#232 Covert misogyny

For as inclusive and LGBTQ-friendly the progressive Church likes to imagine itself, there are still deep, linty pockets of gender bias and old habits that haven’t been broken. And how could they be, if no one has pointed them out? Actually, I take that back. How could the Church realize its biases if if the people in positions of power won't entertain the possibility that they have them? The tragic truth is that the people in power do not need to realize their biases if they don't elect to, and there’s the rub.

Gender bias in Christian culture is so ingrained that it's difficult to access much of the time. Many women who didn't take their husband's last name or promise to obey him (see, progressive!) are just fine with male-pastor-only denominations. Many men who Mr. Mom while their wives work the day job (and to whom many will ascribe feminist tendencies when he's just acting like a decent human being) can still operate under constraints they haven't examined. We all do it. It's getting to the point where you can dig it up and examine it that's the hard bit.

Straight men in Christian culture simply don't need to examine the ways in which they are sexist, and this is the most difficult factor in the move towards wholeness. Coming to terms with the truth could make men feel awful about themselves. To even be an unknowing participant in something as egregious as gender bias while living in a culture where civil rights and equality are valued above all else is one of the worst things you can do. Far easier to stay ignorant of it. I mean, I would want to. People of privilege can't understand what the margainalized experience day-to-day but when it happens in Christianity in the name of the ultimate gender barrier iconoclast (that would be Jesus), the irony is excruciating.

In a Christian culture whose doctors of theology, board members and published authors are more than 80% male, many men and women still maintain that no significant bias is truly at play. These same people seem proud of the fact that 10% of those in powerful Church roles are women. This is seen by many as a giant stride from where women were a generation ago, but it still means it's 9 times harder to get into a powerful role as a woman. And if you're still having any misgivings as to whether it's really that difficult for a female voice to be considered in the progressive year of 2012, I would invite you to take ornery heed of a Black Like Me-esque experiment conducted by Jen Theweatt-Bates. While commenting on a male theology blog she found that she was engaged with significantly more respect and curiosity when using a male pseudonym, while her female persona encountered markedly more dismissal. Even her doctorate in philosophy doesn't appear to lend her much credibility amongst male theologians. There is no subjectivity in this experiment. Please refer to the statistics she recorded which paint a disturbing mathematical portrait of whose voice we value and why.

A common response to this topic by men in the Church is to deny that it is taking place and to tell women they are misreading the men in power. Those men are actually quite generous with their power! They do a lot of work for civil rights! They even have a gay friend! You are misreading them! I get it. There is nothing more difficult than facing the truth about the ways you perpetuate brokenness within the world and especially in the Church you hold dear. The hardest truths requires such painful realizations that many people live their entire lives without facing them. Summoning the curiosity and making the emotional and intellectual space for these realizations is almost preternaturally difficult. Could this mean they are also outrageously worthwhile?

When gender discussions occur on the Facebook page of this blog, men frequently protest the women's claims that their voice isn't taken as seriously a male voice. In these cases it always takes the voice of a sympathetic dude to point out where sexism is present in order for the disgruntled men to come around a bit. The fact that it takes a person of privilege to advocate for the marginalized and engender understanding speaks disgraceful volumes about how those in power choose to manage their unearned privilege. When defending their role, men will often say "I feel that as I try to defend my position I can't say anything right. I feel that nothing that I say will be considered valid by you. It feels like a vortex and a mindfuck." This is the point where a man might finally understand what it is like to have a feminine voice in this culture.

#231 Sending conservative propaganda to their liberal children

Political proselytizing from parent to child is a time-honored tradition made even easier and more passive-aggressive since the advent of email. The wayward and disillusioned child of conservative evangelicals stands an excellent chance of receiving insistent emails of a right-wing nature in the weeks before a big election. These emails tend to escalate in frequency and tone as the election draws nearer, lavishly capslocked and feverishly warning against the global implosion that will surely be triggered by turning the collective American back on the evangelical notion of God. In acute cases, you may receive up to two dozen per day in your inbox. This is normal. The conservative parent is frightened to the point of hypertensive chest pain that the future hinges on who will occupy the office for the next four years and they figure the best thing to do is educate their prodigal offspring with immutable resolute facts about the candidates. You might do the same if you believed everything Fox News said. They're insistent little buggers.

#230 Worship leader conferences

Christian culture absolutely loves a conference. It's such a popular enterprise that there is now a conference for every facet of evangelical life, and the bigger the conference, the more likely that it will be sponsored by a corporation or nine.  Fortunately for the economy, the realm of interacting with the divine and unsayable (which the Christian tradition often calls “worship”) is no exception.

The entity of worship has so many types of conferences that now there are even conferences specifically for worship leaders. The websites and brochures for worship leader conferences state and restate that worship leaders and church creatives have been commissioned to lead remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice. They want you to believe that they believe this. These conferences charge on average $330 for 3 days of gathering with worship specialists to “keep you engaging with God” and “offer the prayers of your congregation with more authority and humility.” They call it a bargain, the best you ever had. Sizable evangelical churches and all Acts 29 church plants have a conference budget for occasions such as these so that the worship leader, select members of the worship team, and even a lucky intern or two may attend.

At these conferences you are often invited to present your own original worship song to a panel of experts that includes major publishers (the brochure's words) who will give you their professional feedback on just how worshipful and relevant your song is exactly. I don’t think any of us even want to think about what would happen if there were no industry professionals to critique the remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice, do we?

Along with relevant education in songwriting and pastoral worship, you'll find workshops on the art and maintenance of backline. These workshops have names such as“Worship Lighting,” “Wireless Mics in Worship” and (wait for it) “Who Moved My Console?” For the visual ministry teams that modern evangelicalism requires, there are workshops on “Multi-Screen and Environmental Projection on a Budget” and “How to Effectively Organize and VJ Your Visual Media Library.” If nothing else, worship conferences highlight the fact that there are positions on church payrolls to fill the aching spiritual void that is met by Visual Ministry. We often take these for granted.

But even a worship conference wouldn’t be a conference without Sponsor Resources.  The sponsors hold their own workshops with titles like “Be A Part of Something Beautiful. Is An [Insert Brand Here] Website For You?”, “Engaging Mobile Phones With Your Presentation” which is sponsored by church presentation software, and “Yamaha Keyboards In Worship: Equipping Instruments Of Praise” — sponsored of course by our friends at Yamaha.

Best of all, record labels buy slots for their artists to lead worship. They want their artists to worship during various sessions and workshops in hopes that other conferees will take those songs back to their churches to perform on Sundays so the artists and labels get to collect CCLI publishing money. Once the labels help cover costs and provide materials, their artists get the coveted evening slots. It really is quite a strategy. Upon leaving the conference you will be strenuously encouraged to give feedback, and the most glowing reports will appear on the conference website to inform next year's applicants. The worship conference website insists that attending their event is “one of the most important ministry decisions you’ll make all year.” And who are we to argue with that?