According to a new report from ThinkProgress, the Republican Party’s candidate for Alabama’s open Senate seat co-authored a government text that argued against women running for office. The book, produced by Vision Forum Ministries, also argued that Christians had a “moral obligation” to not vote for female candidates:
The curriculum was a product of Vision Forum, a now-defunct Texas-based evangelical organization headed by Doug Phillips, which taught “Biblical patriarchy”, a theology that prescribes strict, unequal gender roles for men and women. According a statement on the Vision Forum’s website, “Egalitarian feminism is a false ideology that has bred false doctrine in the church and seduced many believers.”
Before it closed in 2013 over accusations of sexually predatory behavior by president Doug Phillips, Vision Forum promoted doctrines to the right of the average evangelical. It nevertheless occupied a position of prominence in the Christian homeschooling community, whose members relied on the group’s curriculum and learning aides. The extremity of the group’s positions—it held that women should not preach, run for office, work outside the home, or even vote—didn’t cost it any business.
In addition to the traditional tenets of conservative Christianity (abortion is murder, gay sex is an abomination, premarital sex is a sin) it also promoted the concept of courtship, which is a half-step removed from arranged marriage. According to Vision Forum, Christians should marry early, to partners approved by their parents, and produce as many children as God sends them. At Slate, Ruth Graham provides more details:
Phillips promoted the concept of “stay-at-home daughters,” in which girls live at home until they marry, often forgoing formal education and focusing on homemaking skills. Independence is essentially a flaw in a Christian wife, who, Phillips taught, should be willing to call her husband “Lord.”
Moore’s alleged preference for teen girls wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows at Vision Forum, and neither would his views about the role of women in society.