Blog Spotlight Monday - Commandments of Men

Lewis Wells has created somewhat of a stir on the web with his blog Commandments of Men.  To use his own words, Lewis provides "Editorial and commentary on the dark, hyper-fundamentalist side of the Christian faith, including movements such as Patriarchy, Quiverfull, Courtship - and the dangerous hold those teachings are taking over the Christian Homeschooling movement and industry - Family Integrated Churches, the Religious Right, and more" as stated in his current blog subtitle.  His blog, in such a short time, has been responsible for a good percentage of site traffic on my own blog.

The main catalyst for Wells' blog was a failed relationship he had with a woman.  It failed because of her family's involvement in the relationship - a family that practiced ideals within a movement known as Patriarchy.  He looks at many of the beliefs in this movement and similar other movements, such as the courtship movement.

I'm not a stranger to the ideas of the Patriarchy and courtship movements, and had some terrible experiences when I was single with trying to put Joshua Harris's book "Why I Kissed Dating Goodbye" into practice.  I've been part of churches and circles and have had friends that have had ties with or endorsed some of the views that Wells examines, and have heard stories from friends that were just as wacky and bizarre as Wells describes from his own experience.  What it all boils down to is that many of the beliefs in these movements are simply commandments of men rather than true biblical commands for living.  Hence his blog title.

My favorite quote Wells uses, and shows on his blog, is from CS Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under live robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."  I'm extremely experienced with what can happen when men add their own ideas to God's and promote the product as godly.  What I'll do, instead of taking up the fight in this blog post, is to point you to Lewis Wells' blog Commandments of Men so you can read and decide for yourself.