In order to understand this one, it is better to have read part 3 where I tell the story of Fred (not his real name) the Conservative Christian Blogger, his blog post on Rock Star, Steven Tyler, and the comments of the men in that thread.
Briefly, Fred was using Tyler's story to lament the lack of father's rights in abortion situations. The other men were agreeing and commenting on how terrible feminism was and abortion and the disregard for human life of the average American woman. The maddening part about it was how they glossed over the fact that Tyler, in his thirties at the time, had gotten his fourteen year old girlfriend pregnant.
A couple of women, myself included, pointed out the fact that what Tyler did was wrong and that Tyler was the instigator of the series of events that led to a fourteen year old coming up pregnant. We pointed out that Tyler used his Rock Star status to get away with something the average Joe could not get away with. Statutory rape. And where we agreed that we didn't like the fact that an abortion was involved, the abortion was not the beginning of the problem, it was the final, violent solution chosen by a girl's family to deal with the wrongs and excesses of a man living out the Rock Star dream.
To Fred's credit and the credit of his male commentors, they heard us and accepted our wisdom and insight into the situation. You see, Fred and I, even though we disagree on several things, we had a mutual respect for each other. When he made a good point I accepted it as such. And when I made a good point, even if he didn't like it, even if it messed with his male fantasy of how he thought things should be, he accepted my points and my wisdom. He didn't look at my gender and decide that I was a gullible female who didn't know what was going on.
This is not the case at Mars Hill. At Mars Hill women are only allowed to be groupies to their husbands, and Rock Star Preacher worshipers, and obedient stage hands. They are not allowed their own godly voice, wisdom, or opinion. If a Mars Hill woman is not parroting the Party Line and supporting the male Rock Star fantasy, then that woman is considered a threat and silenced.
Here are two examples, one among the elders' wives and the other among the rank and file.
First among the elders. The quote below is taken from here:
*****
"The next morning I heard from the elder’s wife, the one Karen and I had so enjoyed - that she
had shared our conversation with her husband and he felt that it showed “disloyalty” on Karen’s
part, was gossip, and that it needed to be brought to Mark, which he did. Karen was fired. The
gist of what she shared that was branded “disloyal” was a heart of thankfulness that my husband, Paul, was being made an elder because Mark needed strong men around him who could handle and stand up to push-back. When I found out what this elder and his wife had done, I called Mark immediately in tears and asked him to forgive me for my part in that conversation.
Looking back, I’m not sure that Karen or I really did anything wrong, but I was sure afraid."
*****
Jonna's illustrates well how the wisdom of an older woman is despised if it does not prop up the Rock Star Preacher. Mark absolutely needs for strong leadership to push back against his excesses. All men in leadership need this. But Mark didn't want this. He didn't want anyone pushing back. But as we have seen, this is not good. Steven Tyler had no one pushing him back, telling him that he shouldn't be with a fourteen year old. And you see where this got him.
But the wisdom of a woman got in the way of Mark's inflated opinion of himself. How dare anyone, particularly a woman, think that Mark needed any kind of pushing back.
The next example is from the rank and file, and even entry level:
*****
"I wish that was the end of my story, but unfortunately it is not. At that time my husband's best friend and his wife were becoming more and more involved in the church. They were becoming members but we were still hanging out with them and everything seemed fine. Fast forward a month or so and this friend of my husband asks him out to coffee. My husband goes and comes back visibly upset. We go out for dinner where he tells me that his best friend had said that my husband loved me too much, was idolizing me, that I had gone off the deep end, and then started bad-mouthing everything Jeffrey had learned from a previous mentor in our old church. This was very hard for me to believe. I told my husband I thought his friend was just confused and even though his words were incorrect they were most likely spoken out of love. I told my husband he should listen to his own heart and tell his friend that he disagreed but not to let it ruin their friendship. They both loved and respected each other very much, I believed they could both move past this.
Unfortunately that wasn't what happened..."
*****
Kaelee could feel that something was wrong. She had discernment that things just didn't add up. Her husband agreed and respected her discernment and from what I gathered, had discernment of his own. But Kaelee's discernment was despised and her husband criticized for listening to her. You see, in the Rock Star Preacher fantasy and thinking, any devotion that undermines worship of the Rock Star Preacher must be squashed and called an idol. Because there will only be one idol, and that's the Rock Star Preacher Mentality. All other must bow to this.
Since men seem to be more gullible to the Rock Star Gospel than women, the Rock Star Gospel must preach that it is women who are the gullible ones, not men. This will help ensure that the Rock Star Gospel fantasy will stay intact and stroke the egos of certain men so that they can be controlled and manipulated by the Christian Rock Star Fantasy. Because secretly, all these men defending the Rock Star Preacher wish that they could be Rock Star Preachers, or Elders, or Deacons, or whatever so thet must defend the fantasy against the women who see through it.
