Women are Jezebels: Doug Philips P/3

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on Doug Philips, founder of Vision Forum. This time sharing from the experiences of Jen Epstein who was excommunicated from his previous church Boerne Christian Assembly by Doug Philips.

Jen and her husband Mark began to attend Boerne Christian Assembly in 2000. She very quickly learned that women are to be silent in the church.  When she asked Doug for help with her marital problems, he gave her a list of requirements. Some of it was as follows:

Jennifer may not:

Ever question, contradict, criticize, correct or end-run any communication or decision by Mark to Mark or to anyone else.

The above guideline shows that Doug Philips preached that men are in charge and as such, wives are never to question them.

Jen's marriage problems continued and Doug simply had this to say,
 "Mark is an angry man, and that is wicked; but you, Jen, are very wicked, you are rebellious, and you are a Jezebel."

This was later followed up by an email when Doug Philips accused Jen of being: unsubmissive, disrespectful and unloving.

Jen was eventually disciplined in front of the congregation for the following:

Unconfessed sin
Lack of repentance
Bitterness
Lack of Love
Rebellion against authority
A rebellious and unsubmissive attitude and response to the authority of her husband
A rebellious and unsubmissive attitude and response to the authority of the local church

She was soon after excommunicated from Boerne Christian Assembly

Jen ends her story with the following explanation about patriarchy.

Patriarchy is build on a performance-based platform. Patriarchy's platform is performance and perfection. "If you do this, it's a sin." If you don't do this, it's a sin." "If you behave in this way, God will be pleased." "If you follow this rule or that rule, you will be blessed."
Doug and others like him, have attempted to live life by the letter of the Law rather than the Spirit. Whenever we focus on outward rules and restrictions, we will certainly doom ourselves for doing the opposite of what we are trying to do. And the harder we try, the more we fail.

 

 Read Part Four HERE