The Galli Report: 08.28.20

Matrilineal evangelicals, Jacob Blake's Christian mom, moral leadership, and baseball wit.

Mothers: The Backbone of Evangelicalism
That at least is the Anthony Bradley’s provocative argument in “American Evangelicalism isn’t patriarchal or feminized. It’s matrilineal.”

Just as women were the glue and the engine that made life function in ancient matrilineal societies, they are most certainly the key to making life happen in America in 2020. Matrilineality explains so much about how evangelical churches brainstorm about their programming and staffing needs. Entire churches are structured to function adjacent to, and to complement, matrilineal social norms. Many matrilineal churches falsely believe themselves to be true complementarian churches. In reality, many churches are simply a complementarian façade living a matrilineal reality. It’s why the “felt needs” in a church often are what they are.

It’s a long read, and there are things to quibble with (as there are an any fine essay). But if you want to understand the inner workings this controversial movement, this is a must read. Bradley paints a fuller and more complicated picture of gender, power, and influence in American evangelicalism.

How to Transcend Division and Violence
The reaction to the outrageous shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been literally explosive—furious denunciations, mob violence, looting, and deathly vigilantism.   One person who whose anger would be justified more than anyone’s takes a different view.  That one person is Jacob’s mothers, Julia Jackson, whose faith is, well, remarkable.  Note this short video, and another starting at 2:20.

Moral Leadership: Who Needs It?
I began my recent talk for the Convention on Founding Principles like this:

We’re not electing a pastor-in-chief.

That was one of the main criticisms of my now infamous December 2019 Christianity Today editorial in which I argued that President Trump is morally unfit for office. “We don’t elect political leaders for their morals,” goes the sentiment, “but for their ability to get things done.”

To many so-called “realists,” anyone who suggests that moral leadership is just as necessary as political skill is considered woefully naïve.

From there I argue that, to the contrary, moral leadership is just as vital as political skill.  The video talk can be found here, and the full transcript here.

Baseball Wit
On the lighter side, let’s look to sports. Or maybe not.  It’s getting harder and harder to understand contemporary professional sports as anything but a very, very serious enterprise, both a big business (really big) and now politically earnest.  There was a time when people remembered that baseball, for example, is a game to be enjoyed, on the field and off.

To look back at Baseball, or George Will's Men at Work (1990), or Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf's Baseball Anecdotes (1989), is to encounter not only men made immortal through athletic prowess but those — the middle relievers, light-hitting infielders, and placeholder managers — who live on thanks to the power of their tongues. Carl Erskine (career ERA 4.00) once said, “I've had pretty good success with Stan [Musial] by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third.” Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan (career record 97-100), famous for surrendering a walk-off home run to Musial in the 1955 All-Star Game, was once asked how he pitched Mickey Mantle: “With tears in my eyes.”

Grace and peace,

Mark Galli
markgalli.com