{"id":8428,"date":"2012-07-18T23:50:06","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T03:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=8428"},"modified":"2012-07-18T23:50:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T03:50:06","slug":"conservatives-liberals-and-the-50-shades-of-grey-between-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/07\/conservatives-liberals-and-the-50-shades-of-grey-between-them.html","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives, Liberals, and the 50 Shades of Grey Between Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>\"\"A substantial part of the Christian blogosphere<\/a> has been distracted from further discussion of Ross Douthat\u2019s piece on Liberal Christianity<\/a>, by a conservative Christian blog post<\/a> about the novel Fifty Shades of Grey<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. I have not read the novel, but from reading the blog post in question, the reactions<\/a> to it, and the follow-up from the Gospel Coalition\u2019s Jared Wilson<\/a>, we see clearly that the well-being of conservative to fundamentalist forms of Christianity is not at all a given.<\/p>\n

Let me begin by addressing the seeming cluelessness of the fundamentalists who wrote the original post and follow-up by sharing a wonderful parable about the nature of\u00a0privilege<\/em><\/a> which was drawn to my attention recently.<\/p>\n

Next, let me mention Rachel Held Evans\u2019 articulate response<\/a> which not only pinpoints the key issues but also encourages positive things to do to address the underlying issues. She writes, \u201cAccording to this post, sex is just another avenue through which a man must exert his authority over woman.\u201d Rachel also usefully recommends that the folks at The Gospel Coalition read the Song of Songs.<\/p>\n

Now on to\u00a0Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter, who relates the TGC\u2019s view of women to the issues of slavery and racism<\/a>. And it is not just a comparison \u2013 as Fred Clark points out, Doug Wilson (the quote from whom sparked the most discussion) is not just a mysogynist but also a racist and a defender of slavery \u2013 literally<\/a>! And so right here we get at the heart of the issue. The reason large numbers of conservatives are on the wrong side of history in our time is the same one that put so many on the wrong side over slavery and any number of other past issues. They keep adopting the same approach, seemingly unaware that if their approach keeps producing results that later generations will need to apologize for, there is something fundamentally flawed with it.<\/p>\n

Matthew Paul Turner addresses the Gospel Coalition piece head on<\/a>. Here is a sample:<\/p>\n

I find Douglas Wilson\u2019s thoughts about \u201cbiblical marriage\u201d to be vile, manipulative, and downright dangerous. There\u2019s so garbage in those four paragraphs that I have hard time believing that Jared believes them to be helpful on any level to any conversation, let alone one about crappy-written fantasy fiction. Sorry Jared. Any time words like power and control and authority and conquers and made-up terms like \u201ctrue submission\u201d are used in describing the relationship between a husband and wife, you\u2019re not describing God\u2019s ideal. You\u2019re pretty much describing a gateway scenario to emotional, physical, spiritual, sexual, and\/or mental abuse inside the confines of a marriage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eric Reitan is made nauseous by the Gospel Coalition piece. He writes<\/a>, among other things, \u201cThe message treats gender egalitarianism as the problem and gender hierarchy as the solution, but it seems clear that the reverse is far more likely to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Kirk writes<\/a>, \u201cI am embarrassed for Christianity that such an advocacy of rape (marital or otherwise) could find itself onto a websites that boasts of being one of a \u201cGospel\u201d coalition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Bird emphasizes that the stance in the Gospel Coalition post is not one of complementarianism but extreme patriarchy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brian LePort writes<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t lose sleep that groups like The Gospel Coalition exist. I am sad that they are trying so hard to monopolize the word \u201cGospel.\u201d Don\u2019t they know misogyny is available? It is far more fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Neufeld finds the quote on the Gospel Coalition blog so outlandish that, if one didn\u2019t know it was genuine, one might suspect it was parody or a straw man<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BLT offers a review of\u00a050 Shades of Grey<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joel Watts comes right out and accuses them of identifying sex with rape<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morgan Guyton only has one question for Jared Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chris Tilling manages to connect this discussion with mythicism<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Shifting gears, let\u2019s see what those who\u2019ve found time to focus directly on the Ross Douthat piece and the discussion it generated have to say:<\/p>\n

Fred Clark writes about Douthat\u2019s \u201cconcern trolling,\u201d<\/a> interacting with many other blog posts and articles in the process.<\/p>\n

The Lead shares several defenders of the (liberal) faith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jill Gill suggests that booming conversations and counter-culture can emerge from the current focus on liberal Christianity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christian Piatt asks whether Christianity\u00a0as we know it<\/em> should survive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Fitzgerald says that his liberal church is not dying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Knight asks what the tenets of progressive Christianity are<\/a>. She took inspiration from a post on another blog\u2026which mentioned 50 Shades of Grey<\/em><\/a>!<\/p>\n

The Episcopal Church<\/a>\u00a0on the one hand, and Chick-Fil-A<\/a> and the Boy Scouts<\/a> on the other, view gays, lesbians, and same-sex relationships<\/a>\u00a0in very different ways.<\/p>\n

Mark Sandlin wrote about reclaiming the term Christian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let me give the final space to an amusing bit of internet humor to which Hemant Mehta linked<\/a>. \u00a0Crispian Jago offers two images, both depicting software that translates from liberalese into conservativese or vice versa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A substantial part of the Christian blogosphere has been distracted from further discussion of Ross Douthat\u2019s piece on Liberal Christianity, by a conservative Christian blog post about the novel Fifty Shades of Grey. I have not read the novel, but from reading the blog post in question, the reactions to it, and the follow-up from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,139,163],"tags":[251,1835,2148,2829,2978,3136,3676,4091,6527,7265,7518,8235,8799,9342,9345,10581,12010,13825],"class_list":["post-8428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-religion","category-fundamentalism-religion","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-50-shades-of-grey","tag-christian","tag-conservative","tag-douglas-wilson","tag-egalitarianism","tag-erotica","tag-fundamentalist","tag-gospel-coalition","tag-liberal","tag-men","tag-misogyny","tag-novel","tag-patriarchy","tag-porn","tag-pornography","tag-ross-douthat","tag-submission","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nConservatives, Liberals, and the 50 Shades of Grey Between Them<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A substantial part of the Christian blogosphere has been distracted from further discussion of Ross Douthat's piece on Liberal Christianity, by a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/07\/conservatives-liberals-and-the-50-shades-of-grey-between-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conservatives, Liberals, and the 50 Shades of Grey Between Them\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A substantial part of the Christian blogosphere has been distracted from further discussion of Ross Douthat's piece on Liberal Christianity, by a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/07\/conservatives-liberals-and-the-50-shades-of-grey-between-them.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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