We homeschoolers have been rattled by the sex scandals of Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard, two of the homeschooling movement’s most notable advocates of the past twenty-five years. I consider myself a proponent of home education, too. I own and operate a publishing business for homeschool debate curriculum, so naturally I support homeschooling’s healthy expansion.
The number-one tenet in the mind of a patriarchal believer is that God is male in nature. The idea that fathers have a God-given authority in every facet of life, especially the family, stems from the first of Phillips’ seven tenets, and probably the most important in his mind. I propose that this is a point of theological error that should not be part of a framework of a Christian worldview. To me, the gender of God is a very insignificant concern. This is God who created the universe here, and his gender is somehow considered apriori to the patriarchalists.
Just as patriarchalists consider this tenet to be most important, I believe it to be the fatal flaw of the entire ideology. It is the great red herring that allows them to squeeze and twist reality until the truth has been consumed by their agenda. Patriarchy relies on an “indisputable” assumption of male Godhood as perhaps the most important theological fundamental. Those who disagree are seen as theologically weak, even contributing to the moral degradation of all society. This is how important they think the gender of God is.
There’s a reason this tenet is number one, but it has little to do with understanding the Creator of the universe. It has to do with hierarchy, power, and control.
This first clever move makes women feel less important, but the remaining tenets put this feeling into action. They mandate the authority of the male gender. To the patriarchalists, women have strict and inferior “roles” in their homes, and any woman who steps outside the expectations are to be dealt with, one supposes, by church or homeschool authorities.
The remaining tenets can be summed up as such: “Men are in power; women aren’t.”
The advocates for these tenets quote plenty of scripture to justify their ideology. Again, a simple rhetorical truth quickly turns all of their argumentation on a dime. The Bible was written within patriarchal cultures. So all the references to submission, head coverings, hair length, speaking in church, etc., are references that actually liberated women from a culture that treated women as slaves.
This thinking is poison. It’s spiritual abuse, plain and simple, a twisting and manipulation of Scripture to allow one group to wield authority over another. Equality is a beautiful Christian ideal that needs a strong defense from such sinister ideas. Patriarchy is an attempt to undermine the natural balance of genders. Just as slavery caused so much pain and harm in our world during its years of justification, so patriarchy has caused harm to homeschooling families and the institution itself.
