A Review of W. Bradford Wilcox’s Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
In the wake of the Southern Baptist Convention’s abuse crisis, a question is being asked: Is there an essential connection between conservative theological beliefs about gender and the family to environments that foster and tolerate abuse?
An increasing number, it seems, would answer “yes.” For instance, one recent study that received attention in Christianity Today argued that Calvinist beliefs perpetuate “Domestic Violence Myths” because of their correlation with “binary views of gender,” lower levels of acceptance of social justice theory, and emphasis on hierarchical relationships. But conservative Christianity isn’t the only target. In 2017 and 2018, the Australian Broadcasting Company published a series of in-depth articles highlighting domestic violence and abuse among Evangelical, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu communities in Australia. Nor is this necessarily something new. Following the adoption of the BFM2000 by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1998, including the statement on male headship, two prominent journalists argued that this kind of rhetoric “can clearly lead to abuse, both physical and emotional.”
SOME SURPRISING DATA
At this point, it’s helpful to turn to data and hard facts. Back in 2004, University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox published a monumental study,
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