{"id":421,"date":"2005-04-27T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-27T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2005-04-27T16:55:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-27T16:55:00","slug":"421","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=421","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Giving good headship<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer<\/a> has way too much fun dissecting Christian men’s self-help books<\/a>. Some quotes:<\/p>\n

Women can’t get enough of good headship, but a man must be careful; a woman’s hunger for his headship may lead him to abuse its potency through the sin of anger. . . . <\/p>\n

I place “homosexuals” in quotes to suggest that the very term itself \u2014 so often referred to with code such as Lewis’ \u2014 is itself a kind of code within the Christian men’s movement. Lesbians, as one might imagine, are not popular among evangelicals; but then, they are not really imaginable. In the theology of “Jesus plus nothing,” there is no room for anything that is not man-God (or God-man, if you’re particular about such things), and that includes female sexuality. Many of the man-manuals advise loving attention to wives and speak of the joys of married, heterosexual sex as a bulwark against the culture (which is queer by definition, since it is not Christ-centered, a peculiar oxymoron at the heart of the faith), but they also teach a “sensitivity” that is called to stand in for the sins of their cavemen fathers. . . . <\/p>\n

But with Christian womanhood restored and redeemed, a crucial character in the Christian conservative morality play has gone missing: the seductress. It is no longer acceptable to speak of loose women and harlots, since sexual promiscuity in a woman is the fault of the man who has failed to exercise his “headship” over her. It is his effeminacy, not hers, that is to blame. And who lures him into this spiritual castration? The gay man.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sharlet thinks about how the Christian-versus-culture debate is framed in terms of homosexuality. Personally, I think the “harlot” image is still present, and had I nothing better to do, I would write at length about how so much of organized religion deals with controlling female sexuality. <\/p>\n

Wicca, by contrast, exalted and attempted to ritualize sexuality, with mixed results. Both the polyamorous and the monogamous agree that sexuality has a sacred dimension, but just how that works in daily life continues to be debated, usually in venues closed to outsiders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving good headship Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer has way too much fun dissecting Christian men’s self-help books. Some quotes: Women can’t get enough of good headship, but a man must be careful; a woman’s hunger for his headship may lead him to abuse its potency through the sin of anger. . . . I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-421","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7932,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7932","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":0},"title":"Assessing a New Book on Jesus’ Wife","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to think that of course Jesus was married \u2014 what normal 1st-century small-town Jewish man would not be married? Answer: most of the Essenes, to name one group. The perennial interest in an actual bloodline of his descendents is periodically stoked by books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1605986100","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":642,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=642","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":1},"title":"Why Men Really Hate Going\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why Men Really Hate Going to ChurchWMHGTC, by Alaska TV writer David Murrow, is the umpteenth try to understand the \"feminization\" of American Christianity, The pro baseball player-turned-preacher Billy Sunday (1862-1935) was just one manly man who fought the same fight.Murrow is a little shaky on pre-Reformation church history: he\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13304,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13304","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":2},"title":"Green Man Image Starts ‘Pagan King’ Chatter","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Enormous preparations, both pragmatic and ceremonial, are under way for the crowning of King Charles III and Queen Camilla next month in London. When the official invitation was prepared, people's attention was drawn to the foliate head, the \"Green Man\" at the bottom. Was it a sign to those who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/greenman.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/greenman.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/greenman.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=314","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":3},"title":"Pastors on the playa Over\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Pastors on the playa Over the past several years, the annual Burning Man event in Nevada has gained a higher and higher profile. In some quarters, this event is viewed with alarm. Is it a convocation of \"earth-worshipping pagans\" and a preview of Hell? Does the Lord tell you to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5555,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5555","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":4},"title":"Francis of Assisi: From Radical Monk to Garden Ornament","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The real-estate supplement of the Taos News this week carried an article titled \"Five Must-Haves for a Beautiful Backyard.\" Oddly enough, four of the five items* were available at the store owned by a person interviewed for the story. \"Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, is one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"St. Francis as a bird bath with the wolf of Gubbio.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholichomeandgarden.com\/images\/Saint%20Garden%20Statues\/Saint%20Francis%20Garden%20Statue%20Birdbath.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":259,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=259","url_meta":{"origin":421,"position":5},"title":"\"Addicted\" to Greek mythology There\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Addicted\" to Greek mythology There are days when I feel like we are still intellectually in the 4th century C.E. Consider this little flap over \"Classical education\" and the danger of becoming \"addicted to Greek mythology.\" To read the article by Christian-homeschooling celebrity Elizabeth Smith that started it, go here\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}