Divine Patriarchy

The Divine Right of Patriarchy:

For thousands of years, rulers have claimed for themselves the divine right of kingship.
Wikipedia defines it thus:

“The Divine Right of Kings is a political and religious doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm, including the church. The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute heresy.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings)

You may be familiar with the fact that the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs claimed to be the human form of the Sun God Ra, on earth. They were, then, not only worshipped by the people they ruled, but all their decisions were automatically what was best for (and in the best interest of) the people and the land of Egypt. The priests, as guardians of religion and all religious matters, worshipped the Pharaoh and previous pharaohs who were now united with their brothers in heaven.
This tradition continued through the ages, in the Sumerian and Assyrian kingdoms, all the way to the kings of France and England.

Replace the word “king” and “monarch” with father, and there you have the tenants of Patriarchy. A Patriarchal father, no matter what personal faults or weaknesses he may have, has a divine right to rule as he sees fit. Whatever mistakes or oversights might come from this scenario are the will of God as well, and the faithful under him will be protected by obedience and service. The ones who expatriate themselves are seen as heretics, ungrateful, undutiful to the will of both their god and their god’s servant, the father.

I believe that the reason this doctrine held sway for so long was (first) the willingness of the clergy to live easy (ie, be given food, houses, land, bribes, etc) for supporting the Kings in their deception. True, some probably believed the King was divine, but they were surely a rarity. Second, large masses of illiterate and uneducated people could by no means think logically, and were probably not in a position to see the faults of their ruler or be able to spread dissent easily. The invention of the printing press, and the progress in literacy helped many people unmask their king as a human being just like them, as well as spreading the winds of freedom, individual rights, and democracy to others.


Much like the self-centered and proud rulers of centuries, many patriarchal fathers have left their role as shepherds to become kings over the kingdom of their families. All decisions and issues must come through them for review. Dissent and disagreement are immediately labeled as rebellion (remember, as the sin of witchcraft! Burning at the stake!) and equated with dissent against God. Many times unhappy subjects are told to pray that God will change the heart or circumstances of whatever they don’t want or agree with.

The power of lies are in their secrecy. If ever someone thinks: “I am the only person on the face of this earth who feels this way…”, they will never speak up, they will never rebel. They will convince themselves that they are a misfit and strive to fit in and live as best they can with the situation.

Perhaps the only ways of breaking down the system is (a) breakdown in the status of those who are profiting from the system, or (b) publishing the truth, and educating people as to the true matter of things.