Water Dog wrote:The whole point of the priesthood is that it creates a false sense of power and purpose. It's a motivational tool... to control the men.
Pretty much spot on. You give powerless men the illusion of power to control them and extract resources out of them. The men who run the Church and benefit from this arrangement have de-balled the very men who think they have some sort of magical power over others. The men believe they're truly something special while being complete and utter pussies. The women get a dude, generally speaking, who is willing to work the plantation. What does she care if he's a Grand Mason of the Moose Lodge? She has her kids, her house, gets to do the mom thing, and the dude is locked into a subservience to her and the Church, which ensure he bows his head and say 'yes' to the arrangement.
If he steps out of line he gets divorce raped, pays child support, she's the victim, and the community ostracizes him because he didn't live up to all the false promises the Church makes to him.
A lot of dudes flip their crap because of the pressure of living up to some Perfect Man image and become abusive assholes. Some men assimilate to the arrangement nicely. I'd say most men don't really care for it, but they don't think there are any good alternatives.
- Doc