How Did We Get Here

The modern evangelical church is an egalitarian church, which means that it is a feminized and effeminate church.  Many celebrate this as progress against an outdated, regressive, and toxically patriarchal Christianity. A growing number of evangelicals believe that traditional, masculine forms of Christianity must be overcome, and thus far these evangelicals have been successful.1  The loss of masculinity in the church means the loss of men in the church and with it the loss of strength, protection, and fruitfulness.  This is not good.  So how did we get here?

David Murrow, in his book, Why Men Hate Going to Church writes, “The system is perfectly designed to get the results that we are getting…The more I study churches, the more I come to believe the modern church system is engineered to reach women. The very definition of a “good Christian” skews female.” 2 To illustrate this point Murrow includes a quiz that presents two sets of values designed to identify which set better characterizes the values of Jesus Christ and his true disciples.  The genius (and the tragedy) of the quiz is that the two value sets are taken from the best-selling book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. 

The male values on the quiz are traditionally masculine, and the female feminine.  Murrow informs us that he’s administered the quiz to thousands of people and that more than 90 percent of the time, people choose the feminine values as the best representation of Christ and his values.  Murrow goes on to share Dr. Woody Davis’ research on this issue shows that, “There’s widespread agreement among the religious and the irreligious alike-that genuine Christianity is, at its core, a soft, nurturing faith. To “be like Christ” means always loving, always caring, always compassionate, and always gentle. Jesus does not judge people; he hugs them.”3

As the church becomes more feminized, opportunities, power and authority flow toward men who know how to function in an environment dominated by feminine values.  Such a system dominated by the feminine rewards the effeminate. Men who do not possess the “soft virtues” either leave the church or are forced to the margins. But when men exit the church, the church becomes soft and vulnerable. 

This feminized system, introduced over a hundred years ago, created a drift in the church resulting in greater and greater distance from biblical norms.  The fruit of that system is not only effeminacy in the church, but the rise of egalitarianism, which ultimately leads to the logical necessity of homosexuality and eventually transgenderism in the church.  The system is perfectly designed to get the results we are getting. 

The Idol of Egalitarianism

In evangelicalism, the issue of egalitarianism is usually located in the argument over women’s ordination. Egalitarianism is a term of art used to distinguish from complementarianism, or those who affirm men’s ordination only.  But the problem of egalitarianism is much bigger. The term has a surprising political and philosophical history, of which many in the church are simply not aware.  Historically, egalitarianism is democracy corrupted by envy and equalitarianism is competence corrupted by covetousness.4 

Ignorance of egalitarianism’s roots produced opportunities for demonic deception, with significant negative downstream consequences, for both the church and culture.  No one saw this better than C.S. Lewis.  In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis described how the underworld of evil took the celebrated idea of democracy and used it to covertly introduce egalitarianism and its ugly twin equalitarianism into the West to undermine biblical authority and enslave humanity.  Screwtape informs his nephew Wormwood of the secret of how this works, 

“Democracy” is the word with which you must lead them by the nose.  You can use the word “Democracy” to sanction in his thought the most degrading (and also the least enjoyable) of all human feelings. You can get him to practice, not only without shame but with a positive glow of self-approval, conduct which, if undefended by the magic word, would be universally derided.  Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level. But that is a mere by-product. What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence—moral, cultural, social, or intellectual.  And is it not pretty to notice how Democracy (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods? You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them ‘tyrants’ then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of corn, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no pre-eminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser, or better, or more famous, or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level; all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals.  Thus, Tyrants could practice, in a sense, “democracy.” But now “democracy” can do the same work without any other tyranny than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.5  

In our culture, “Democracy” is assumed to be a positive good and is readily accepted, but in the hands of evil, it becomes an incantation, used to enslave humanity and ensure tyranny.  The demonic trick is to turn democracy from a principle of governance by the majority through elected representation to a principle of forced equality.  In such a democracy there is no excellence and there can never be true masters who exercise their competence with skill and power.6 

In this “egalitarian democracy,” there is no hierarchy and we can no longer perceive authority for what it is or what it is supposed to do.  Meritocracy is rendered abhorrent, if not impossible, and envy destroys the possibility of biblical leadership.  Even worse, under the spell of such democracy, God himself becomes incoherent and we are no longer able to understand the Bible and what it requires of us.

Most of the modern evangelical church doesn’t realize how much we’ve been bewitched by the spirit of democracy as we limit the egalitarian debate to ordination standards.  But the battle against egalitarianism is far more expansive and far more serious.  It is not just ordination standards we are defending, but theology itself and the message of the gospel. 

How can we call lost people to repentance for their sins and obedience to Christ if they have no imagination for a King who reigns above, to which we are subject?  How can we evangelize without authorizing some to preach the good news, administer the sacraments, and rule in our churches?  How can we show forth the kingdom of God if leaders cannot perform church discipline as an ordinary means of grace?  How will we preserve the family if we do not affirm biblical teachings on fatherhood and patriarchy?   We who are a part of the reformed tradition should know better and dare to resist the spirit of this age. 

The Westminster Larger Catechism inoculates us against egalitarianism and equalitarianism by reminding us that in God’s economy,7 there are such things as superiors, equals, and inferiors.  Question 124 asks, “Who are meant by “father” and “mother,” in the fifth commandment?”  The answer is,

“By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts; especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, Church, or commonwealth.” 

Within the law of God, there is a hierarchy, established by God with the command to recognize and obey it.  Superiors are given for the benefit of others, it is a positive good.  Election to the position of authority is an election unto responsibility, not privilege.  Those who are our superiors are a gift, given to us for our benefit and should be received as God’s grace.  We who stand under authority have a responsibility to obey.  We must resist the spirit of our age to level the playing field and make all equal.  We must maintain the distinctions of persons and teach others to do the same. 

Again, the catechism helps us.  Question 127 asks, “What is the honor that inferiors owe to their superiors?”
The answer is, 

The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is, all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior; prayer and thanksgiving for them; imitation of their virtues and graces; willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels; due submission to their corrections; fidelity to, defense, and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks, and the nature of their places; bearing with their infirmities, and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government. 

Westminster teaches us that the biblical standard requires the maintenance of distinctions.  Natures are distinct, as well as positions. Superiors are set apart and distinct from inferiors; men are distinct from women; adults are distinct from children; governors are distinct from citizens, and so on.  The spirit of egalitarianism, however, incites our imaginations and tempts us to believe that everyone is essentially the same or interchangeable, which threatens our ability to uphold natural distinctions and the “nature of their places.”  When all things are equal, and nothing is different, then everything becomes fluid, and all is lost.     

The Rise of Church Tyrants

Lewis warned us that egalitarian democracy would eventually require the removal of all distinctions.  In such a system there can be no men and no women because there is no nature.  This “democratic world” is the world we now live in, where freedom is privileged above all else and where the “tyranny of sameness” reigns.  Since Lewis, egalitarian democracy produced the tyrannical ideologies of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as more radical “freedoms,” which we know as transgenderism and transhumanism. 

In the church, the demonic spirit of democracy produces a crisis of authority. Long has the church suffered with those who refuse distinction and walk by the light of their self-authorization. Isaiah described them well, and their fate, when he said, “Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment” (Isaiah 50:11 ESV). During Covid, authority was tested in the church. It was a moment in church history where superiors had to step up and stand out, but sadly it revealed just how many church leaders were denatured and impotent in the face of risk.

Americans and evangelicals alike have been thoroughly caught up in the spell of egalitarianism and today the spirits of envious democracy and democratic tyranny reign in our country and our churches.  As we blur the lines of distinction between men and women, rulers and citizens, clergy and laity, teachers and students, superiors and inferiors, we embolden tyrants by rewarding the only distinguishing virtue moderns care about: personality. 

Some personalities are attractive. Leaders with winsome, charismatic, or forceful personalities are often vaulted to the status of celebrity. Politicians have become celebrities, and unelected celebrities often try to shape policy through their influence. Sometimes celebrities become politicians. Celebrity status offers power and temptation. Once you discover you are a celebrity, your mandate is clear: do everything you can to maintain your celebrity status. You do that through the tyranny of trying to keep your hands on the levers of power.

Celebrity has also infiltrated the church, and we now face the challenge of “celebrity pastors.”  Celebrity pastors ensure that everyone else is treated equally by eliminating all challenges to their celebrity status, thereby maintaining their standing. Celebrity pastors tend to forget that as a superior in the church, they are ultimately accountable to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, and will one day be judged more strictly because of their superiority.

Other personalities in the church are soft but no less assertive. The soft tyrant equalizes the playing field by asserting victimhood status over their superiors. They claim that their inferiority is just an accident of history. Had circumstances been different, they would have been in charge. You know you are in the presence of a victim tyrant when you hear things like, “Who do you think you are?” or “You’re no better than me.” or “I could do what you do.” The soft tyranny of victimhood in the church is the spirit of Miriam and Arron, who said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Numbers 12:2 ESV)

The church cannot thrive under tyranny and the best way for egalitarianism to thrive is for good men to do nothing. When there are no men in the church or when men refuse to take up their responsibilities, then disorder reigns. When tyranny and egalitarianism try to assert themselves, then evangelical men must remember their tradition of Protestant resistance. John Knox said, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”8 

Photo by Isis França on Unsplash

  1.  For an excellent treatment of this subject see Garris Zachary M. 2021. Masculine Christianity Revised ed. Ann Arbor MI: Reformation Zion Publishing. ↩︎
  2. Murrow, David. 2005. Why Men Hate Going to Church. Nashville: Nelson Books.  ↩︎
  3. Ibid. ↩︎
  4.  For a fuller treatment of the historical, philosophical, and political roots of egalitarianism and its corrosive power, see Plato’s Republic. ↩︎
  5.  Lewis C. S. 2013. The Screwtape Letters : And Screwtape Proposes a Toast Annotated edition. First ed. New York: HarperOne An Imprint of HarperCollins. ↩︎
  6. For more on learning at the elbows of masters see, Meilaender, Gilbert. 2006. The Way That Leads There : Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ↩︎
  7. I use the word “economy” here in its literal sense, oikonomia, meaning God’s “household rules.”  ↩︎
  8.  For a fuller treatment of Protestant Resistance Theory see: Slaying Leviathan: Limited Government and Resistance in the Christian Tradition. 2020. Moscow Idaho: Canon Press; Lex Rex : The Law Is King. 2020. Moscow Idaho: Canon Press. ↩︎