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Governing Men’s Conduct: New Forms of Masculinity in Pentecostalism

Richard Eves

Conference of the European Societie for Oceanistes, University of Bergen,

December 2012.

How men navigate the changing gender norms and new forms of masculinity

emerging in the context of modernity is a question that is of growing interest

to scholars, often inspired by a desire to encourage the development of

masculinities that are not dominating and oppressive to women (Morrell 2001;

Gutmann 2003; Heinonen 2011). The Millennium Declaration has also brought

a renewed focus on gender inequality and a widespread concern that the

oppression of women is impeding development in many countries (Cornwall

1997; Chant and Gutmann 2000; Connell 2003; Correia and Bannon 2006;

Flood 2007; Ruxton 2004). Under these influences, practitioners in the areas of

gender and development, HIV prevention, and anti-violence prevention have

sought to identify the personal and social factors that influence men to adopt

practices that are not oppressive to women (Barker 2001; Barker and Ricardo

2005; Mane and Aggleton 2001; Eves 2010a; Flood 2002–03).

One consequence of this work has been a recognition that not all men conform

to masculinities that are aggressive or that affect women negatively. Clearly,

such oppressive and violent behaviour is not an essential aspect of the male

identity for other ways of being a man exist. The considerable volatility of

gender characteristics that can be observed currently shows that masculinity

can and does change, opening the possibility of improvement (Morrel 2001, 4).

This paper discusses the alternative ways of being a man that are emerging

under the influence of Christianity, in particular the increasingly prevalent

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born-again forms of Christianity -- the evangelicals, charismatics and

Pentecostals.

Perhaps counter intuitively, born-again Christians often challenge and reform

commonly accepted gender norms; in particular, they often challenge

oppressive and violent masculinities and encourage forms of empowerment

for women. Domestic violence is condemned, and men who beat their wives

are often suspended from church membership and sometimes even expelled.

Thus the reformation of gender relations in Pentecostal churches throughout

Papua New Guinea is producing new ways of being a man and, in particular,

masculinities that are less oppressive and dominating for women. This new

configuration of gender relations includes an aspect of gender equality, since it

involves creating more caring, equitable and non-violent ways of being a man.

However, as Groes-Green notes, such alternative ways of being a man “may

exist side by side with enduring patriarchal gender structures and therefore do

not necessarily challenge an overall male dominance” (2012, 94). Stacey and

Gerard have termed this model of decision-making, in which the man usually

makes the final decisions in a household, “patriarchy in the last instance”

(1990). Since they often retain the notion of natural male authority, the new

configurations of gender often fall short of western conceptions of gender

equality, but they do open the possibility that alternative ways of being a man

exist and have lessened some of the harsher treatment women endure at the

hands of men. “In a country where violence against women is so frequently an

assertion of supremacy, that men are at least considering the ways in which

they perpetuate domination is hopeful” (Sideris 2004, 47).

In seeking to understand the process of reforming men, I take my cue from

Michel Foucault’s work on governmentality as well as from contemporary

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theorising on masculinity. Government is generally conceived in terms of the

state’s rule and management of its population and territory, but Foucault

directs attention to other, broader dimensions. Foucault considers government

to be the conduct of conduct, or “the way in which one conducts the conduct

of men” (2008, 186). Government, in this view, is the art of “acting on the

actions of individuals, taken either singly or collectively, so as to shape, guide,

correct and modify the ways in which they conduct themselves” (Burchell 1996,

19). In this broad sense, government is “techniques and procedures for

directing human behavior. Government of children, government of souls and

consciences, government of a household, of a state, or of oneself” (Foucault

1997, 81). For Foucault, Christianity is concerned with governmentality in this

broad sense when it seeks to control the behaviour of adherents by influencing

their thinking in such a way that they regulate their own conduct to conform to

the required standards. This applies particularly well to the Pentecostalism I

discuss here, which is concerned with the regulation of conduct and producing

self-governing individuals who eschew violence and conflict.

Christian Conversion

[Slide Map 1 and 2]

The people I discuss here are a rural community of about one thousand people,

living on the Lelet Plateau in the mountainous interior of central New Ireland

(see Eves 1998). Like many of the coastal and island regions of Papua New

Guinea, New Ireland has a relatively long history of contact with Western social

forms, practices, and ideas, and its people are remarkably open to novel

introductions from the outside world. The main influences in the last century

have been the introduction of a cash and market economy, the Christian

missionaries, colonial governments, and the “postcolonial” nation-state. From

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the early days of colonisation until the present, Christianity has been an

enduring and dominant feature of New Ireland social and cultural life. All of my

New Ireland interlocutors have been born into an era marked by Christianity

and all would undoubtedly designate themselves as Christian if asked, though

not all are particularly devout.

As elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, my interlocutors in New Ireland were

influenced by evangelical forms of Christianity during the 1970s (see Barr 1983;

Flannery 1980; Robin 1982). This “Revival,” placed great emphasis on the

radical experience of being “born again,” and this continues today. More

recently, the United Church, to which most Lelet belong, has also embraced

beliefs and practices that are more quintessentially Pentecostal— in particular,

undergoing the crucial Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Through this ritual, the Holy

Spirit brings grace into the heart of the individual, making it possible for him or

her to accept God’s offer of salvation. Modern Pentecostalism has embraced

the optimistic view that God offers grace to all people, but because each

person can accept or refuse this offer, they have free will concerning salvation.

Thus, through grace, God gives indispensable help in achieving salvation, but it

is ultimately the individual, as an agent, who must decide whether to accept

the offer.

[Slide]

To become born again requires much more than simply adopting a new

religious belief, or to change from one Christian belief to another, as the word

conversion implies. To become born again means to radically change the self,

to become, in effect, a new person, as the term implies. The concept includes a

strong emphasis on rupture — on making a radical and complete break with

the past, as a first step in becoming a new person (Meyer 1998, 183; Marshall

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2009; Wolseth 2008). Converts renounce the “evils” of their past lives and

many of their cultural traditions, before being “re-born” into a new, fully

Christian life (Eves 2007; cf. Meyer 1998). Beyond the well-known biblically

named sins, such as murder, Pentecostals have a long list of deeds that are

judged to be sinful and must be abandoned. Converts are also encouraged to

engage in forms of ascetic practice, which includes abandoning the use of

alcohol and the stimulant areca nut, which is widely consumed in Papua New

Guinea.

[Slide]

Being born again, or “tanim bel” as it is termed in the lingua franca, was

explained to me in the following terms:

Tanim bel is the same as being “born again.” God has announced that

this should happen throughout the world. The meaning of this, the

origin of this is that people must abandon “sin” — ways that are no

good, ways that are not correct and the sorts of things that mean

people do not live a good or righteous life. This is the belief of God. God

does not like sin. Thus, thinking ill of another, jealousy, greediness, the

absence of compassion or empathy — the meaning of tanim bel or

being born again is that all these things must be abandoned and we

must truly become a new person. … Being born again is like a big door in

the life of man. If a person does not become born again they are a bad

person on this earth and will not find everlasting life. If a person does

change their life and leaves behind all their bad ways, another way of

expressing this is to say that they have truly died, they have truly left

behind their evil ways and these things no longer remain in their life.

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This emphasis on the renunciation of sin and the regulation of conduct raises

the issue of governmentality. Importantly, the ultimate aim of the Pentecostal

type of governmentality is for converts to become instinctively self-governing.

Even though the conduct of the individual is partly regulated externally by

what Foucault (1986, 249) calls “prescriptive discourses,” such as the pastors

and preachers who fulminate from the pulpit about sin, or “thou shalt not”

rules, or which define very firmly and precisely the way that a person should

conduct him- or herself, it is the extent to which individuals come to conduct

their own conduct that is central to the effectiveness of this form of Christian

governmentality. As Marshall has commented, “Conversion and adhesion to

the Born-Again program involves being subjected to a series of rules and

modes of interpretation, [but] it also means becoming the subject of this new

conduct” (2009, 88). Truly born again Christians must take control of their lives,

subjecting themselves to a continuous process of self-scrutiny and self-

governance, suppressing errant desires and following a righteous Christian

lifestyle.

Being born again is more than a question of self-government whereby the

convert submissively follows prescriptive texts about which behaviours to

avoid, for it is also a matter of becoming a person who embraces certain

positive values and constructive virtues (Eves 2011a). While a born again

Christian must obey the ordained rules of conduct, the effort to remake his- or

herself means developing a far more benevolent and compassionate

orientation towards others. Attaining the goal of salvation depends to a large

extent on how well a born again Christian manages relations with others. As

well as avoiding all forms of conflict that are potentially disruptive of the

community, such as disputes over land, or failure to contribute to community

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and church projects, converts must shun violence and the expression of anger,

both generally and in the context of their marriage. In giving accounts of their

conversion, men often contrast their previous behaviour towards their wives

with their present behaviour, and emphasise how they no longer use violence

against their wives.

Although the Pentecostal governmentality project targets both men and

women, its effects on gender are perhaps most marked for men, since the

changes men are urged to embrace often contrast sharply with existing gender

conceptions and notions of masculinity, whether these are informed by

tradition or by exposure to the West. Well over a hundred years of exposure to

foreign ideas and practices has meant that constructions of gender have

undergone considerable change through the colonial and postcolonial periods.

However, traditional understandings of gender and the gendered body,

founded on a strictly essentialist belief that men and women are intrinsically

different, continue to structure the behaviour of men and women. These

understandings define the norms of femininity and masculinity, determining

what is permissible and impermissible for both men and women, and

especially what roles they can perform. Such constructions of gender tend to

privilege men; many cultural norms express the greater value attached to men

and male activities. For example, the head of the family is a key defining aspect

of what it means to be a man traditionally and as reiterated by Christianity.

In New Ireland, much like elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, men are valued for

their achievements and it remains true that “in the final analysis, the idea

which men hold of themselves is based on what men do rather than what they

have at birth” (Read 1982, 70). The men of today seek to define themselves

largely through assertive public performance, whether in the form of oratory,

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politicking, or the display of wealth and power over others. The “big man,”

who achieves renown is respected, while the man who does not is

contemptuously labelled a “rubbish man”. For my New Ireland interlocutors,

the ability of men to harness resources and preside over conspicuous displays

of wealth at mortuary feasts is considered the quintessential way of achieving

renown.

Although some of the traditional ways of being a man have been displaced,

many of the foundational beliefs concerning gender have remained. For

example, warfare is largely a thing of the past and martial masculinities having

long been rejected, but men are still socialised to be extremely assertive

towards others. Male anger and violent redress are considered natural and

appropriate responses to insult or challenge.

Pentecostalism and the new man

As men strive to adopt the new way of life entailed in being born again, these

aggressive masculinities are being reformed. To illustrate this, I cite the

conversion narratives of two men from my New Ireland field site. The first is

Joseph, whom I had first met during my doctoral fieldwork in 1990-91. Like

many of the young men at that time, Joseph’s chief interests were illicit sexual

encounters and getting drunk, sometimes rather spectacularly, as when he

drunkenly disrupted the 1990 Christmas Eve church service. When I

interviewed him in 1997, he had changed his life due to the prolonged illness

of his son, and had become the village pastor. [Slide] This is his story:

In 1993 the Church marked me as a likely candidate to become an

evangelist and then a pastor. I hadn’t changed my life yet, but I was

already married and had my firstborn, who suffered a disabling illness.

He was not very healthy when his mother gave birth to him and he

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nearly died. For five years there were repeated trips to hospital. This

was enough to convince me that I should examine my life. Then the

Church appointed me, and I started work in the ministry, becoming an

evangelist. There was a problem that affected my family. Now this drew

my thoughts back to checking my lifestyle to see why the child could

have become ill. I thought that this illness would stay a little and then

finish. But it remained with him for a very long time. When I examined

my life, there were all kinds of things in my life – such as being angry

with my wife, beating her, thinking ill about her and not treating her

well – these kinds of things were still part of my life. I didn’t have any

empathy towards her. I was very selfish.

In addition to the way he was treating his wife, Joseph also highlighted other

behaviours, such as lying, chewing areca nut and smoking, that he considered

were making him “fall down” as he expressed it. Further he went on to say that

over the next few years while he worked in the ministry, he tried to correct his

behaviour but that some of his previous bad conduct still remained. Because

he had failed to eliminate these things from his life, he had not yet truly given

himself to God and he attributed his son’s illness to his own sinful life as a

parent. This reflects the commonly held belief that God can make children of

sinners ill as a warning that they must correct their immoral ways. People

speak of this metaphorically as God beating the child with a stick to warn the

parents (see Eves 2010c). It was only when I questioned Joseph that he stated

that the specific problem was his behaviour towards his wife, saying somewhat

cryptically, “I didn’t stay too much with my wife,” meaning that he had been

having extramarital affairs. Like other Lelet men, Joseph avoided explicitly

stating the wrongdoings of his past until pressed, and he continued to prefer

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euphemistic language to refer to his sexual misdemeanours. Though there is a

strong compulsion within Pentecostal discourse to “speak out” or confess

one’s sins, my Lelet interlocutors are reluctant to do so, preferring to speak in

general terms about their moral failings. Thus instead of speaking of marital

infidelity a man will speak simply about desiring or lusting after women,

shifting the focus to the thought rather than the act.

The defining break with Joseph’s past life occurred in 1997 when he attended a

four-day rally, featuring an Australian evangelist, who drew on John 3: 16 to

explain how the cross of Jesus opened the way for all those who had

committed sins to receive God’s blessing and forgiveness. Joseph felt that the

evangelist’s words came from God: [Slide]

The talk convinced me to examine my life during my time as a

evangelist and pastor in the church, because there were still things in

my life. It was at this time, when the speaker talked about that this, that

his words truly penetrated my heart and I recognised that Jesus died for

all our sins. His talk also made me realise that I am not the right man to

hang on to all these “heavies” [problems]. His talk touched my heart

and at this time I gave my life completely. I stood up and cried, asking

the others attending the rally to forget about me, to forgive me for the

wrongs I’d done to my brothers and sisters. I asked them all to forget

about me, so I can come up a new man again. Today I walk with a new

life. The sorts of things that characterised my life – the way I treated my

wife, lying, and other things like that, I recognised these and now I am

like a nothing man – as I don’t have a single thing that stays in my life. I

testified about these things when God changed my life.

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Like conversion narratives generally, this account is not a complete life history,

but is rather a selection of events and behaviours that highlight the narrator’s

previous fallen state and his redemption, as well as the power of God to bring

about such miraculous changes. Like many other conversion narratives, a crisis

is the defining precipitating factor here, in this case Joseph’s son’s illness.

While Joseph actively sought as an agent to change his life, he saw this as a

consequence of the work of the Holy Spirit.1 [Slide] As he explained:

The work of the Holy Spirit when it comes into the life of a man moulds

him — humbles him, giving him compassion and empathy, respect,

righteous ways and truthfulness. All these things, including the attribute

of self-control, are things the Holy Spirit commands within a man.

Before in my life I was an angry man, someone who argued a lot. So

when the Holy Spirit changed me, I recognised these aspects of my life

and they don’t characterise it anymore. … I am not angry any more. It

doesn’t matter if a man treats me badly, I remain calm. I will sit down

easy, it doesn’t matter what kind of things greet me, I will remain

patient, I will sit down easy, balancing it all up.

My second conversion narrative comes from John, a young man I also met

during my doctoral fieldwork and came to know very well. Unlike the previous

account, John’s conversion was not sparked by a crisis experience, but the

early years of his marriage, like Joseph’s, reveal the gender relations of

marriage and how women are often treated.

The early years of John’s marriage were full of problems. Some of these

originated in the fact that he had been pressured not only into a marriage

before he was ready, but to a woman whom he had never met. Under pressure

from his father and uncle, John had married a woman from a coastal group

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that had extensive land holdings adjacent to his own group’s land. This was

considered a particularly advantageous alliance which would give him and his

immediate kin access to new areas of land. Despite consenting to the marriage,

he was not happy with the arrangement and generally pursued his own

interests. He continued to sleep in the communal men’s house with the other

young men and refused to share meals with his new wife, as is the customary

expectation of newlyweds. Despite the admonishments of his parents, he

ignored his wife and did not consummate the marriage. Naturally, his wife

wondered what she had got herself into and contemplated returning home to

her coastal village. After almost a full year, he began to share meals with his

wife, though the marriage was by no means stable and he vented his anger on

her and occasionally beat her. The beatings were over trivial matters, such as if

she contradicted him, did not work in the way he liked, or did not exactly

follow his wishes. Sometimes he beat her because he was jealous and

suspicious that she was interested in other men. Like several other people, he

converted after hearing a tape by an evangelist who recounted a dream in

which he visited heaven and hell. Some converts believed that they must

merely forsake areca nut and smoking, but for John it was a much more radical

change. Fearing the consequences of his life of sin, he wished to live a more

righteous life. For him, this meant that “you are not angry, you don’t drink

alcohol, you don’t have evil thoughts about other women, you don’t steal, you

don’t beat your wife, you don’t behave arrogantly, you don’t call out [behave

boisterously], all these kinds of things”. It also meant developing a more caring,

compassionate and non-violent approach to his wife. [Slide] As he explained:

Before I used to fight with my wife, lie to her and I didn’t believe that

she was something worthwhile in my life. Among the men here, too, the

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ways of the women are considered to be inconsequential. I did not want

act in this way and I became a born again Christian and now treat my

wife well. Previously, I was not very good to her. Now my wife feels I

have compassion and empathy towards her and I live a new life. The

basis of this is repentance. It is a big thing that must come up in a man

— he must be very good in God’s eyes, and in the eyes of his wife and

all the people in this world.

Men like John and Joseph are pursuing more caring and equal relationships

with their wives as part of the project of being born again. These men are

concerned about how they treat women, reflect on their roles in family life,

attempt to share decisions about the domestic sphere and, importantly, reject

violent methods of resolving conflicts within that sphere.

As I’ve said, true conversion mean a broad process of moral and personal

reform — in particular, “the creation of a particular type of moral subject”

(Marshall 2009:131). Beyond being subjected to a series of rules, the

Pentecostal program “also means becoming the subject of this new conduct”

(Marshall 2009, 88). The Papua New Guinean born-again Christian must

remake him- or herself from a sinner who is rarely subject to qualms of

conscience to one who has internalized responsibility for his or her every act—

in other words, has become the conductor of his or her own conduct (Eves

2011a). A vital, and previously equally rare step in self-governance is the act of

self examination, in which the individual scrutinizes his or her life for failings

and attempts to address them through confession and repentance. And then,

significantly for my discussion, becoming a born again Christian entails a new

configuration of gender relations involving the repudiation of elements of

masculine behaviour that are considered negative. Indeed, many of the

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behaviours censured by pastors and preachers, such as drunkenness and

domestic violence, are features of negative masculinities.

Conclusion

In seeking to create a particular type of moral subject, men are encouraged to

renounce what is generally considered to be normal masculine behaviour. This

is noteworthy because it is not easy for men in Papua New Guinea to mark

themselves out as different from other men. There is often very considerable

peer pressure to conform to the prevailing negative and violent masculinities.

Another obstacle to acceptance of the new ideal of manhood put forward by

the church—one that men may not explicitly recognise— is that not only are

they being asked to give up the attributes that have previously defined them as

men, but they are being asked to adopt behaviours that blur the division

between masculine and feminine. Some scholars, for example, have suggested

that the process of becoming a born again Christian “domesticates” men, by

integrating them more fully into the domestic sphere (Wolseth 2008, 101;

Flora 1975; Brusco 1995, 5, 124-5). Willems has suggested that conversion

results in changes to the ideal male role behaviour, since male converts are

called on to adopt female moral norms (Willems 1967). This involves adopting

more ascetic consumption patterns and behaviours, such as the renunciation

of alcohol, gambling and extra-marital affairs. As Brusco argues, the

“boundaries of the public (male) life and private (female) life are redrawn and

redefined. The relative power positions of the spouses change” (1995, 122).

Brusco is not suggesting that women now have power over their husbands,

since in evangelical households the husband is likely to remain more powerful,

but that his hopes and desires have changed to coincide with those of his wife

(1995, 122, 137). One consequence is that men bring their spending into line

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with women’s preference for spending on family consumption (Brusco 1995,

125). Deviations from the straight and narrow are, as Flora suggests, “no

longer viewed as natural foibles of the weaker male spiritual nature, but

instead as a falling away from God” (Flora 1975, 414). A very important

contribution of Pentecostalism to combating gender violence is that it provides

men with a voice of authority that is a valuable support for men who want to

change.

It is easy to become pessimistic about the prospects for gender equality in

places such as Papua New Guinea, where gender inequality and violence

against women is so marked. However, with a good understanding of the

culture, and in particular of customary gender roles, power relations, and the

dynamics of change, it becomes possible to find fissures in the seemingly

impregnable wall of ‘normal’ masculinity that offer possibilities that can be

developed to encourage change. Pentecostalism promotes a new type of

masculine agency for its male adherents in Papua New Guinea. Importantly, it

provides a performative space within which men can do masculinity differently.

1. In explaining the effect of the Holy Spirit, the local minister invoked Galatians

5 to say, “You can see marks of the Holy Spirit in a person who is at peace, who

has “love,” or is happy. The church needs people like this because the fruit of

the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness and humility”.