Women Warriors: The Negotiation of Gender in a Charismatic Community

Abstract

The historical interplay between women's roles and religious traditions has been a rich and controversial one. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Bible has been used to justify and legitimize the submission of women and the authority of men. This paper examines the theological views of the New Christian Right on the family, and the roles and relationships as lived out by a group of men and women. Data are drawn from a two-year ethnographic study of an independent, charismatic fellowship in upstate New York. While findings indicate that the hierarchical ordering of relationships within the family is part of their explicit ideology, in practice power relations are not so clearly delineated. Indeed, many decisions are discussed and jointly made; moreover, influence is wielded in different ways by men and women. The women, a number of whom had been part of the countercultural movement of the 1960s, talked about willingly relinquishing some of their power and position in order for their men to rise to their God-appointed positions of leadership. While they assumed the traditional female role for themselves, however they rejected the traditional male role for their husbands. Men could no longer be just the primary breadwinner and protector of the family; they must also be actively and intimately involved in family life and childcare. The submission of women to men finds expression in many forms throughout American history. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Bible has often been used to justify and legitimize the submission of women and the authority of men. This paper examines the theological views of the New Christian Right on the family, and the roles and relationships of contemporary evangelicals. Specifically, it examines how men and women in an independent charismatic fellowship negotiate gender roles and expectations while constantly invoking a religious rhetoric that supports patriarchal authority. The paper addresses the kinds of contradictions that these charismatic men and women face, and the ways in which they cope with the dissonance between expectations and experiences. As Anyon (1983) points out, women rarely have completely or unconditionally accepted the patriarchal ideology of femininity that commands total submission of the wife to the husband. While women may be successfully socialized into behaving in appropriate 1. The community I am reporting on is an independent charismatic fellowship. However, drawing from Quebedeaux's (1978; 1974) definition, I often use the term evangelical more broadly to include fundamentalists, charismatics, and neo-evangelicals.