Outstanding conclusion (or not, I guess we'll see). Power and the addiction to it really seems to be the key here. I tend to point at the "Southern Strategy" as a key inflection point in the US Church becoming aligned to political power, but even a quick look at US History suggests things go back much farther than that.
I think you’ve hit upon a central point of meaning, that the evangelical systems of power have faltered here in a very telling way. Also, the book itself is exactly how you’ve described - an affable mess. There are no clothes on the Emperor, and the Emperor is organized power in American evangelicalism. Josh Butler is the unfortunate assistant to the tailor, spinning beautiful clothes out of the empty air.
Maybe the is an even darker thing at play. If the goal was to aggravate the already grievous divide between theobros and the rest of the evangelical community, that goal was certainly achieved by the article.
The book would not have got much attention if the article had not been published. So this could have been the plan: Josh was commissioned to write the book, some person or person's condensed the most egregious parts of the book into an article to be published at TGC where it would get lots of attention. Presto! The division in the Evangelical community is intensified even more than before.
I think Butler has hauled up from the deep and put on display the fishy monster that has been at the core of warped evangelical teaching about sex and gender.
This is my first post in a series that aims to scale, skin and dissect the fishy monster.
Dr. Robinson, I found this post so fascinating that I had to reference it in my own Substack. I linked to this page and everything, I hope that's okay? Please let me know if you have a preference for how I can credit you with this powerful idea - the haphazard presentation of long-discredited ideas (without peer review really) just wouldn't fly anywhere else, but it's solid gold in evangelical world. Well, it was gold for a few years. Excited to see what comes after.
Wonderful writing, Laura. Thank you for persevering with this book and the fallout. What still bewilders me is the actions of those who initially endorsed, but then withdrew, their endorsement of the book. The big issues - semen worship, centering on the male dominance / penetration, highly questionable theology - seem present in EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER (perhaps with the exception of the Introduction, but then that's not a chapter). How did they miss any or all of it? Were they provided with the whole book? Fragments? Chapter synopses? It's troubling.
Outstanding conclusion (or not, I guess we'll see). Power and the addiction to it really seems to be the key here. I tend to point at the "Southern Strategy" as a key inflection point in the US Church becoming aligned to political power, but even a quick look at US History suggests things go back much farther than that.
Unbelievably good article - thank you!!
I think you’ve hit upon a central point of meaning, that the evangelical systems of power have faltered here in a very telling way. Also, the book itself is exactly how you’ve described - an affable mess. There are no clothes on the Emperor, and the Emperor is organized power in American evangelicalism. Josh Butler is the unfortunate assistant to the tailor, spinning beautiful clothes out of the empty air.
That is a brilliant metaphor; poignant and visual and sadly accurate.
Maybe the is an even darker thing at play. If the goal was to aggravate the already grievous divide between theobros and the rest of the evangelical community, that goal was certainly achieved by the article.
The book would not have got much attention if the article had not been published. So this could have been the plan: Josh was commissioned to write the book, some person or person's condensed the most egregious parts of the book into an article to be published at TGC where it would get lots of attention. Presto! The division in the Evangelical community is intensified even more than before.
I think Butler has hauled up from the deep and put on display the fishy monster that has been at the core of warped evangelical teaching about sex and gender.
This is my first post in a series that aims to scale, skin and dissect the fishy monster.
https://cryingoutforjustice.blog/2023/05/21/an-abuse-survivors-poetic-critique-of-josh-butlers-beautiful-union/
Dr. Robinson, I found this post so fascinating that I had to reference it in my own Substack. I linked to this page and everything, I hope that's okay? Please let me know if you have a preference for how I can credit you with this powerful idea - the haphazard presentation of long-discredited ideas (without peer review really) just wouldn't fly anywhere else, but it's solid gold in evangelical world. Well, it was gold for a few years. Excited to see what comes after.
Wonderful writing, Laura. Thank you for persevering with this book and the fallout. What still bewilders me is the actions of those who initially endorsed, but then withdrew, their endorsement of the book. The big issues - semen worship, centering on the male dominance / penetration, highly questionable theology - seem present in EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER (perhaps with the exception of the Introduction, but then that's not a chapter). How did they miss any or all of it? Were they provided with the whole book? Fragments? Chapter synopses? It's troubling.
Satan can wield lots of power, but he can’t ever make Christ’s people love him.
God is sifting his church. His sifter is catching the hypocrites and the bran is increasingly on show in all its unpalatable ugliness.