Egalitarianism and Hyper-patriarchy

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Egalitarianism and hyper-patriarchy are two sides of the same coin. Both aim at breaking down biblical concentrations of authority and redistributing power under a false premise.

Scripture is clear: the only absolute authority is God. All other authority is delegated. God assigns limited authority to institutions (e.g., the family, the church, the civil magistrate, etc) for specific purposes. Because authority is delegated, it is always bounded. And because it is bounded, it is always tied to responsibility.

That means no human being lives under a single, total earthly authority. Every person stands in multiple relationships at once. A man may be a husband in his home, a member under elders in his church, an employee under a supervisor at work, and a citizen under civil rulers. In some relationships he is superior, in others inferior, and in many an equal. This layered, interlocking hierarchy distributes authority across society and creates natural checks and balances. No one office swallows the others.

Egalitarianism claims to be about equality, but in practice it is about abolishing rank altogether. By flattening distinctions, it collapses authority into the autonomous individual. The individual becomes the final arbiter, answerable to no higher structure she did not personally authorize.

Hyper-patriarchy claims to be about order, but it commits the opposite error. It concentrates authority absolutely in the husband and father, effectively subordinating church and state to him. Other institutions may only exercise their God-given authority over his household through his permission and mediation.

Both systems flatten reality. One does it by dissolving authority into the self; the other by consolidating authority into a single man. And both reveal the same refusal: an unwillingness to submit to multiple, limited, God-ordained authorities at the same time.

Painting Source.