Thread by @abbyjperry

At least part of the reason Paige Patterson is back behind a pulpit with pews full of congregants happy to hear from him is this: the criteria relied upon to render many American Evangelical pastors "qualified" is more capitalistic than Christian, and Patterson still has capital.

In this system, men have more capital by virtue of being men, women have less capital by virtue of being women. Men who are pastors have more capital by virtue of being men who are pastors. Notice that I'm not saying more *responsibility.* I'm saying capital--worth, value, asset.

It's an economy arranged around power and money, number of seats filled, salvation decisions made, and a hundred other things that we can quibble over the virtue of all we want. If we end at a pastor's lack of integrity mattering not at all, hands over women's mouths, who cares.

I want to be very clear: I do not believe any of what I just said to be the foundational truth about the church as established by Jesus Christ, or all modern day congregations, or even all iterations of evangelicalism. I'm actually that...hopeful? Naive? Ridiculous?

But that there are *a lot* of dark corners in evangelicalism and throughout the universal church (whatever the labels). Our refusal to turn on the lights does nothing but make us culpable for the horrors that occur in the dark.

I asked before "who cares?" re: number of seats filled, etc., if we end up with immoral leaders and abused men/women. The tragic answer is, of course, that plenty of people have decided they care more about keeping their idolized leaders in place than the abused, or integrity.

This is why I'm featuring profiles of survivors of church sex abuse on The Steep. These faithful people deserve far, far more than a capitalistic system that reduces them to liabilities.

They're survivors, and it's their turn with the microphone.

fathommag.com/stories/listen…

If you'd like to read any of my prior work on sex abuse in the church, #ChurchToo, or celebrity Christianity, I'll thread below.

I compared and contrasted the apologies of Andy Savage, who abused Jules Woodson when he was her Youth Pastor, and Dan Harmon, who harassed Megan Ganz when she worked for him.

christandpopculture.com/church-needs-m…

The #churchtoo movement made (makes) a lot of Conservative Christians nervous because of, well, for several reasons. I think we should listen anyway.

christandpopculture.com/learning-liste…

I interviewed Jules Woodson about her #ChurchToo story, becoming the face of a justice movement, and her hopes for the church.

fathommag.com/stories/compli…

One day, Derek Webb, Mark Driscoll, and Tullian Tchjividjian started popping up in my Twitter feed as though nothing at all had changed from years prior, except for how it wasn't like that at all.

fathommag.com/stories/provoc…