Evangelical patriarchal culture prioritized obedience to authority over compassion and justice

Evidence

The institutional culture of Independent Fundamental Baptists represented the more authoritarian tendencies of conservative evangelicalism, but it existed as part of a larger evangelical culture that celebrated patriarchal authority—a culture that dictated the values and directed the actions of “good people” in ways that could displace compassion and justice with blind obedience to authority. For a community that believed in the existence of sin, conservative evangelicals were curiously nonchalant about the dangers of unchecked power when that power was placed in the hands of a patriarch. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 653

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox — a sin-conscious community that ignores the corruption of unchecked power — condenses Du Mez’s whole thesis about how the patriarchal ideal created the institutional conditions for abuse.
• XREF: connects to: Protestant literalism paid for symbolic power with obedience to the written word; Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204; Patriarchal societies deploy myths deliberately to impose their laws — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 666 (+2 more)