Sunday, July 25, 2010

Patriarchal Apostasy

I snooped around the Vision Forum site a bit earlier this afternoon, and had a peek at Doug Phillip's blog a couple of days ago. On the google search for Vision Forum, the description that comes up below the link says, "Vision Forum Ministries is dedicated to the restoration of Christian family culture." Well, that settles that. It's not a spiritual message they're promoting. It's a cultural one. Once you get into the site and check out the "Our Mission" page, you see the mission summed up with "Preserving Our Covenant with God through Biblical Patriarchy and Multi-Generational Faithfulness." Seems they want to do away with the "better covenant with better promises" which is preserved through Christ alone and turn back toward Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.


On Doug's personal blog, I saw a LOT about family, babies, sons, daughters...and not a whole lot about Christ. Lot's of pictures of spit-shined little girls and "godly" submissive wives, all with happy smiles, and "godly" patriarchs in suits and ties, looking like Bob's BigBoy, with hair cut high and fairly tight, parted down the side like a godly man should have it...but little about Christ.


I'm coming to realize that their gospel looks different than mine. Mine has always been: Loving Father who creates, Spirit which compels, Son who atones and reconciles. Their gospel looks more like this to me: father who exercises "biblical" patriarchy and authority, submissive wife who knows her place and spits out babies, rigidly obedient children (who are probably too scared to explore the true gospel), all working together to subdue the culture. This seems to be the path that they see to God. Culture. Through patriarchy. In my estimation, it's an apostate gospel.


Something's waaaaaaay out of whack.


To delve over into the Department of Redundancy Department - it brings me back to a point I raised a few weeks ago...


The patriocentric/Christian Islamic system is founded entirely on the human authority structure. Don't agree? Go to the Our Mission page of the Vision Forum website and, just for kicks, take Christ out of the equation of their mission and see if it makes any difference. See if you could still write the same mission statement.


(I want to let you in on a little secret...Christ isn't even included in the mission statement)


Now then...Take human authority and culture out of the equation and see if you could write the same mission statement.


If you take Jesus out of the equation, their authoritarian culture doesn't change. If you take the authoritarian culture out of the equation, they have no Jesus. It IS their Jesus. 


My ex-fiancee's family measured my spiritual and personal "character" by my adherence and submission to patriarchal/authoritarian lording. Not by my spiritual and personal character. I was the greatest thing since sliced bread...until I stood up to and refused to make peace with what I saw as sin and a great evil. Suddenly I became the devil, because where the rubber meets the road, I opposed their Jesus.


What a mess.

14 comments:

  1. Lewis, I am so sad for the pain you've experienced, but I am praising God for your life which has brought you to write this:

    Now then...Take human authority and culture out of the equation and see if you could write the same mission statement.
    If you take Jesus out of the equation, their authoritarian culture doesn't change. If you take the authoritarian culture out of the equation, they have no Jesus. It IS their Jesus.

    My ex-fiancee's family measured my spiritual and personal "character" by my adherence and submission to patriarchal/authoritarian lording. Not by my spiritual and personal character. I was the greatest thing since sliced bread...until I stood up to and refused to make peace with what I saw as sin and a great evil. Suddenly I became the devil, because where the rubber meets the road, I opposed their Jesus.

    Please keep preaching.

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  2. I think I'm in it for the duration, Hillary. You please keep it up, too.

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  3. Hey Lewis. Just got back. I had to do alot of reading to catch up. Had NO idea your wedding was that close before things ended. I just don't get how she's moved on and you are still trying to heal. We understand your message loud and clear.

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  4. Lewis, this is so perfect and to-the-point. I keep re-posting your posts on FB because you have such a way of getting to the nitty-gritty of all the issues, stripping them of all their clothes and pretty language and exposing them for the dirty lies they are. Thank you. I'm not going to be around blogosphere much this week but my thoughts are with you.

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  5. "My ex-fiancee's family measured my spiritual and personal "character" by my adherence and submission to patriarchal/authoritarian lording. Not by my spiritual and personal character. I was the greatest thing since sliced bread...until I stood up to and refused to make peace with what I saw as sin and a great evil. Suddenly I became the devil, because where the rubber meets the road, I opposed their Jesus."

    I have experienced & still experience the quote above first hand Lewis with my husband and his parents. I never really knew how much the Lord loved and accepted me until i stood up for truth! It's incredible how that strengths our faith in Him. my eyes are open to how his parents now see me as a threat to their beliefs and one of their lost sheep. *sigh* maybe if my husband ever exits, we'll be able to stand together & profess the real Jesus. Will the real Jesus please stand up please stand up?!!

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  6. Angie...Yep. We were right at the brink. One grandfather keeps one promise, and she's here with me today. The power that a closed/gated community has over the mind of a young woman is immense, as in these homes, they've been raised to be overwhelmed by that power, with the associated guilt, fear, and coercive persuasion. It changes their reality. History is rewritten to match the system's doctrine.

    Darcy...Thanks for the encouragement. From the looks of the photos I saw, you're having some serious fun in some beautiful locales. You deserve it. Have a nice time.

    frogla...I'm still praying for your hubby, sis. You're right - this kind of thing makes us cling to the Lord tighter than ever and causes us to grow, even though that growth is sometimes painful.

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  7. Preach it, Brother Lewis! Where us Jesus in all this?

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  8. The "it" in the previous comment being the spit shined and the Bob's Big Boy, not the blog post!

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  9. Seems they want to do away with the "better covenant with better promises" which is preserved through Christ alone and turn back toward Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

    How well put, and how truly tragic. This is one of the saddest realities I have come across in my lifetime, and I've seen some really sad things. :(

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  10. I agree with you Lewis. Did you happen to watch the video of Michelle Duggar Receiving the Mother of the Year award?

    Maybe I am just a prude, but Doug seemed to be a little too "sweetsie" with her? I know I personally would not be comfortable with another man caressing my face and kissing my check so tenderly as he did.

    I am not sure if Jim Bob was pleased either.

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  11. My parents did the same thing to my husband! For the longest time we bought into their nonsense, because on the one hand they were there for us when no one else was, but it was always on their terms, and we had to submit to my dads patriarchal leadership, It didnt matter that he was a lazy drunk and worse. My husband had to submit to his authority because he was the "head of the family" UGH! so when my husband stood up to him for us, we were excommunicated.

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  12. Verrry interesting. I've been struggling for several weeks now to nail down this movement and find anything that resembled a statement of what they really believe. I had some very good hunches, but all my searches ran into to dead ends. Most of their sites offer harmonious pictures of the perfect families and pretty generic sweet stories of well rounded Christians making an effort to improve the education of their children through home education. Nothing that would really jump out to the casual reader and say, "Hold on here, that's messed up!" But I knew the "messed up" was there, I just couldn't find it.

    I don't want to hijack your blog with my own story and experiences with this group, but the more I find out, the more insidious I realize they are and they have a HUGE influence and control here in the Colorado homeschool community.

    By the way, I don't know if it was recently added, but there is a link on the right side of the Mission Statement you posted that takes you to their "Tenets of Biblical Patriarchy" that I found very chilling and frequently, way out of perspective. Probably nothing new to this group though.

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  13. Lewis,
    I'm new to your site - link from Quivering Daughters. I'm working my way through all your articles. Keep at it. You are on the right trail. And, for what it's worth (though I know this doesn't help with your pain), based on what I see and sense of you, I'd be proud to have you as a son-in-law. Gives me hope for my daughters that perhaps just maybe there are godly, grace loving guys out there! Blessings to you, brother.
    cathy

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  14. "I'm coming to realize that their gospel looks different than mine. Mine has always been: Loving Father who creates, Spirit which compels, Son who atones and reconciles."i love this!

    i agree with Darcy's ""you have such a way of getting to the nitty-gritty of all the issues, stripping them of all their clothes and pretty language and exposing them for the dirty lies they are.""

    you have a way with words that does cut through all the bull shed and you get to the point/truth without a lot of flower words. i really appreciate that.

    i re read my statement above and what a tragedy that my ex never exited & that he's my ex. thanks for praying. you have a kind heart. our stories are still a work in progress. :-)

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