Retrograde Biblical Interpretations of Womanhood and Parenting Are Still Here

Paging through old evangelical texts reveals culture wars and religious battles we’re still fighting

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks reading through a variety of books that once carried great influence within evangelical Christian households and for some, still do. These books insisted the godly path in parenting meant a particular type of discipline: corporal punishment with a switch or a belt (per James Dobson’s The Strong-Willed Child). Women were warned to dress modestly with specific haircut recommendations according to face shape. Women were also tasked with protecting men from sexual temptation by wearing scarves and short jewelry to keep men’s eyes up at their faces — no long strings of beads or dangling earrings that create “eye traps” below the neckline (see Bill Gothard’s Advanced Seminar Textbook).

Somehow, abiding by such rules became a measure of commitment to faith, coded as biblical.

Last week, I tweeted a snapshot taken from Gothard’s Men’s Manual, Volume 2, a 1983 text used in “Financial Freedom” seminars. One aspect of such freedom for men, it seems, was that women ought not work outside the home. Otherwise, wives would become unfulfilled; motherhood and being a “help meet”…