In prior posts, we've defined spiritual abuse as "the misuse of a position of power, leadership, or influence to further the selfish interests of someone other than the individual who needs help. Sometimes abuse arises out of a doctrinal position. At other times it occurs because of legitimate personal needs of a leader that are being met by illegitimate means." (David Henke: Watchman Fellowship, Inc.) We've also defined the hallmarks of spiritual abuse: authoritarianism, image consciousness, supression of criticism, perfectionistic demands, and unbalanced views (clearer and truer grasp of truth than other groups).
The Family Integrated Church (FIC) model represents the practices of many within the patriarchy movement such as presented by Vision Forum and those who participate with its family centered mission. A growing number of Evangelical Christian denominations include patriarchy as a central practice and model for their affiliates. Consider this example from the website of one such denomination, the Covenant Presbyterian Church:
It is in such a place that God chose to reveal Himself in the hearts of men and fathers. Our founding churches formed as God opened the truth of the Scriptures to elders who up to that point had been held in sway by modernity and compromise. God showed this group of men that victorious Christian living can come when the Bible is embraced in its fullness. This includes a trust in the historic faith, presbyterian polity, a commitment to the Biblical Creation model, biblical gender roles, and family-integrated worship.
Take special note of the phrase "God opened the truth of the Scriptures to elders..." This statement does not state that their insights are the only possible insights as the only insights that transcend "modernity and compromise," however, the means by which many "patriarchalists" carry out their convictions suggests otherwise. They are intolerant of other interpretations, declaring that their interpretation is the only possible conclusion concerning the meaning of Scriptures pertaining to gender roles, family and implications for conducting corporate worship. Bear this in mind when considering this element of spiritual abuse (per Henke), considering the addition of patriarchy as an additional example of "majoring in minor issues":
Unbalanced: Abusive religions must distinguish themselves from all other religions so they can claim to be distinctive and therefore special to God. This is usually done by majoring on minor issues such as prophecy, carrying biblical law to extremes, or using strange methods of biblical interpretation. The imbalanced spiritual hobby-horse thus produced represents unique knowledge or practices which seem to validate the group's claim to special status with God.
Could this "opening of the truth" to the elders and founders of the Covenant Presbyterian Church Presbytery possibly be an example of "unique knowledge and practice" giving this group a "special status with God" that typifies spiritual abuse?
The examples of their interpretation of biblical gender roles and family-integrated worship do give us some cause.
As an example of those who take issue with the FIC model, consider the 2006 Resolution of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International which declares the FIC "errant and schismatic":
- It encourages schisms in local church bodies by encouraging its adherents to change the theology and philosophy of the churches of which they are members.
- It does violence to local church authority, calling on local church members to leave their churches when the church does not bow to the philosophical demands of the movement.
- It espouses an ecclesiology based upon the family that is not based upon the New Testament but rather is an adaptation of Old Testament patriarchy.
- It falsely lays the claim that the destruction of the family in the U.S. is solely the fault of age-graded ministries in local churches. We contend that this is a simplistic and therefore false accusation.
- It espouses a postmillennial theology that is contradictory to a dispensational understanding of Scripture.
- It is oddly inclusive, basing fellowship on a particular philosophy of ministry rather than on the great fundamentals of the faith.
Consider also, the realted controversy regarding gender roles as a matter of Biblical Authority:
Vision Forum’s endorsed non-optional moral which defines their specific view of complementarianism and family, including concepts pertaining to the FIC:
Keep in mind that “non-normative” connotes sin
and compromise of God’s Holy Word
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Homeschooling only (Once stated to be sin, now is a strong recommendation as "normative") "Tenets"
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No secular curriculum for children “Tenets”
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Women are to function only within the sphere of home unless at the workplace of and with the patriarch (Once stated to be sin, now is a strong recommendation as “normative”) (“Tenets," McDonalds, Bodkins)
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Women to remain under the roof of the father or husband (or family home) at all times (in compliance with the concept of the sphere of home which makes attendance of a school outside of God’s “normative order”) (“Tenets,” McDonalds, Bodkins)
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Sons bear the duty of spreading the glory and fame of the father (Brown)
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Christian complementarians are essentially egalitarians which makes them feminists which makes them open theists (Russell Moore and Roy Moore)
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Non patriarchal complementarians compromise the Bible as "white washed feminists" and "unruly and filthy stray dogs on washday" (Stacy McDonald)
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Patriarchy and complemenatianism as a “plumb line” for determining that which is truly Christian (and other views as less or possibly sub-Christian) (Commonly held belief)
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Non-VF homeschoolers are "Canaanites" (Commonly held belief)
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“Multi-generational” worship setting, etc. (family remains together during worship and vilifies segregated, age-appropriate groups) (BCUCF)
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Pessimistic view of leadership within the church (vilification of group leaders and pastors that usurp the patriarch) (BCUCF)
These matters are widely debated issues of controversy within and among Evangelical Christians and groups. However, it is important to note that many Christians believe that the debate regarding gender is inseparable from the doctrine of God and is thus a matter of sola scriptura or Biblical Authority. They assert that those who view gender as an intramural debate are critically compromising the Word of God and thus, by extention deny, God's lordship over all creation. It appears that groups that do not advocate subordinationism of Christ as related to gender still carry over the same zeal and emotional engagement conscerning this issue as those who share their view of gender.
