Misogyny Is a Mental Health Issue

 How did that title grab you?

Oh, I do miss the good old days when I used to blog regularly. One of the many pleasures was thinking up inflammatory titles like the one above. But, alas, life moves on and so must I.

However.

In my wanderings in the real world, I did come across an interesting video interview. In this video a male psychotherapist says, "Misogyny is a mental health issue." (Hear that Doug Wilson and Mark Driscoll? Your misogyny is a mental health issue. Not the oracles of God as you falsely testify.)

And while I was quite intrigued by the video, I can't say that I agreed with everything the Psychotherapist, Previn Karian, said. But I may very well agree with the above quote.

Before I go on, I must head off or at least address my critics and Wilson/Driscoll worshipers. I fully expect that if you so happen to click on the video link below that you will have a kneejerk reaction. I expect that you will rail against this psychotherapist for being a bleeding-heart liberal and a weak man. To this, I will assert that Previn Karian has more courage than Driscoll, Wilson, and any Theobro who ever Theo-ed. Here is the reason I think this. Karian askes question those other guys are too afraid to ask. He has a deep and profound honesty that those guys will never understand until they can ask the same hard question he does.

We may look at some of those questions ourselves. But at a later date.

While I don't come to the same conclusions as Previn, I do appreciate the questions he asks. While I don't agree with several points Previn makes, I am intrigued and respectful of his journey and the understanding that he has come to. I see that he is trying to make sense of the hatred and violence of men using the tools at his disposal. While those tools have their limitations, he makes great use of them.

Also, a warning. If you click on the link. He is very hard on his gender. So much so, it makes me cringe. He labels all men rather negatively, even though he asserts that he is not trying to shame men. In his deep honesty and frustration for the state of things, he lays into all men quite harshly. One of my places of disagreement with him is his view that all men are violent and want to put down women at their core. I struggle to agree with this because of the wonderful men in the various parts of my life. Family, church, and work. 

Anyway, here is a link to the video.

Misogyny: Origins of Men's Hatred Toward Women.

His conclusions were quite dismal and depressing. He brought up Einstein and Freud near the end,

My own conclusions have more hope. But I will leave this for another possible post.

The Sin of Empathy Book Review Followup

 Dani Treweek, the author of the book review on "The Sin of Empathy" has, as expected, received pushback from people concerning that review. And she answers them well here:

On the Sin of Empathy Being a Woman

Her follow up does a good job answering the main, legitimate sounding complaints about her review.

She says lots of good things but I want to bring one thing to the forefront. Here is a quote from her writings. (There are many other good quotes touching on the same thing. I had to narrow it down and this one will do.)

when Rigney identifies empathy (weaponised, untethered, or otherwise) as the thing that leads to communities characterised by “cowardice, indifference, and cruelty,” the underlying reality he is primarily concerned about is a particular kind of sinful inclination (i.e., being emotionally swept away from reason and truth) which he sees as inherent to a particular group of people (i.e., women).

The reason I bring this up is because Treweek doesn't touch on something that I think is glaringly obvious concerning the total hypocrisy of Rigney, Doug Wilson, Canon Press (Doug's family press that published Rigney's book), and all associated with them.

Doug Wilson has displayed untethered empathy for pedophiles and abusers in his church. He is swept away by his own emotions and strong feelings that men are superior, more rational, more just than women. His feelings of superiority makes him indifferent to the horrendous amount of suffering he has caused and the injustice he has overseen against women and children.

In other words, Doug Wilson and his disciple, Joe Rigney, have untethered empathy for men, being a man, and all that this means to them, things like dominance, control, and power. Their empathy for the masculine to the exclusion and oppression of the feminine causes them a particular kind of sinful inclination as they are emotionally swept away from reason and truth. Their devotion to the cause and needs of men makes them blind to the importance and needs of women. They have such strong empathy for the masculine it boarders on worship. And through this weaponized empathy they have laid siege against all that is feminine. They attack not only the wayward feminist. They go after all women, because all women are falsely judged and found wanting in their toxic empathy for the masculine. This false balance and warped metric that they use to measure men and women makes them cowards, indifferent and cruel against women. The truth is, they are waging an unjust and relentless war against the feminine whether it's with the velvet glove approach Rigney tried (poorly) to do in his book or in one of Wilson's famous rants against women or "the bitch goddess of the state" (where Wilson almost channels Eric Cartman.).

I'm going to list a couple of links. I may add to this as things come up. But we'll start with these two:

[Updated 2] Pedophile Supported by Doug Wilson ‘Allegedly Sexually Abused** a Baby.

This pedophile is the son of man who contributes a lot of money to Doug Wilson's ministry. So Doug is carried away by his feelings of greed and has cruelly married this pedophile to a young, trusting, unassuming female.

Doug Wilson's Other Protected Pedophile

As I said, there may be more, but the above two links are a good start at exposing Doug Wilson's toxic empathy for abusers and pedophiles.

The Sin of Being a Woman, er, I Mean Empathy

 I'm kind of late posting anything on this farce of a book.

But better late than never, right?

Especially since I've found the best little review on it.

Over on Facebook, I have gotten into several verbal disagreements with Doug Wilson and Joe Rigney fans over this accursed book. They keep saying something like, "You obviously haven't read the book because if you did, you would understand and wouldn't blindly and wildly criticize it."

In other words, they want me (and those like me) to buy the book. I let them know in no uncertain terms that Doug Wilson, Joe Rigney, and Canon Press will never get a single dime from me to fund their war on women.

"War on women?" you say?

Yes. War on women

Please read this review found here at Mere Orthodoxy to understand what I mean:

A Sham Trial: Reviewing 'The Sin of Empathy'

I'm glad Danielle Treweek read that infernal book so I don't have to

Men Who Hate Women Should Not Teach the Bible

Maybe a better title should be, "Men Who Don't Understand the Love of God for both Men and Women have absolutely no business, whatsoever, teaching the Bible."

There are many such men. Mark Driscoll, formally an easy and frequent target of this blog is one. John McArthur, the man who puts women under church discipline for leaving abusive husbands is another. Then there is the new up and comer Josh Howerton who is very disrespectful of women.

The list is very long of men like these. And their raging, self-righteous followers are all over Twitter/X using the Bible as a club against women.

But today, I'm wanting to shine the light on an upcoming podcast series that takes on Doug Wilson, one of the most hateful men I've ever heard who claims to be Christian. Yes. He is even worse than Driscoll, McArthur, and Howerton. And according to WenatcheetheHatchet, Driscoll had early dealings with Wilson.

The Podcast will be starting on Monday, October 28th, and it is called Sons of Patriarchy. Here is a link to the trailer.

I am looking forward to listening and hope that it takes down that mobster pretending to be a pastor up in Moscow, Idaho.

One of my favorite old links is broken

 There used to be a blog called "That Mom" that I loved.

And she used to have a blog post called "The Suffragettes and a Woman's Right to Chose" that I would often link when dealing with frothing at the mouth misogynists who blame feminism for abortion and the decline of modern civilization as we know it. And it claimed that Susan B. Anthony was pro-life but that she railed against a culture that put women in the position where abortion seemed the best option.

I am heart broken over the loss of this article so I decided to search for anything else that might explain this.

My search is not over. But I did find this article called "Marriage and Maternity" in "The Revolution" a weekly newspaper run by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. And it is this article that my friend at That Mom was quoting.

I am going to leave it here, mostly for myself, but also for any curious passerby-ers who come along. I wish to read it more fully when I have more time. While things have changed a great deal between the time the article was written (July 1969) and now, there are still things to be gleaned from this article for today.

The Revolution, July 8 1969

The reason I'm going back to this is because of a conversation that I had with a pro-life friend who wanted to make our conversation about, "it's always wrong to kill a baby" and that this was a separate issue from the rape culture we live in. 

I on the other hand agree with the author of "Marriage and Maternity" that "Much as I deplore the horrible crime of child-murder, earnestly as I desire its suppression, I cannot believe with the writer of the above mentioned article, that such a law would have the desired effect. It seems to be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. "

So, since my friends wonderful article's link is broken, I'm left to do my own research. Such is life.

Misogynist Mark, World Class Attention Seeker

 So a thing happened this weekend.

If you are on Christian Twitter you already know.

For those who haven't gone down that time-consuming rabbit hole, here are a few links from other sources on the event.

From Baptist Global News (Egalitarian)

From Underdog Theology (Complementarian)

From The Wartburg Watch  (Not completely sure)

I shared these links with WenatcheeTheHatchet and he put in his two cents worth.

okay, fine, I'll briefly discuss a thing

Long and short, Mark Driscoll was kicked off a stage at the premier Tough Guy conference in Springfield, Missouri.

That's right, faux tough-guy Driscoll postured too big and too controversial for his friend, Pastor John Lindell of James River Church in Springfield. But it was Lindell who shut Mark down when Mark started dissing one of the circus acts presented, calling it something, something, spirit of Jezebel something.

For a video of Mark's shenanigans go to the Underdog Theology link above and start at about the 13 minute mark.

My blogging friend, Wenatchee, does not think misogyny is involved. which is I respectfully disagree with. While I often defer to Wenatchee on all things Driscoll because he actually went to and ministered at Mark's Mars Hill in Seattle, I can't agree on this one.

I tend to lean in the direction of Wendy Alsup (Complementarian) who also went to Driscoll's church and was part of the women's ministry there in Seattle back in the day. She had this to say about Mark's rant.

So Driscoll is at a testosterone infused giant grunt fest with a bunch of other guys. Somewhere that you think would be right up his alley. And he still manages to stir up controversy (because what better way to draw attention to yourself) and to blame women and their sexuality in the form of the Jezebel Spirit for some entertainment he didn't like.

Whether that entertainment was appropriate or not (probably not) I won't get into.

But rather, I want to point out that, for men like Driscoll to build power, he has to have an enemy. He has to vilify someone. And for him, the easy target is women who don't kowtow to him.

As far as the Jezebel Spirt is concerned, I've said this before, I'll say it again.

If you look as the Jezebel spirit as representing a controlling, manipulating, dominating person, Mark is the most guilty man I know of displaying the Jezebel spirit.

If, rather (or in addition to) you look at the Jezebel spirit as being about sexual immorality, again, Mark Driscoll is the most guilty man in the room, whatever room he is in. HE is the one who raped and pornified The Song of Solomon. HE is the one who was telling women that they needed to do strip teases and perhaps even pole dancing for their husbands. He is the one who instructed women that Jesus commanded them to service their husband's orally. He is the one who worked tirelessly to convince women that their primary job was to be personal porn stars for their husbands.

Yes, I have strong feelings about this. Besides anger, I have a great sorrow over how masterfully Mark manipulates and finds opportunity to promote himself and his books (yes he has a book on Elijah and Jezebel where he fancies himself as Elijah). I have friends who have been taken in by his charm and charisma. I am wary of what I will find them saying on Facebook. I am not looking forward to seeing how they have been deceived by his treachery.

But I am thankful for the voices that continue to point out who and what Driscoll is, which definitely isn't Elijah.

[Note #1: I don't get into this calling out spirits of Jezebel and Ahab business. I'm just tired of men with agendas doing it. The post above is just me lamenting Driscoll's terrible log/splinter problem. He has no basis, authority, or credibility to do so. But he's too determined to be front and center in the lime light to do anything else other than stir up controversy and betray friends at their own conferences in front of thousands of people. He can't help himself.

Note #2: I understand Wenatchee not wanting to go there concerning calling Mark a misogynist. He's never been on the receiving end of misogyny and so it's just not a priority. He also steers away from terms like narcissist for his own good reasons. I still respect and seek his insight because it is always well thought out.]

No Quarter November Numbskull

 Stupid title. I know. But I'll get to the reason for it later.

The main reason for this post is to link a secular article about Wilson's No Quarter November Fiasco.

That Moscow Mood: How much culture war is too much, for American Evangelicals?

Linking the above because I found that it summarized the crazy events on Twitter/X that dogged Wilson's No Quarter November antics this year.

WenatcheTheHatchet was the first to draw my attention to the fact that Driscoll was influenced by Doug Wilson early on. And I can really see that. If I knew where to find that post, I'd link it. May go back and do this eventually.

Anyway, why did I use the term "Numbskull" to describe Wilson? Because it starts with an "N" like No and November. Numbskull means stupid or foolish person. Wilson is not stupid. He is very intelligent. However, Wilson is not wise. He is quite foolish, and not in a good way. He is foolish in his words and thoughts and in the way he causes "The Little Ones to Stumble". He is foolish because he is oblivious to the millstone that he has been attaching to his own neck over that last few decades of his life.

It is true that I am angry with him for his abuses and for covering up the abuses of other privileged white men. But more than that, I pity him for his foolishness and misunderstanding of the heart of God for His children.

Shiny Happy People Aftercare Resources

 Yes, I watched it.

No, it was not triggering to me. I managed to avoid most of the crap that came from Gothard and the IBLP/ATI propaganda. I put them in the category of Doug Wilson, so far over the cuckoo's edge, I just couldn't get bogged down in their B.S.

Also, I never watched the Duggars on TV. Couldn't stand the idea of it. Plus, I was also more laser focused on Driscoll*, Piper, TGC, and others like that at the time who were also troubling the Church with their aberrant doctrine and teaching points.

But, I know that there are many, many people who have been or are going to be severely triggered by Amazon's number one tv show. So for them, I'll link a resource page:

Aftercare resources

*For those who come here for Driscoll stuff, I've been meaning to get to this. I even started a post about it but could never get back to finish it. So I'm going to just link these two things here. Do with them as you like.

Wenatchee the Hatchet has an interesting look at a recent Tweet from Driscoll comparing menopause to demonic possession. 

Which isn't strange since Driscoll links women pretty close to Satan. He has many examples like what Wenatchee lists in his post linked above.

Also, here is a quote from another source where Driscoll calls women who don't fit into his doctrine on womanhood Satan. It is under the subheading Family Division.

You could call these last two links off-topic, if you like. But I don't think so. It all stems from the same issue of celebrity preachers building up kingdoms for themselves and using God's name in vain to do so. These cult leaders are very controlling, ,manipulative, and often hate women.

Edited to add Recovering Grace's page on the topic of Shiny Happy People.

Seen "Shiny Happy People"?

Hopefully more people will find healing.

Well Played, Cosper

 Episode 8 of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast finally dropped on Friday. Demon Hunting looked into the weird world of Mark Driscoll's Narcissistic Personality Disorder brand of deliverance ministry.

As a side note, Cosper announced in this episode that these Podcasts will begin to come out every two weeks rather than every week. One reason given was that people who initially didn't want to be interviewed for this have been changing their minds, so they are coming forward and wanting their voices to be included in this massive undertaking.

Over all, I suppose that this is good. However, I see this as a potentially detrimental turn in one area.

Apparently there are those who are mad at Cosper for giving feminists and egalitarians too much voice in the fifth episode of the podcast. You know that podcast that I mentioned in my Mars Hill and Consumerism (NPD) post called The Things We Do to Women.

In "The Things We Do to Women" Cosper includes the voices of feminists and actually went as far as addressing the Rape Culture at Mars Hill. He didn't hit it hard. In fact, there are many of us who felt he let Driscoll and Mars Hill off easy rather than giving this issue the full attention that it deserves.

But as is common among Evangelical men, there was an outcry and one star reviews about Cosper giving voice to those filthy feminists. (gasp!!! entities far worse than pedophile pastors and repeat sex offenders that riddle the SBC.)

So in this episode, Episode Eight, Demon Hunting, Cosper again addresses the blatant misogyny of Driscoll and the Mars Hill community. But this time, he brings a Complementarian in to point it out so that the screeching Patriarchy couldn't just poo poo what was being said. The Comp dude was concerned with and opposed to the woman-demeaning culture that Mark had created, including the misogyny perpetuated in his teachings on deliverance.

This can be both good and bad. I do feel that Cosper did well to bring in that pro-woman Complementarian voice. This is why the title of this post includes "well played" in it. However, now I am worried that the egalitarian voice and the voices of trauma informed counselors might be set aside for the rest of the podcast series.

Make no mistake, what Mark taught men and women about sex and the purpose of women was spiritual and sexual abuse. And his warped teachings did, in fact, lead to a rape culture. Women were traumatized. And while it was going on, Evangelical men did not care. This fact should not be minimized or glossed over. And I hope Cosper keeps this in mind and doesn't just throw women under the "keep the peace with the patriarchy" bus.

"The SBC Is Pimping Out Lottie Moon"

Not my words but a quote from and angry female member of the Southern Baptist Conventions, Monica Dennington.

She's angry that the Southern Baptist Convention is, in fact, pimping out Lottie Moon.

Here is a link to her blog/vlog article:

"Are You Funding Terroism? The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering"

I really like her title. And I also like her boldness in stating the sorry truth about the SBC pimping out Lottie.

So when you put the two together, the terrorism and the pimping, what you actually have is female trafficking of a distinguished saint.

Tell it like it is, Monica. Expose the evil of the men in charge of the Southern Baptist Convention, and their greedy, oppressive little hearts.

"Pussified Nation" Says Driscoll (WTH)

I'm just going to link to this series under its label on Wenatchee The Hatchet's blog.

Driscoll fears the feminine and its great and magnificent power to destroy men (snark or eye rolling icon here).

He is so worried about the power of women to destroy men and manhood that he went on and on and on about it about it on some Mars Hill forum.

If you go down about half a page or more you will get to Page 1 of Driscoll's ranting against girly men (as defined by him) and the women who made them that way. Page 2 is below that.

But here is the link:

Pussified Nation (WTH)

Dang, Driscoll. Go get some therapy. You need it, dude.

ExMH Employee and Misogyny at Mars Hill

Thanks to Retha for pointing this article out.

Mark Anderson, former 'Minister of Propaganda'* at Mars Hill apologizes for being a, quote, ''willing participant in a culture of Misogyny."

(*The term, 'Minister of Propaganda' is what he used to jokingly say his title was while working for Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill. You can find that in his article that is linked below.)

He apologizes for a lot of things.
One of them is this:
"I want to apologize to women everywhere for being part of a culture that didn’t value you as equal to men."

You see, Mike pressured his "brilliant and hard-working wife to give up her dream of law school and have a baby and be a stay-at-home mom as soon as possible."

He says about this: "I allowed others to take verses from the Bible out of context and put a law on my wife and rob her of a dream. I only added pressure on her. It was wrong, and I’m terribly sorry."

The article that contains these quotes and a lot of other good stuff can be found here:

HELLO, MY NAME IS MIKE, I'M A RECOVERING TRUE BELIEVER

Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill are guilty of misogyny. And worse than that, they are guilty of misquoting and misrepresenting the Bible to make it agree with their misogyny.
This is akin to taking God's name in vain.

This has been going on a long time. I'm glad that people are finally (after far too long) finally exposing this sin of misogyny for what it is in this broken and ill church.

Driscoll Disses Jesus' Homegirls

That's reason one from an article called:

Four Reasons Why Jesus Would Not Call Driscoll After a First Date.

It's an older article but still relevant with all the info going back and forth concerning Driscoll.

Before it was known that he has probably broken the law, it was obvious that he had severe issues.

I only link this blog in case there are those searching who haven't read this one yet.

Hero Mom

Move over Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Found this link on Thatmom. And I agree with her. This is my kind of mom.

Dorothy Baker, Punches and Runs Over Man Who Threatened Her and Her Kids.

And why do I bring this up?

Because I am soooooooooo tired of the John Pipers and Mark Driscolls and Tim Challieses*** of the world who hold up their ridiculous ideals of womanhood as soft and weak. I get tired of these men who think women can't defend themselves and must always be defended by a man.

Well, what do you do if there is no man to defend you, and in fact, the one man in the whole story is the one threatening you and your children.

I guess you are just supposed to put tilt your head back, put the back of your hand to your forehead and say, "Woe is me. God made me a soft, weak, defenseless female. Therefore I must submit to the all-powerful male in every situation. After all, this is what my clueless, misogynic, neo-Calvinist preacher has taught me. He has declared unto me that this is God's intention, will, role, and purpose for my life. To deviate from it would be to sin against the essence of manhood and womanhood and by so doing, rebel against the Gospel. Did I say, 'Woe is me'?"

(Forgive the snark. Please understand that it is better for me to do this than to cuss clueless preachers out on what is supposed to be a Christian blog. But believe me, they deserve to be cussed out or snarked out when they teach the crap they do and call it the Word of God.)

(Tim Challies is author of the infamous "Soft, Effeminate Christianity" post I wrote against some time back.)

Men that are ignorant of history

No Longer Quivering quotes a bitter and ignorant man.
No Votes or Anything Else for Women

I wanted to leave a comment and had difficulty. So rather than lose the comment, I thought I'd just cut and paste the comment here:

This man needs a serious history lesson. In the past, it was the MEN who had the choice to end a pregnancy or commit infanticide if the child was unwanted, born female, or otherwise flawed (in their judgement). The woman had no choice at all and was forced to accept the choice of the man which often DID end in abortion or infanticide due to financial reasons.

Even today, many women want to choose to keep their pregnancies. However, family (the mother's parents and/or husband) or boyfriends (baby-daddies) are the ones pressuring the mother to end the pregnancy due again, to financial reasons and not wanting to have to support this new burden. I know this because my parents are on the board of a home for pregnant women who have no resources or support from their families and baby-daddies. I also once heard a drunk father say that he'd drag his daughters by the hair to the abortion clinic if either of them ever turned up pregnant out of wedlock. So the 'women are evil baby killers and men are holy baby defenders' dynamic doesn't hold water.

This man has issues with reality, believing that all men/fathers are good (as he defines them, willing to 'die' rather than allow anyone to kill their child) and women/doctors/nurses are bad (as he defines them, out to murder the father's beloved children thereby taking away the control he believes that all men should have over the lives of their women/children/property). He is out of touch with reality and is an embarrassment to those who would truly like to encourage and support pregnant women who find themselves in crisis.

Scapegoating Women Part II

I was looking up some stuff on Voddie Baucham on Cindy's Under Much Grace Blog and stumble on this post again. Since some of my newer readers may have missed it, I thought I'd post a link to it.

Complementarianism, Scapegoats, and some stuff about a fountain

Voddie really gets my goat sometimes.

He really got my goat last year for this reason (again, for new readers)

Voddie Baucham is Sexist.

Okay, lets just go ahead and say it out loud. He is a misogynist.

Scapegoating Women...

... i.e. blaming Jezebel.

Here's a video that lays out how misogyny is scapegoating women using the dreaded "JEZEBEL" label to vent their hate and how men shouldn't be doing that.
Also, It's by a man which is over the top refreshing to me.

Don't Blame Jezebel

Doug Wilson Is a Misogynist, part II

As is evidence by how he describes evil. Men and masculine as he defines them, are good, right, true, Biblical etc. Those who disagree with him, male or female, are cast as worshiping the "bitch goddess of __________ (fill in the blank)". So now he is casting all that he believes to be evil as feminine.

Doug Wilson Almost Channels Eric Cartman

Those who missed part one can check it out here at Doug Wilson Is a Misogynist. Nothing hugely interesting. Just letting newbies know why/how I have a part II.

Misogyny Can Be Blamed for Certain Things

But I have to admit, I never thought of this one until I read about it on Christine Marietta's blog:

I Blame My Back Pain on Misogyny

It will get you thinking, at least.

Defining Rape, Defining Women

For those who are triggered by rape discussions, please skip this link.

For those who are able and willing to look at this, Sarah at "Sarah over the Moon" has this to say about (some) complementarians and (all) patriarchs and their narrow/oppressive view of rape:

Complementarianism's Ugly Relationship with Rape