Gender Rhetoric: Understanding Gender Norms in Christian Co-Cultures Part I

In regards to religious rhetoric, it is important to understand how the manipulation of religious language is used to enforce strict gender roles and a male hierarchy. Continue reading Gender Rhetoric: Understanding Gender Norms in Christian Co-Cultures Part I

TLC and the Fundamentalist Family: A Look at the Quiverfull Movement

I have been waiting a few months for my study to appear in The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture about the TLC show 19 and Counting and the Quiverfull movement. The academic journal is open access, so everyone who reads my blog should be able to pull up this link. It provides a much more comprehensive overview of what the Quiverfull beliefs are and how the movement has been portrayed in popular culture. Click here to read the article. Continue reading TLC and the Fundamentalist Family: A Look at the Quiverfull Movement

Taking a Critical Look at the Above Rubies Organization

While there are numerous organizations/movements associated with Christian patriarchy, one of the largest is the international organization Above Rubies.  Above Rubies was founded by Nancy and Collin Campbell over 32 years ago to encourage families to follow a very traditional, complementarian lifestyle. Above Rubies publishes a free magazine (donations requested but not required) once a month that contains articles about the joys of living simply, women who have given up work to stay home, and natural family remedies and family planning (or lack thereof). Nancy Campbell also has an e-newsletter she sends out about once a week. As a regular … Continue reading Taking a Critical Look at the Above Rubies Organization

The Threat of Christian Patriarchy

The Christian patriarchy movement is a fast growing fundamentalist/evangelical movement that is not easy to define.  While mainstream media has     drawn attention to the Quiverfull movement and pop cultural representations of this lifestyle, such as the famous or infamous (however you want to phrase it) Duggar family from 19 and Counting, there are other branches of the patriarchy movement which are not well known nor well researched. Therefore, for the next few blog posts I’m going to try to break down the various organizations associated with the Christian patriarchy movement to help us better understand why mainstream Christian society should … Continue reading The Threat of Christian Patriarchy