Authoritarian patriarchal teaching entered mainstream evangelical homes through homeschooling curricula

Evidence

Although Gothard remained little known outside of evangelicalism, within conservative circles he exerted significant influence. In 1968 around 2000 people attended his seminars; by 1973 that number had grown to over 200,000. As the author of a popular homeschooling curriculum, he inculcated generations of children in his teachings of biblical law and patriarchal authority. As homeschooling increased in popularity in the 1980s, many families who would not have identified as Christian Reconstructionists nevertheless came to embrace the tradition’s core precepts. In this way, authoritarian teachings infused Christian homes, churches, and the wider evangelical subculture. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 181

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s stated need to trace how consumer culture (curricula) transmitted theology outside the pulpit — this is a concrete instance of Du Mez’s method. — connects to: A seminary’s gender hierarchy was enforced by economic control of households — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 159
• SEED: Angle: how a fringe theology became mainstream through mundane artifacts like a curriculum rather than through doctrinal debate — the ‘radical mainstreaming’ mechanism.