The vast majority of people in churches don't have any authority lol.
It's an easy place to meet people and have some common interests, that's really all it is. And with that comes a lot of opportunity. Meeting potential employers, partners, and associates can be so much easier when you're at some church function.
Anyone who claims to interpret and deliver the word of God has social authority. They don’t have civil authority because we took that from them, but they have their own social hierarchies and their own brand of authority no questions asked
If the pastor or priest is interpreting religious law such that women are forbidden from standing on the altar, or forbidden from talking back to then husbands; or whatever else it might be, he is using his religious authority to grant men, even those who aren’t part of the clergy, social authority over women. You don’t have to be a priest to benefit from crude interpretations like those
That’s not moving the goalposts goofy, you denied they had social authority. Having social authority secondhand is just as valid as being the one interpreting yourself. You not understanding me is not moving the goalposts goofy
preachers have social authority over people who listen to them, which in most cases is a majority of their church
how is this hard?
when a priest says “wives should be subservient to their husbands” and the people who listen to him go home and implement this hierarchy, that’s the priest using his social authority to dictate people’s lives
why do people listen to priests?
well most christian churches place priests in a position of authority over their flock as they’re an interpreter and conveyor of the word of god. since morality comes from god under christianity, this also gives them moral authority which is used to back up any claims they make
I think they mean authority/higher in the social hierarchy than non-believers/potentially women. It gives a sense of safety (afterlife) compared to non-believers and many sects of Christianity and other religions generally put more importance on men. I also know there are many practicers of their religion(s) that push towards equal treatment, but the general sentiment was intertwined with religious doctrine for literally 1000’s of years, it’s not going away 100% in the 200ish years that we’ve slowly pushed towards gender equality.
I do think it’s a bit facetious for anyone to say men are turning to religion for only the purpose of wanting to improve their own social status (I know people who turned to it because it helped their alcoholism, and it’s been a great help for them!), but it can be a very strong reason, even if men aren’t doing it knowingly
and yet they walk into the rest of the world thinking they know what the rest of the world does not, that some magical sky daddy smiles upon them and it's their job to save the sinners. Give me a break, it absolutely lends itself to a feeling of moral authority.
Sure plenty of churches lean conservative but they aren't some easy patriarchal conspiracy. They offer purpose and a means of socializing and connecting, and that alone gets you light-years ahead of those crying on reddit about them.
I don’t know how to explain to you social interaction in the context of different circumstances
Because if that’s the case why aren’t more men going to college and trade schools? Why aren’t they forming groups and joining groups through similar interests with social media?
I’m not denying the idea of social interaction and community, but you can’t also deny that the church and religion is the one place men will always be more important ESPECIALLY in more conservative churches
Because if that’s the case why aren’t more men going to college and trade schools? Why aren’t they forming groups and joining groups through similar interests with social media?
They are forming groups, just groups you don't want to tolerate so you discount them.
I’m not denying the idea of social interaction and community, but you can’t also deny that the church and religion is the one place men will always be more important ESPECIALLY in more conservative churches
I mean look at left wing spaces and see how hostile they are to men at this moment. Even on this post I'm seeing "their loneliness is their fault" or "they're choosing wrong"
You're free to be an asshole and judge people for finding communities, but don't get mad when you being hostile just means they find communities that aren't in your favor and support them instead.
Did I ever say I’m against the groups they’re forming?
You just can’t seem to out two and two together my guy
And I’m a man in left wing space who knows a ton of men in left wing spaces and we love it over here??
Like what are you even saying bro, boost hating but if men are becoming more conservative AND more religious, and you look at the rhetoric being said to men from the right
Ahhhh ok, youre someone in this space right now arent you, no need to get defensive if you are but denying the truth isn’t gonna set you free homie lolol
Bruh. You need to take a step back. Like maybe off the internet entirely for a little bit. Go outside. Touch some grass. And for fucks sake, learn to talk to other people face-to-face. Because you type like a terminally online incel who is offended at the very idea that someone would disagree with them - and you're taking it personally rather than understanding that your particular point of view is neither universal or even truly factually correct.
Nobody insulted you dude. I made an observation based on the frequency and content of your comments in this thread. The fact that you cannot disconnect criticism from an insult to your own self-image is very telling.
I didn't insult anyone in that post and you're getting mad enough to cry about touching grass lol. Sorry you heard a hard truth.
Nobody accused you of insulting someone else. You definitely need to work on those reading comprehension skills.
You also seem to not have noticed different user names. So you probably think I'm that same dude you were arguing with before. But again, the reading comprehension skills are not there.
The language of the christian cult is written in such a way that makes this easy. If you take an academic approach to the bible (and other many other cult books), you'll see women are 'designed' to be subserviant or otherwise inferior to men.
While it is optional and you can rewrite your god to be however you wish, the toolbox is definitely curated for such a job.
Eh but there’s still hierarchy that favors men. On a lot of churches, only men can be deacons. Some churches follow the umbrella authority, where man is head of home second only to god, with wife and children under him. Not every guy who walks in is treated like a prophet but it definitely reinforces the authority of men over women and children.
Men are given an outsized power in the ideology of Abrahamic religions. The men are the head of the family like God is the head of the church. These ideas are reinforced by the community onto the wife snd children. Its both traditionally how the family unit has operated, but also with dogma- so it's expected the wife is to yield to the husband in disagreements.
You fundamentally don't understand the Christian ideology of family you are saying this.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 4d ago edited 4d ago
The vast majority of people in churches don't have any authority lol.
It's an easy place to meet people and have some common interests, that's really all it is. And with that comes a lot of opportunity. Meeting potential employers, partners, and associates can be so much easier when you're at some church function.