Church pastors, leaders, and counselors are cohorts in the church-endorsed feminist conspiracy against male authority.

Readership: All; Men; Christians;
Theme: Cracking Nuts
Length: 1,400 words
Reading Time: 7 minutes

Intro

Surfdumb has mentioned the term “Reviling Wives”.

I did a little study on this topic.

It appears that “reviling wife” is now the preferred term that is acceptable church talk about what long-time RP readers are used to calling contentious / rebellious wives, as well as literally dozens of other more memorable (and less polite) synonyms.

I did a search for this term and found some works.

  • Edgington, David D. The Abusive Wife – Ministering to the Contentious Woman. CreateSpace Independent Publishing: Phoenix, 2015. [Commentary]
  • Edgington, David D. White Knights and Reviling Wives. New Christendom Press, 2025.
  • Conrad Riker, The Reviling Wife: A Man’s Guide to Understanding and Dealing with a Disrespectful Partner. Amazon Digital Services LLC, 2025. [Link]

Surfdumb clarified that he is referring to Edgington’s work.

Since Dr. Edgington wrote “The Abusive Wife” in 2015, he has come to the conclusion that the term “abusive” isn’t the best word to describe contentious wives’ words. A more accurate and biblical term is “reviling”, which is “Using speech as a non-contact weapon against another person.”

Edgington on the Unholy Communion between White Knights and Reviling Wives

DeepStrength shared the following video from Dr. David Edgington, which describes how Reviling Wives and their Churchian minions, including pastors of all people, are destroying families and churches.

Effective Purpose: The Christian White Knight Situation Is So Much Worse Than I Realized — Dr. David Edgington (2026/3/14) Length: 56 minutes

The participants in this conversation include:

  1. Matt hosts the Effective Purpose channel, which focuses on Christian men’s issues, marriage, and offers critiques of churches from a Biblical Headship / Red Pill perspective.
  2. Dr. David Edgington, the primary speaker, is a biblical counselor, author of books including The Abusive Wife and White Knights and Reviling Wives, and founder of compassionatecounselors.com. He draws his expertise from counseling over 500 similar cases.

The main theme of their conversation exposes the “Christian White Knight” phenomenon, in which pastors, leaders, and church culture rush to defend women (especially wives) from any perceived criticism and shield them from any accountability for their actions, often at the expense of biblical marriage principles, husbands, and family stability. This bias, influenced by feminism and emotionalism, treats women’s feelings as sovereign, enables abusive / reviling behavior from wives, and crushes men through one-sided counseling, divorce proceedings, and church discipline.

Edgington’s views align with current Christian Red Pill critiques of modern evangelical marriage counseling.

This video has garnered over 20,000 views and has received many positive comments from men sharing similar experiences.

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Edgington’s Key Points

Below, I’ll document the key points of their discussion.

  1. (0:00–6:00) White Knighting
    • Dr. Edgington defines the “White Knight” as pastors / leaders who automatically rush to the defense of any woman who claims that she’s being “abused” by her husband.
    • He says wives who make such claims are not only misleading, they’re often lying. THEY are the ones who are abusing their husbands!
    • Pastors shield women from rebuke, viewing male correction as inherently cruel.
    • Pastors often meet wives privately, accept one-sided stories without due diligence, and condemn husbands based on the wife’s feelings alone.
    • This creates a mass epidemic in the church, where men are blamed for “bitterness” and “harshness”.
  2. (6:00–10:00) The Church is Subsumed by Feminist Culture
    • The invasion of Feminism has infiltrated every denomination of the church.
    • Scripture repeatedly interprets that the wife is to submit to her husband “in everything” to her husband. The church refuses to affirm this command to wives.
    • Older wives should be training younger wives, so that the Word is not blasphemed.
    • Sanctification and growing in holiness is the goal, which requires discipline.
  3. (10:00-16:00)  Men’s Influence is Necessary, but ultimately Superficial
    • House Codes of Headship: Ephesians 5:22-33, Colossians 3:18, Titus 2:3-5, and 1 Peter 3:1-6 begin with wives submitting “in everything” to husbands — not the reverse.
      • Wifely submission applies even in the case of disobedient husbands (1 Peter 3:1-6).
      • Failure to do so blasphemes God’s Word (Titus 2:3-5).
    • Misuse of Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33 (“Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church”) is twisted into unconditional sympathy without sanctification or correction.
      • The Logical Conclusion: “White Knights are not shepherds, but wolves.”
    • Gynocentrism Dominates: Women’s feelings determine everything in the real world, and it’s devastating to men, marriages, and families.
      • The false charge against men: “He’s not repenting of her sin.” 
      • “You could be the perfect man, and still not be enough to satisfy her.”
  4. (16:00-20:00) Real-World Consequences
    • Feminism’s Infiltration: Churches, denominations, and seminaries have absorbed feminist ideas of women’s autonomy and victimhood.
    • Encouraging Rebellion: Reviling wives receive permission to rebel; men are told to “tough it out” or to be kinder, ignoring root issues like the wife’s Genesis 3:16 desires leading to conflict.
    • When evil is not held accountable, it grows worse.  (Ecclesiastes 8:11)
      • Wicked women’s sins are being covered by pastors and counselors, in church and in courts.
      • “White Knights need to repent, resign, or be removed.”
    • Systematic Destruction: In counseling and courts, men lose marriages, children (via parental alienation), finances, and church community.
    • Dr. Edgington notes nearly identical patterns across hundreds of cases — wives revile, pastors enable, men are isolated or labeled abusive.
  5. (20:00–25:00) Worsening Behavior Without Accountability
    • Abetting Sin: As mentioned before, shielding women from accountability / consequences (Ecclesiastes 8:11) leads to more evil.
    • Femcentric Feelings Dominate: Narratives center on feelings, “I don’t feel safe”, while there is no evidence of physical danger in most cases.  Edgington says probably what they are referring to is Spiritual security, although they may not have any recognition of the Spiritual.
    • Anti-Male Indoctrination often alienates children from their fathers.
    • Not only wives, but White Knights (including pastors, leaders, and counselors), also need to be held accountable for enabling women’s sins.
    • Positive Outliers: Edgington says some wives repent when confronted with Scripture (he estimates about 1 in 4 cases).
  6. (25:00-33:00) Men need to band together and hold both Wives and White Knights accountable.
    • Edgington says that wives are more likely to repent than White Knights.
      • White Knights must “repent, resign, or be removed.”
    • Men must build movements to hold men and leaders accountable, to encourage isolated men, and to pursue sanctification and the fear of God over people (Psalm 119).
      • Men need to look for other men who are going through the same relational crises that they are, and congregate together to form a movement within the church.
      • Men should confront pastors (with witnesses), speak up against biased sermons (e.g., Mother’s Day favoritism, Father’s Day shaming).
      • Men must band together when presenting their case to the church leadership.
      • If pastors and leaders are unresponsive, men must shake the dust off their shoes in response to unresponsive churches.
    • Edgington advises that men should stay in Protestant churches and push for change rather than abandon the church entirely.
  7. (33:00–49:00) Case Studies, Practical Advice, and Solutions
    • Remember, we’re talking about the destruction of marriages.
    • The big lie of Feminism is that women’s submission destroys women’s value.
    • The root problem in most cases is the wife’s refusal to submit to her husband.
    • Most churches, pastors, and elders are afraid to correct women.  They won’t council what they preach.  They’re afraid of alienating women.
    • Pastors, Counselors, and White Knights must recognize the husband’s authority over his wife and his home.
    • Edgington says he has found that a large number of women have apparently never been instructed how important it is to submit to the word of God and submit (hypotasso) to their husbands.  Once these wives can grasp this, they’re more likely to understand that fighting with their husbands amounts to losing the fight, and to not argue with their husbands.  He says these wives are surprised (!!!) to find that their submission brings peace and harmony in their marriages (!!!), and also grants them a great measure of power over their husbands (!!!).
  8. (49:00–56:00) Encouragement, Closing, and Resources
    • Edgington emphasizes that men must pursue spiritual courage, honorable living before God, and the reality that even being a perfect husband is not enough if wives refuse accountability.
      • Look for ways that you and your wife can be sanctified.
    • Men need courage to countermand the offending voices saying that “Men are weak”, “Men are wrong”, and “Men are the problem”.
      • Men must be gracious, humble, fervent, strong-minded, sober-minded, and hold the line.
    • Edgington repeats his admonishment for men not to abandon the church, but to stand in solidarity against White Knight pastors, leaders, and counselors.
    • Dr. Edgington promotes his website (compassionatecounselors.com) for books, podcasts, and contact info.

Quotable Quotes

  • “When the woman’s feelings are sovereign, whatever she feels is true, and the man is going to get condemned.”
  • “You could be the perfect man, and it would not be enough for her.”
  • “Christ corrects his church all the time.” (on Ephesians 5:22-33)
  • “White Knights need to repent, resign, or be removed.”

Epilogue

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The White Knight bias within the church — rooted in misplaced compassion and feminist influence — destroys Biblical Headship, enables sin, and contributes to marital breakdown and societal harm. True restoration requires mutual accountability, scriptural fidelity, and courageous confrontation of these patterns.  Christian men are called to boldness, discernment, and reliance on God amid a flawed system.

H/T: Surfdumb

Other Interviews with Dr. David Edgington

Edgington has been interviewed by many other hosts on the topic of “Abusive / Reviling Wives”. Here are a few. There are more. (He’s doing a good job of promoting his books.) [YT video opens in a separate window.]

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