Brilliant! This explains why the South is such a matriarchy. Southern men resist matriarchal structures by peacocking the false masculinities of trucks, guns, sexual assault, frat culture, sports, etc. while wearing Vineyard Vines pastels on Sundays. The South is run by women.
The only people who don’t realize the South is a matriarchy are the men who live there. If you want to see this writ large visit a Southern church. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/11/22…’s-eyes-unique-perspectives-of-southern-matriarchy (hyperlink may not work so you’ll have to copy/paste)
Southern churches are matriarchal if even if a church only permits male pastors—that’s not how matriarchies work. It’s not about who has certain titles but leverages power. So the Jesus presented in the South & CCM is targeted for women. You don’t get Rev. 19 Jesus in Nashville.
The South is an actual matriarchy with a patriarchal facade. This why the men you often find in evangelical churches in the South are nice but joyless, boring, & passive. Churches don’t demand their strength or skill. Common themes is Southern literature! amazon.com/s?k=9780252064…
Pastors are frustrated across the South because their men don’t do anything but why would expect internal male motivation in a matriarchy? If you don’t think the South is a matriarchy pay attention to Mother’s Day. In the South, only Easter is a bigger church holiday.
Matriarchies tend create two bad trajectories for sons: (1) passive, emotionally dead, effeminate men google.com/amp/s/explorin… and (2) misogynistic & physically/sexually abusive men. amazon.com/Invisible-Pres…
Fact: (and I’ve never heard this in a sermon) abusive men often have overbearing moms, says the data, and they take out their anger against their moms on their girlfriends & wives. Many wives are paying the price of mother-in-laws right now! #Misogyny amazon.com/Why-Hate-Women…
In the South, it’s counter-intuitive, but you’ll see this from scholars like Kimmel, Messner, Gurian, and others, many Southern men hide from the matriarchy in deer stands, on fishing boats, the bathroom, under the car, retaliate in strip clubs, escape to a college frats, etc.
Because the South is a matriarchy with a patriarchal facade—from the classroom to the pulpit—the whole culture is in blind captivity to it. Complementarianism as a “gospel issue” is a resistance to Southern evangelical matriarchalism. Men often resist matriarchy theologically.
[Note: I’m not saying that matriarchal resistance is the *only* motivation for maintaining the orthodox views of men as pastors but if you think it’s an accident that CBMW is largely made up of men from the South & Midwest, read more psychology books about Southern religion.
Or if you think it’s an accident, that the men who are the most careless about overextending complementarian views, beyond what the Bible actually says, are men raised in the South/Midwest, even if they don’t live there no longer, think again and read some books.]
Most of the religious research has focussed on the black church, which we all know is a matriarchal church, but in the South, from whom did they adopt matriarchal religion? Answer: from the white people who gave them Christianity. Slaves were given a matriarchal religion.
We need scholars outside of evangelicalism to do more research because many men are too dependent on the matriarchy for their livelihoods to challenge it or are too blind to see it. I only know ONE man with such courage in evangelicalism👉🏾 @smithbaptist sbts.edu/family/2012/10…
The Northeast & Pacific Northwest are not matriarchal cultures, which explains, in part, why so many guys raised in the South fail as church planters and pastors north of Washington, D.C. Exporting matriarchal Christianity to New York, Boston, or Seattle will usually fail.
Seems like this is an unaddressed issue in the South. And almost all of resources are for daughters, not sons (and the pain is passed on at frat parties and abusive marriages). Ladies, look also at how his mom treats him, not the other way around. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/169520…
I’ll stop here but I could write a book on this. I meet so many guys raised in the South who don’t ever want to go back. When you listen to why, it has much to do with not wanting to live in a male culture that hides behind false masculinities poised to resist the matriarchy.
Lastly, the antedote to matriarchy isn’t abusive patriarchy. It’s letting the Fatherhood of God direct how dads parent children, calling out overbearing moms as toxic instead of praising them in May, and letting the *entire* Trinity shape how we live, etc. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
A better link. call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2017/11/22…
