In Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Du Mez explains the philosophical underpinning of what is modern Christian masculinity. Men need to be strong and violent so that they can protect women from all danger. We need soldiers to protect women and children. We need male leaders in government to be vigilant and strong to protect from unholy influences. We need strong male leaders in church to protect the weak and feeble-minded. We need strong fathers to protect wives and especially daughters from harm.
Bill Gothard used a diagram to explain this:
The idea is that each umbrella is both subordinate to the higher umbrella and under its protection. Thus children enjoy the protection of Christ, Pastors, Fathers and Mothers.
The statement that the Patriarchal system says to women is "we need to be big and strong and manly and you need to trust us as your God-given protectors." This is proclaimed as the fundamental structure for society, and women who walk away from the male-dominated system are opening themselves to evil and a lack of protection.
Jim Duggar is a known follower of Bill Gothard and a poster-child for adherence to the patriarchal system. His wife and daughters were taught that he would protect them and fight for justice from anyone who would treat them unjustly.
Jim's son Josh Duggar is on trial for possession of child pornography. In a pre-trial hearing, defense attorneys were trying to throw out testimony about his history of child molestation, saying it was irrelevant. Duggar family friend Bobye Holt testified that Josh had confessed to molesting at least four girls. Link
Trial Patriarchal hypocrisy #1 - women are pastors. The defense attorneys argued that Josh's confession to Bobye (a woman) was a confession to a "religious figure". In Patriarchal systems, women have no religious authority, and thus his confession to her would not in any way be considered "clergy privilege" by their religious system. So it is hypocritical for Josh Duggar to support a false premise that he confessed to her as a pastor. The judge easily saw through the lies and ruled she could testify.
Trial Patriarchal flaw #2 - lies and lapses to protect fellow patriarchs. *IF* patriarchy is a system where innocent girls can trust their fathers to provide justice for them, how does Jim Duggar's testimony demonstrate this? It doesn't. He "couldn't remember" specifics about what was confessed to him, and he was angry when the police report documenting their investigation was shown in court. Jim was under oath and even more pertinent was a Patriarchal authority with the responsibility to protect his daughters and provide justice for them. "The Court found Mr. Duggar's selective lapse in memory to be not credible; he was obviously reluctant to testify against his son," [Judge] Brooks wrote. The patriarchal system is for the protection of the patriarchs. Jim went on the stand to protect his molesting, adulterous, child porn viewing son, while simultaneously minimizing the wrong done to his own daughters. The rumors are that Jim is using financial abuse to control the narrative and scare/shame the Duggar daughters/daughters-in-law from testifying against Josh. Source
Patriarchal flaw #3 - silencing the victims they are supposed to protect. This leads to a new understanding of the coverup. Jim minimized what Josh had done to his sisters (#2). Bobye Holt's testimony was that Josh confessed far worse molestation at 15 years old than "touching girls breasts through covers while they were asleep" - as Jim claimed. Instead he was touching them while awake, under their clothes. That means that Jim was first lying about what happened, and then he was using his patriarchal authority to silence the victims. They knew what happened, but the protection of the Duggar Patriarchy and patriarch Jim's image was more important than protecting the girls. Understand that? The system that says "daughters, trust us to protect you and bring you justice" was the system that shamed those girls into silence to protect the patriarchs. Patriarchy is just baptized rape culture. Society does enough shaming of victims of molestation and abuse, but here is a system where fathers have to shame their own daughters to pretend that they are holy (and try to keep the TV money coming in, of course).
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