Biblical patriarchy

Set of beliefs in evangelical Christianity concerning gender relations

For patriarchs in the Bible, see Patriarchs (Bible).

Part of a series on

Christianity and gender
"Adam and Eve" by Albrecht Dürer (1504)

Theology

* Proverbs 31
* 1 Timothy 2:12
* Biblical womanhood
* Christian views on marriage
* Deaconess
* Jesus's interactions with women
* List of women in the Bible
* Ordination of women
* Paul the Apostle and women
* Rape in the Hebrew Bible
* Stay-at-home daughter
* Women as theological figures
* Women in the Bible
* Women in Christianity

Major positions

* Christian egalitarianism
* Complementarianism

Other positions

* Asian feminist theology
* Biblical patriarchy
* New feminism
* Womanist theology

Ordination of women in Christianity

* Ordination of women in Catholicism
* Ordination of women in Protestantism (Anglican • Methodist • Presbyterian)

Church and society

* African and African-American women in Christianity
* Christianity and homosexuality
* Fallen woman
* Transgender people and Christianity
* Women in Church history

Organizations

|  Feminist

* Evangelical and Ecumenical
Women's Caucus

Egalitarian

* Christians for Biblical Equality

Complementarian

* Council on Biblical
Manhood and Womanhood

Patriarchal

* Vision Forum (defunct)

Theologians and authors (by view)

|  Feminist

* Anne Eggebroten
* Grace Jantzen
* Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
* Letha Dawson Scanzoni

Egalitarian

* Gilbert Bilezikian
* Greg Boyd
* Gordon Fee
* Kevin Giles
* Stanley Grenz
* Kenneth E. Hagin
* Paul Jewett
* Roger Nicole
* Frank Stagg
* William J. Webb

Complementarian

* Don Carson
* John MacArthur
* Susan Foh
* John Frame
* Wayne Grudem
* George W. Knight III
* Albert Mohler
* Douglas Moo
* Jennifer Morse
* Dorothy Patterson
* Paige Patterson
* John Piper
* Vern Poythress
* Douglas Wilson

Theologians and authors (by branch)

|  Roman Catholic

* Hildegard of Bingen
* Julian of Norwich
* Catherine of Siena
* Christine de Pizan
* Juana Inés de la Cruz
* Edith Stein
* Pope John Paul II
* Phyllis Zagano

Eastern Orthodox

* Frederica Mathewes-Green

Protestant

* April Ulring Larson
* Catherine Booth
* Lise-Lotte Rebel
* Katharine Jefferts Schori

* v
* t
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Biblical patriarchy, also known as Christian patriarchy, is a set of beliefs in Evangelical Protestant Christianity concerning gender relations and their manifestations in institutions, including marriage, the family, and the home. It sees the father as the head of the home, responsible for the conduct of his family. Notable people associated with biblical patriarchy include Douglas Wilson,[1] R. C. Sproul, Jr.,[2] Voddie Baucham (who prefers the phrase "gospel patriarchy"),[3] the Duggar family,[4] and Douglas Phillips.

## Beliefs[edit]

The "Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy" published by Vision Forum before their demise advocates such beliefs as:[5]

* God reveals Himself as masculine, not feminine.
* God ordained distinct gender roles for man and woman as part of the created order.
* A husband and father is the head of his household, a family leader, provider, and protector.
* Male leadership in the home carries over into the church: only men are permitted to hold ruling positions in the church. A God-honoring society will likewise prefer male leadership in civil and other spheres.
* Since the woman was created as a helper to her husband, as the bearer of children, and as a “keeper at home”, the God-ordained and proper sphere of dominion for a wife is the household and that which is connected with the home.
* God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply” still applies to married couples.
* Christian parents must provide their children with a thoroughly Christian education, one that teaches the Bible and the biblical view of God and the world.
* Both sons and daughters are under the command of their father as long as they are under his roof or as long as they are the recipients of his provision and protection.

Michael Farris notes three examples of patriarchal teaching: that women should not vote, that higher education is not important for women, and that "unmarried adult women are subject to their fathers’ authority."[6]

According to Rachel Held Evans, the biblical patriarchy movement is "committed to preserving as much of the patriarchal structure of Old Testament law as possible."[7]

## Practices[edit]

Some churches connected to Biblical patriarchy practice "household voting" in the church, where only the male heads of households cast votes in church elections.

Many members of the biblical patriarchy movement are also homeschoolers.[8]

## Differences with complementarianism[edit]

Biblical patriarchy is similar to complementarianism, and many of their differences are only ones of degree and emphasis.[9] While complementarianism holds to exclusively male leadership in the church and in the home, biblical patriarchy extends that exclusion to the civic sphere as well, so that women should not be civil leaders[10] and indeed should not have careers outside the home.[11] Thus, William Einwechter refers to the traditional complementarian view as "two point complementarianism" (male leadership in the family and church), and regards the biblical patriarchy view as "three-point" or "full" complementarianism (male leadership in family, church, and society).[12][13] This issue was discussed during Sarah Palin's vice presidential campaign in 2008, when some adherents of biblical patriarchy stated that Palin, as a woman, was "biblically ineligible to run for vice-president".[14]

In contrast to this, Douglas Wilson rejects the idea that it is a sin for a woman to run for public office.[15] John Piper and Wayne Grudem, representing the complementarian position, say that they are "not as sure in this wider sphere which roles can be carried out by men or women".[16]

## Criticism[edit]

Biblical patriarchy has been criticised for holding views that demean women and view them as property. Don and Joy Veinot of Midwest Christian Outreach interpret the Vision Forum statement to imply that "women really cannot be trusted as decision makers" and "unless a daughter marries, she functionally remains pretty much the 'property' of the father until he dies."[17]

Andrew Sandlin criticizes biblical patriarchy for teaching the authority of fathers, whereas the Bible teaches the authority of both fathers and mothers. Sandlin argues that "whenever the Bible has in mind children’s obligation to parents, it never depicts a paternal hierarchy, only a parental hierarchy", that "the father has no more say in the children’s rearing than the mother", and that "the Bible does not teach that the father is the head of the household".[18] Elsewhere, Sandlin argues that a "renewed patriarchalism in some quarters is working for hegemony over the other legitimate spheres of God’s authority."[19] In other words, the authority of the father dominates other authority structures in the church and in society. Sandlin writes that some patriarchalists "have gone so far as to suggest that Christian day schools are sinful or erosive of the family" and to "demand almost unswerving obedience and servanthood from their forty-year old married sons."

Michael Farris takes issue with the teaching that women should not vote, and argues that "nothing in the Bible can possibly be twisted to expand the duties between a husband and wife in a loving marriage to reach the conclusion that Bill Maher can vote but Vickie Farris cannot."[6]

In 2008 Cynthia Kunsman ran a workshop at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (sponsored by Evangelical Ministries to New Religions) critiquing biblical patriarchy.[20] She described it as an "intolerant ideology" that has arisen within circles of the Christian homeschool movement during the last two decades. She suggested that the biblical patriarchy movement was guilty of subordinationism, and identified the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the Federal Vision movement, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as adherents of biblical patriarchy. In response, both EMNR and MBTS accused Kunsman of making "unwarranted and misinformed accusations against Christian teachers and ministries, including the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and agencies within the Southern Baptist Convention."[20]

## See also[edit]

* Christian head covering
* Family Integrated Church
* Gender roles in Christianity
* Male chauvinism
* Patriarchy
* Quiverfull
* Stay-at-home daughter

## References[edit]

1. ^ In his 1999 book, Federal Husband (Moscow, ID: Canon Press) Wilson argued that a husband as "federal head" assumes responsibility for his wife's spiritual condition. In a 2013 blog post, Patriarchy, Vision Forum, and All the Rest of It, he said, "Patriarchy simply means “father rule,” and so it follows that every biblical Christian holds to patriarchy... But there are objections, some to the substance and some to the word... There is a kind of male conceit that does not know how to submit, and a number of these people have embraced the word patriarchy."
2. ^ Highlands Study Center Squiblog Archived October 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ Baucham, Voddie (2009). What He Must Be: ...If He Wants to Marry My Daughter. Crossway. p. 59\. ISBN 9781433520815. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
4. ^ Marcotte, Amanda (April 16, 2014), "Sex Scandal Rocks the Duggars' Christian Patriarchy Movement", The Daily Beast, retrieved September 3, 2014.
5. ^ "The Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy". Vision Forum. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010.
6. ^ a b Farris, Michael. "A Line in the Sand". Home School Legal Defense Association. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
7. ^ Evans, Rachel Held (2012). A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master". Nashville: Thomas Nelson. p. 51\. ISBN 978-1-59555367-6.
8. ^ Joyce, Kathryn (2010-05-01). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 3\. ISBN 978-0-8070-1073-0.
9. ^ R. C. Sproul, Jr. says that "Both the patriarch and the complementarian affirm that husbands are called to lead their families. Both agree that wives and children are their equals in the eyes of God, that the husband/father’s authority isn’t the fruit of being a superior form of humanity. Both affirm that wives are called to be helps in their families’ call to fulfill the dominion mandate. Again, I’m not clear on what the difference between these views might be." Ask RC: How do I avoid embracing hyper-patriarchy?
10. ^ Should Christians Support a Woman for the Office of Civil Magistrate?.
11. ^ Called to the Home — Called to Rule.
12. ^ Men and Women and the Creation Order, Part 1 - Vision Forum Ministries
13. ^ The Palin Predicament Resolved - Vision Forum Ministries
14. ^ Ingersoll, Julie (17 November 2010). "Sarah Palin Calls Biblical Patriarchs "Neanderthals"". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
15. ^ Douglas Wilson, Wrestling With Ghosts
16. ^ John Piper and Wayne Grudem, "An Overview of Central Concerns," in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), 89.
17. ^ L. L. (Don) and Joy Veinot, Midwest Christian Outreach Journal Spring 2007, p. 4. Emphasis original. Archived February 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
18. ^ P. Andrew Sandlin"The “Patriarchy” Problem", emphasis in original.
19. ^ P. Andrew Sandlin, "The Hegemonic Patriarchy," Christian Culture January 2004, available on the Under Much Grace website.
20. ^ a b Web: 30 Jan 2010 Speaker Chastised Over Criticism of 'Biblical Patriarchy' at SBC Seminary Archived 2009-10-04 at the Wayback Machine

## External links[edit]

* "My Life as a Daughter in the Christian Patriarchy Movement". AlterNet.
* The Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy Vision Forum Ministries Editorial

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* e

Evangelical Protestantism in the United States

Churches|

| Baptist Family|

* Southern Baptist Convention
* Independent Baptist
* Missionary Baptists
* Conservative Baptist Association of America
* Free Will Baptist
* General Association of Regular Baptist Churches

|

Lutheran Family|

* Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod
* Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Presbyterian Family|

* Presbyterian Church in America

Pentecostal Family|

* Assemblies of God USA
* Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)
* Foursquare Church
* Pentecostal Church of God
* Pentecostal Holiness Church
* Apostolic Pentecostal

Restorationist Family|

* Churches of Christ
* Christian Churches and Churches of Christ

Congregationalist Family|

* Conservative Congregational Christian Conference

Holiness Family|

* Church of the Nazarene
* Wesleyan Church
* Free Methodist Church
* Church of God (Anderson, Indiana)

Keswickian Family|

* Christian and Missionary Alliance

Reformed Family|

* Christian Reformed Church in North America

Adventist Family|

* Seventh-day Adventist Church

Nondenominational Family|

* Association of Vineyard Churches
* Calvary Chapel Association

History|

* Azusa Street Revival
* Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
* Great Awakening
* First Great Awakening
* Second Great Awakening
* Cane Ridge Revival
* Third Great Awakening
* Fourth Great Awakening
* Healing revival
* Los Angeles Crusade (1949)
* Revival of 1800

Thought|

* Believers' Church
* Biblical literalism
* Biblical inerrancy
* Biblical patriarchy
* Biblical womanhood
* Born again
* Christianity and abortion
* Christian Zionism
* Evangelical theology
* Full Gospel
* Kingdom theology
* Quiverfull

Practices|

* Contemporary worship
* Contemporary worship music
* Prayer warrior
* Revival meeting
* Camp meeting
* Tent revival
* Sinner's prayer

Forms|

* Bible church
* Black church
* Megachurch

Movements|

* Apostolic-Prophetic Movement
* Bapticostal movement
* Christian fundamentalism
* Evangelical left
* Jesus movement
* New Apostolic Reformation
* Neo-charismatic movement
* Red-Letter Christians
* Seven Mountain Mandate
* Transformational Christianity

Institutions|

* Christianity Today International
* Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
* Evangelical Climate Initiative
* Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus
* Fuller Theological Seminary
* Moody Bible Institute
* National Association of Evangelicals
* Promise Keepers
* World Vision United States

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