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I forgot that #TheVulcan & I have an actual date tonight. <3 I don't remember the last one we had. :) I *am*, however, determined to share a couple of insights I gleaned from reading #MarriageUnderFire by James Dobson. #ExvieArchive #Exvangelical
Before we go into what Dobson writes, I want to give some historical context:

in 2004 and before, most households did not have reliable internet access. Therefore, when someone wrote an actual book, or said something on TV, society in general had *no easy way* of verifying it.
Meaning, people in general didn't think book authors were lying.
"There's footnotes! Sources! Historical references!"
Yes, but they're basically hyper-partisan chaff.
For example, in this chapter, he'll frequently cite "George Gilder" as a "brilliant sociologist & author," BUT
Gilder was actually a "wealthy economist..." who "established himself as a critic of feminism & government welfare policies."
You can read more about him on wikipedia, but it's one of MANY examples of #ChristianAltFacts.
One of Evangelicalism's saddest legacies: no one in the church ever went to the dadgum library to cross-check end-notes in the latest Lifeway Best-Seller About How To Live Your Life™.
So, before our date, there are two things I want to address:
1) Dobson's initial claims about marriage and societal institutions
2) The single most BLATANT example I've found in #ExvieArchives of how Evangelicals view a woman's labor.
Let's hit it:
Page 1:
So, God Himself formed the family before the "two other great institutions," church & government.

Holy. Crap.

Did he just imply that the church and the government were equal?
I know and you know that he didn't state that outright, but in this context, it SURE sounds like it.
Page 2: (I promise I won't go through the whole book this way, but my sitter just got here, and I want to finish before I lose my train of thought!)
When he emphasized that marriage has been the "bedrock" of modern cultures "even in Antarctica!" it jogged my memory:
One late night on Reddit, I stumbled upon a story of a class whose professor had just gotten back from Antarctica--and told some wild stories.
My internet search history is FOREVER tainted w/ terms like, "Antarctica Professor Sex Party", God help me, but a few stories tell the *exact opposite* of the society Dobson is describing: motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…

and: abroadabroad.com/2016/06/28/lif…

Moving on:
The truth is, Dobson provides ZERO historical evidence for marriage being the foundation that any society is built on. The Antarctica example may make us chuckle, but "marriage is the building block of society" is simply taken for granted as *true* in this text, w/ no qualifier.
Pages 10 & 11:
"When a wife believes in her husband, & deeply respects him, he gains the confidence..to compete successfully & live responsibly."
Yes, my friends, women were the first life coaches.
"She gives him a reason to harness his masculine energy--to build a home, obtain & keep a job, help her raise their children, remain sober, live within the law, spend money wisely, etc."

So chics, if your husband ISN'T doing this, you're just not inspiring him enough.
"Without POSITIVE FEMININE INFLUENCE, his tendency is to release the power of testosterone in a way that's destructive to himself and to society at large."
Holy. Fuck.
This is the worst blame-shifting I've ever seen.
But don't worry class: IT GETS WORSE!
You're about to see a terrible example of RACIAL CODING!
"We see Gilder's insight played out in the inner city."

Here we go:
"Our welfare system, in the aftermath of the Great Society Programs, rendered millions of men superfluous."
He names: Food stamps
Social workers
Free maintenence in HUD housing
Then adds: "...men became unnecessary beyond the act of impregnantion. Who needed em?"
...maybe you should follow your own conservative ideals, James Freaking Dobson, and ADAPT TO THE MARKET?
But no, he's too into blame-shifting for that. "Men were separated from their historic role as providers and protectors, which stripped them of masculine dignity, & robbed them of meaning & purpose. Thus, as GILDER said, their energy became a destructive force instead of powerful
...growth and personal development."
Seeing Gilder made me chuckle, because all I could think was,
So, what James Dobson's book on the Gay Agenda™ has done in under 10 pages is:
1) Give false evidence on the standing of marriage in society
2) Present an argument by a supply-side economist that WOMEN should be providing free emotional labor for Men's Growth™
3) Threaten white women that, if they don't buy into this, they'll become like Those Black Women On Welfare™.

Did YOU know James Dobson was actually promoting White Supremacy & Supply-Side Economics w/ his Anti-Gay agenda?
Yeah, me neither.
So, I'm out of here now, but I've NEVER, in over 25 years of following Christ, seen such a blatant example of shaming women into providing free labor to men. :( THIS is their real argument!
"Don't leave the kitchen, or we'll have to pay for help!"
I'm starting to think there never was a Gay Agenda™ other than equal rights: rather there was a Straight Agenda™ to keep women from realizing that men actually could grow up. :(
And with that, I'm done for the first part of this read-through.
Background info:
I'm a reseller on Ebay & Amazon, & I regularly come across Evangelical books in thrift stores. I BUY EVERY ONE OF THEM, because I don't want anyone else being influenced by them. They're usually 50 cents to three dollars. I then live-tweet some of the contents for #ExvieArchives.
If you'd like to contribute to this financially, I'D LOVE IT. Even a dollar buys 1-2 books. :D
$5 buys a nice dairy-free coffee drink on date night. :D
Thank you, #Exvangelical friends!
@exvie @sparkle_heretic @C_Stroop, @NateSparks130 @Dandroid16 And anyone else I can't think of after midnight: would love your thoughts.
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