{"id":24574,"date":"2019-10-24T22:43:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T05:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24574"},"modified":"2019-10-24T22:44:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T05:44:24","slug":"the-ugly-evangelical-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-ugly-evangelical-american\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ugly Evangelical American"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not an official pastor. I\u2019ve never been ordained or licensed, nor had \u201cPastor\u201d in any aspect of any title I\u2019ve held. I have worked for a church, and I was the children\u2019s director, a long time ago. There are lots of places that I function in a pastoral role, however. I do it in my work place, a Protestant Evangelical Christian Higher Education institution. I \u201cpastor\u201d my students, and preach in chapel. I\u2019m on the teaching team at Vineyard Glendora and preach 2-3 times a year for our congregation. We (our family) hosts a small group for college-aged and young adult folks in our home every Sunday night. In fact, I find myself \u201cpastoring\u201d in so many capacities, I decided last summer to pray through whether or not I should become ordained. I talked to our Lead Pastor, Abigail, about it over the summer and she and I meet regularly to explore my own pastoral calling. While I might not have the title, I find over and over again, I am doing the work of pastoring in many capacities. So I take it personally when another woman, \u201cpastor\u201d or not, is told to \u201cGo Home.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I was reading Kets de Vries, Down the Rabbit Hole of Leadership<\/em> this week, I was struck by his essay on \u201cThe Ugly \"\"<\/a>American.\u201d[1]<\/a> It hurts when men like John MacArthur continually portray not just the ugly American, but the ugly evangelical American. Kets de Vries alludes to this ugliness, \u201c\u2026Where threats from external enemies are ever present, simplistic binary slogans replace reflective debate, lies become alternative facts (or factoids), and where mind and reality control replace evidence and historical truth\u201d[2]<\/a> While the quote is referencing the American dystopia Trump has created, I could easily apply it to the arguments many, not just MacArthur, have made about keeping women out of the pastorate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As MacArthur sat on that stage and belittled the work of Beth Moore (and other women by proxy), I couldn\u2019t help but feel the most hurt from the people in the crowd. It\u2019s one thing to say something shameful, it\u2019s another to have a room full of people clap and cheer you on. Kets de Vries argues:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cDeep down inside, many people know that they are being suckered. But in spite of the overwhelming evidence that Trump [could you insert MacArthur here?] is pulling a fast one, they still find it hard to acknowledge that it is happening. Unfortunately, many people become willing victims of this sort of scam. The power of con artists is that they don\u2019t force us to do anything. One the contrary, victims buy into the con game of their own free will. Some may even volunteer and propagate the cause. And after the damage is done, it is not easy to admit having been a victim of a scam.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That same Pastor who is currently mentoring me in my calling posted this week,<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when fear is not the motivation\u2026when love is the motivation, bullying is not the response. There is no fear in love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see over and over again the trappings of fear. Fear that leads us to believe that in order to gain, another must loose. Fear that says success is beating everyone else to the top first. Trump uses fear to bring out the worst in people. People laugh at MacArthur\u2019s profane remarks out of fear. Everywhere we turn today, people are stuck in cycles of fear. I wonder if deep down, MacArthur is also afraid. Because it seems like he\u2019s playing a zero-sum game that no other woman has time to play. Sorry JM, we\u2019re too busy pastoring, even if we don\u2019t have the title.<\/p>\n

——-<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Manfried F.R. Kets de Vries, Down the Rabbit Hole of Leadership: Leadership Pathology in Everyday <\/em>Life (Springer Nature, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Loc 716.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 716.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 736.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not an official pastor. I\u2019ve never been ordained or licensed, nor had \u201cPastor\u201d in any aspect of any title I\u2019ve held. I have worked for a church, and I was the children\u2019s director, a long time ago. There are lots of places that I function in a pastoral role, however. I do it in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[536,1669,749,1508],"class_list":["post-24574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kets-de-vries","tag-macarthur","tag-trump","tag-women-in-ministry","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24574"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24580,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24574\/revisions\/24580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}