How Progressives Operate: A Case Study

One of the great disconnects of the liberal progressive mind (I have in mind both political progressives and theological progressives) is the inability to see in itself the evils it abhors in others. No better example is the endless cry for "fairness". Somehow I wonder if this is actually a disconnect or if it is instead a strategy.

I know I've picked on Tony Jones a lot in the past. I've occasionally engaged in the comments section on his blog, but usually found that to be a rather fruitless exercise. At one time, a long time ago, I thought there might be some openness to a more conservative viewpoint there, or at least room for discussion. What I have found instead is a steady pattern of dismissal of most conservative arguments and real discussion only of a range of arguments at varying points left of center. If you are right of center, your views will usually be ignored and when not ignored, characterized in the worst possible light. To avoid being accused of the same, I will provide links and quotes to my comments below.  (more)

Egalitarians, Complementarians, Patriarchalists and Misogynists - Oh My!

I'm not one who thinks that defining the role of women in the church is an "essential" on which the church stands or falls, but boy do folks get bent out of shape over it.  I've been in some pretty conservative churches over the years and I've never felt like this was a huge issue in the overall scope of things, because I never felt the difference between egalitarian and complementarian was all that great.

Recently  Rachel Held Evans called complementarianism patriarchy.  That seemed to me more than a little false.  Count on Tony Jones to up the ante. He referred to Russell Moore and John Piper as misogynists, haters of women. 

The reason for the consternation was apparently a statement by Moore that too many complementarians were living as practical egalitarians, which carried the suggestion to egalitarians that to be consistent, complementarians needed to "push women down" more.  I think Moore spoke poorly, but knowing what most complementarians think about "servant leadership" I tend to think the point is that Moore feels men often exercise no leadership at all, behave in a passive manner that serves no one. I do not think he was "pushing women down" as Tony Jones opined.  (More)