I started writing this on December 17, the day after Paul and I traveled to Bellingham for the 20th(!) Clambake Christmas Special. We got to see long-time favorites Clambake, punk rock kids Secondhand Suits, the reunion tour of the Fabulous Bakettes, and the Dirty Bird Cabaret, which included both aContinue Reading
There’s one theory about Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential contest that I haven’t seen floated much yet: maybe he’s The Antichrist. If he is, white evangelicals missed it. More than eighty percent of them voted for him. In fact, since the 2016 election was so close, they probably provided him withContinue Reading
It’s fitting that I wrote this series in 2016, the year that Donald Trump is running for President of the United States against our first-ever female candidate, Hillary Clinton. It’s a current event so loaded with metaphorical significance it’s hard to believe it’s really happening. Trump is a distillation ofContinue Reading
One thing that has puzzled me since I was a child and watched Phyllis Schlafly seemingly single-handedly defeat the Equal Rights Amendment: why do they do it? Anti-feminists, I mean? I can sort of see why people didn’t want to change in the first place, because people resist change. AndContinue Reading
Christian patriarchy is obviously offensive to feminists, no matter their religion. But it should be just as offensive to Christians, because it’s such a distortion from what Jesus actually taught. It’s as different from basic Christian theology as the teachings of Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Yet followers of the patriarchyContinue Reading
In June, Pride Parade day in Seattle came and went. The parade featured expressions of solidarity with the victims and survivors of the Orlando nightclub shooting. There was one telling moment of juxtaposition: an Episcopalian church marching in the parade, with signs that told everyone they were loved, and freeContinue Reading
A couple of years ago, a young man identifying himself as an “incel” (involuntarily celibate, which normal people call “single”) went on a killing spree, because, according to his video manifesto, he was fed up with women dating “obnoxious men” instead of him, the “supreme gentleman” and he was goingContinue Reading
As an ex church-goer, living in one of the least church-going parts of the country, it’s easy for me to forget about church as a potential answer to the question “where on earth do people get these bizarre and terrible ideas?” The last time I attended an evangelical church, aContinue Reading
So what is patriarchy, anyway? This is an area where the Quiverfull version is, at least, honest, openly declaring itself to be pushing patriarchy and setting itself against feminism. Secular anti-feminists — the informal kind you run into on the Internet, anyway — are in the habit of denying thatContinue Reading
The Christian patriarchy has a plan for world domination that involves out-reproducing feminists, liberals, heathens, secular humanists, etc. This plan is very white-America-centric. It also assumes that each subsequent generation has no apostates who leave the faith. Evangelicals typically believe in a literal hell which only their particular version ofContinue Reading
I finished reading Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce (2009). I was looking for additional insight into the kinds of experiences Abby might have had growing up in a family cult based on patriarchy doctrine teachings, such as Quiverfull. The book was informative, but I found readingContinue Reading
I started writing this back when Mark Driscoll was still head of Mars Hill Church and Mars Hill Church was still a thing. I set it aside when he resigned, thinking perhaps it wasn’t relevant anymore. But grifters gotta grift, I guess, and there seems to be no level ofContinue Reading
Act 1 — Circa 100 AD — two people pass each other in the marketplace Good day. Good day. Have you heard the good news? What good news? We are all loved and should love one another in return. That sounds pretty good. How do you know this? The creatorContinue Reading