There's always been Quakerish threads of the American church and of Protestantism historically, going back to the radical Anabaptists post-Reformation. Any thread that emphasizes vibes or the inner light over doctrine falls into this category. It's not a coincidence that these threads are all dominated by women in practice, even when men…
There's always been Quakerish threads of the American church and of Protestantism historically, going back to the radical Anabaptists post-Reformation. Any thread that emphasizes vibes or the inner light over doctrine falls into this category. It's not a coincidence that these threads are all dominated by women in practice, even when men hold the titles of power and a particularly charismatic man leads the movement. Women excel at navigating social chaos and manipulating men to do their bidding, and the lack of process surrounding actions as drastic as getting read out of meeting lends itself very well to that power. There's similarities in all the various enthusiastic, emotional offshoots -- all the Great Awakenings, Methodism, Pentecostalism, and much of YRR and modern nondenominational evangelicalism. (E: A fantastic case study on this is the Oneida cult, formed in upstate New York during the Second Great Awakening.)
John Adams, the Founding Father, wrote in his autobiography about John Dickinson, the Quaker delegate from Delaware. Even though Dickinson held the title of delegate and was obviously well-respected in his community and his colony/state, Adams noted that he was longhoused by his Quaker wife and his mother into resisting the Revolution because they were terrified at its prospect of destroying his fortune. (https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-01-03-02-0016-0024#sn=36)
Anthony Bradley wrote a great article on Mere Orthodoxy a few years back describing a similar state of affairs in modern evangelicalism. Even though men hold the titles, every effort of the church is spent providing comfort and validation for women rather than actually getting things done, to the detriment of everyone -- women themselves included. (https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelicals-matrilineal)
There's always been Quakerish threads of the American church and of Protestantism historically, going back to the radical Anabaptists post-Reformation. Any thread that emphasizes vibes or the inner light over doctrine falls into this category. It's not a coincidence that these threads are all dominated by women in practice, even when men hold the titles of power and a particularly charismatic man leads the movement. Women excel at navigating social chaos and manipulating men to do their bidding, and the lack of process surrounding actions as drastic as getting read out of meeting lends itself very well to that power. There's similarities in all the various enthusiastic, emotional offshoots -- all the Great Awakenings, Methodism, Pentecostalism, and much of YRR and modern nondenominational evangelicalism. (E: A fantastic case study on this is the Oneida cult, formed in upstate New York during the Second Great Awakening.)
John Adams, the Founding Father, wrote in his autobiography about John Dickinson, the Quaker delegate from Delaware. Even though Dickinson held the title of delegate and was obviously well-respected in his community and his colony/state, Adams noted that he was longhoused by his Quaker wife and his mother into resisting the Revolution because they were terrified at its prospect of destroying his fortune. (https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-01-03-02-0016-0024#sn=36)
Anthony Bradley wrote a great article on Mere Orthodoxy a few years back describing a similar state of affairs in modern evangelicalism. Even though men hold the titles, every effort of the church is spent providing comfort and validation for women rather than actually getting things done, to the detriment of everyone -- women themselves included. (https://mereorthodoxy.com/evangelicals-matrilineal)