From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have viewed marriage as a divinely blessed, lifelong, monogamous union between a man and a woman. However, while many Christians might agree with the traditional definition, the terminology and theological views of marriage have varied through time in different countries, and among Christian denominations.
William W. Gothard Jr. is an American Christian minister, speaker, and writer, and the founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), an ultra-conservative Christian organization. His conservative teachings encourage Bible memorization, large families, homeschooling, aversion to debt, male superiority and female obedience, and conservative dress.
John Howard Yoder was an American Mennonite theologian and ethicist best known for his defense of Christian pacifism. His most influential book was The Politics of Jesus, which was first published in 1972. Yoder was a Mennonite and wrote from an Anabaptist perspective. He spent the latter part of his career teaching at the University of Notre Dame.
Jonathan David Sarfati is a young Earth creationist who writes articles for Creation Ministries International (CMI), a non-profit Christian apologetics ministry. Sarfati has a PhD in chemistry, and was New Zealand national chess champion in 1987 and 1988.
The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) is a nondenominational Christian fundamentalist organization that serves as an umbrella organization for several ministries established by American Christian minister Bill Gothard in 1961. The stated purpose of the organization is to provide instruction on how to find success in life by following biblical principles. This involves programs that include seminars for ministry, community outreach, troubled youth mentoring, and an international ministry. The IBLP has been described as a cult.
Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) is an organization that promotes Christian egalitarianism and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. CBE's Mission Statement reads: "CBE exists to promote biblical justice and community by educating Christians that the Bible calls women and men to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, church, and world." According to its website, CBE "is a nonprofit organization of Christian men and women who believe that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of men and women of all ethnic groups, all economic classes, and all age groups, based on the teachings of Scriptures such as Galatians 3:28: 'There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus' ."
American Vision is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Steve Schiffman. It operates as a Christian ministry, and calls for "equipping and empowering Christians to restore America’s biblical foundation." The organization promotes Christian reconstructionism and postmillennialism, and opposes dispensationalism. Gary DeMar was the organization's president from 1986 to 2015. From 2015 to March 2019 Joel McDurmon was president, during which time DeMar was Senior Fellow. Gary DeMar returned as president in March 2019 when McDurmon resigned.
Quiverfull is a Christian theological position that sees large families as a blessing from God. It encourages procreation, abstaining from all forms of birth control, natural family planning, and sterilization. The movement derives its name from Psalm 127:3–5, where many children are metaphorically referred to as the arrows in a full quiver.
Wanda Elizabeth "Beth" Moore is an American Anglican evangelist, author, and Bible teacher. She is president of Living Proof Ministries, a Christian organization she founded in 1994 to teach women to know and love Jesus through the study of Scripture. Living Proof Ministries is based in Houston, Texas. Moore, who is "arguably the most prominent white evangelical woman in America," speaks at arena events and has sold millions of books.
Complementarianism is a theological view in some denominations of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Complementary and its cognates are currently used to denote this view. Some Christians interpret the Bible as prescribing complementarianism, and therefore adhere to gender-specific roles that preclude women from specific functions of ministry within the community. Though women may be precluded from certain roles and ministries, they are held to be equal in moral value and of equal status. The phrase used to describe this is "ontologically equal, functionally different".
The Living Word Fellowship is a Christian cult that at various times was located in the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.
Christian egalitarianism, also known as biblical equality. Christian egalitarians believe that the Bible advocates for gender equality and often allows women to be apart of the clergy. In contrast to other views such as complementarianisim and Christian patriarchy Egalitarians believe in a form of mutual submission in which all people submit to each other in relationships and institutions as a code of conduct without a need for hierarchical authority.
The roles of women in Christianity have varied since its founding. Women have played important roles in Christianity especially in marriage and in formal ministry positions within certain Christian denominations, and parachurch organizations. In 2016, it was estimated that 52–53 percent of the world's Christian population aged 20 years and over was female, with this figure falling to 51.6 percent in 2020. The Pew Research Center studied the effects of gender on religiosity throughout the world, finding that Christian women in 53 countries are generally more religious than Christian men, while Christians of both genders in African countries are equally likely to regularly attend services.
Christianity and domestic violence deals with the debate in Christian communities about the recognition and response to domestic violence, which is complicated by a culture of silence and acceptance among abuse victims. There are some Bible verses that abusers use to justify discipline of their wives.
San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) was a film festival located in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded and organized by Doug Phillips. The Best of Festival or Jubilee Award carried a $101,000 cash prize. The festival was closed in December 2013 due to Vision Forum Ministries shutting down.
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. The term patriarchy is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in feminist theory to describe a broader social structure in which men as a group dominate women and children.
Biblical patriarchy, also known as Christian patriarchy, is a set of beliefs in Evangelical Protestant Christianity concerning gender relations and their manifestations in institutions, including marriage, the family, and the home. It sees the father as the head of the home, responsible for the conduct of his family. Notable people associated with biblical patriarchy include Douglas Wilson, R. C. Sproul, Jr., Voddie Baucham, the Duggar family, and Douglas Phillips.
In Christianity, a family integrated church is one in which parents and children ordinarily attend church services together; during the service of worship, children and youth stay all through church services and do not attend children's and youth ministries during this time. Other terms used are family discipleship churches, family-centered ministry and inclusive-congregational ministry.
Douglas Winston Phillips is a Christian author, speaker, attorney, and homeschooling advocate who was once president of the now-defunct Vision Forum Ministries until he resigned due to an inappropriate relationship and allegations of sexual abuse. He advocates biblical patriarchy, creationism, homeschooling, the Quiverfull movement, and the family integrated church. He also worked for six years as a lawyer for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).
The stay-at-home daughter (SAHD) movement is a subset of the biblical patriarchy and biblical womanhood movements, particularly within the United States and New Zealand. Adherents believe that "daughters should never leave the covering of their fathers until and unless they are married." This means preparing to be a wife and mother, eschewing education outside the home and a career, and according to Sarah Stankorb writing for Marie Claire, "complete subservience to their father". For most stay-at-home daughters it involves a focus on the "domestic arts" such as cooking, cleaning and sewing. Julie Ingersoll suggests that the purpose of stay-at-home daughters is to "learn to assist their future husbands as helpmeets in their exercise of dominion by practicing that role in their relationship with their father."
