the father, the man. Under them are the children and the women. If you stepped out from under the umbrella, by immoral behaviour, by disobeying the one over you, then you would face judgment, terror and even eternal hell.
It’s quite a concept to hold while carrying on in the world with shiny, happy faces but, if you grew up evangelical, you may be familiar with something quite similar.
David French writes about his own experience with the movement and about one of their teachings:
“The Gothard movement, went so far as to teach that even otherwise modest outfits could contain “eye traps” for men that rendered the clothing morally insidious. This teaching placed an enormous burden on women to maintain the purity of men and created an environment where women would often blame themselves in the face of male predation. The actual material has to be seen to be believed.”
If you follow the link in the quote you will see that in the teaching there were actual exercises in which you were to “spot the eye traps.”
The insight of French’s column is that it points out that most of the people he met who were in the movement were people who were positively motivated to live well, to find community, and even to seek to serve God. He mentions this alongside outlining how the moral rigidity of the movement repeatedly hid multiple examples of terrible abuse. So, often it turns out that the people hollering the loudest about how others are immoral are those who should be trusted the least.
The recent events in the Southern Baptist denomination are head-shakingly hard to believe. In a reaction to what some leaders see as a “liberal drift,” churches that have had female pastors, in some cases for decades, are facing expulsion from the denomination. From the above linked New York Times article about the Southern Baptist denomination:
“The letter in October came as a shock to Linda Barnes Popham, who had been the pastor of Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., for 30 years, the first woman to lead her congregation. She had served in ministry even longer, since she started as a pianist at age 16.
But now, she read in the letter, officials of the Southern Baptist Convention had received a complaint about her church being led by a woman. The denomination was investigating, it said.
She replied at length, listing her qualifications and her church’s interpretation of the Bible that affirmed her eligibility to lead. Church deacons, including men, rallied to her defense.
Convention officials decided to expel her church anyway, along with four other congregations that have female pastors, including one of the most prominent in the country, Saddleback Church, based in Southern California.”
The article mentions that the motivation behind such expulsions is that an ultra-conservative faction of denominational leadership sees female pastors as a precursor to acceptance of homosexuality and sexual immorality.
Do you remember when Jesus turned the tables over at the Temple? His ire was directed towards a religious and commercial establishment that was actually keeping people away from God rather than helping people to see and know God’s presence and love.
When I read about the Duggars and Gothard, when I hear about what is happening in the Southern Baptist church right now, I feel, again, that much of the leadership in many evangelical expressions of faith has put up walls and barriers. As a pastor, I could see examples, even in local church and para-church leadership. So often congregations were listening to the wrong people. I can think of people who rose to positions of leadership in local contexts who were almost cartoonishly morally rigid.
Why did anyone listen to them? They so often put others on the defense, as if we had to answer to them, to somehow be deemed acceptable by their interpretations, standards, and whims.
The same Southern Baptist denomination that is kicking churches out for having female pastors was exposed last year for waging a coordinated campaign to cover up sexual abuse and even to attack victims in order to protect money and power and leadership. While leaders are declaring others to be immoral simply for being gay or for being women, they are covering up acts of terror and violence.
Stop listening to these people!
Stop listening to the moral tyrants within your own church and extended family systems. They wreak havoc for generations. It is a classic move of abusers to put the ones being abused on the defense. Victims are twisted around into seeing themselves as the immoral ones always trying to win the approval of the abuser. It turns out that such terrible strategies can come to take over entire churches, denominations and movements. One of the control strategies of the moral crusaders is to forcefully present the idea that if you don’t live according to their moral declarations then your life and your faith and even faith itself is at risk. They impose this moral code, even as they so often fail to live according to real morality themselves. Their control depends upon fear. This is manipulation, power and abuse; not faithful leadership and it is not reflective of Jesus at all.
If you were raised in something like this, or within the Gothard movement itself, may you be free from any remnant of still trying to win the approval of leaders of such damaging ways of abuse and control. Their demands weren’t worth listening to then, but so many well-meaning people did not know it. They are not worth listening to now, and they are the furthest thing from trustworthy moral voices. I can still recognize their humanity, even as I refuse to live in fear of them.
Thanks for speaking out about this and helping to expose the hypocrisy.