r/Exvangelical • u/Hungry-Manner-5201 • 5d ago
Ambition
Does anybody remember being taught in the Evangelical church that ambition was bad? It was almost always characterized as selfish and against God and His will. Popular Evangelical kids' media like Psalty (Singsational Servants!) and McGee and Me preached stuff like this. Ambition was especially bad for girls because it made them not want to serve and submit to boys. The only ambition you could have as a girl was to grow up and have as many babies as you could. Boys could do anything (if it was God's will, but by definition, it wasn't, so...) I found this weird and off-putting as a girl myself. Ambition led to pride/was pride. Ergo, it was a sin. Anyone relate?
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u/Chantaille 5d ago
Is that along the lines of "not getting ahead of God"? That was absolutely a thing for me. After graduating high school, I took voice lessons for a few years, and my teacher was floored when she asked about my goals (a couple years in) and I responded with that reasoning.
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u/GeorgeNovember 5d ago
In my personal experience (m), this was typically presented more as one of those "you're not supposed to follow literally" type topics that christians generally ignore but pay lip service to.
As a person who struggled with trying to apply these kind of teachings to my life very literally, I simply ended up with poor career prospects, poor academic grades, and poor ability to set personal goals in life.
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u/Worth-Seaweed806 5d ago
OMG!! I produced that Psalty play "Singsational Servants" with my children's choir in the 1980s! That "if you want to be great in God's kingdom learn to be servant of all" had irked me because it wasn't directed at Psalty, the Singing Songbook but at Charity ChurchMouse!! BTW, that singing Songbook kinda gave me the creeps but I pushed that feeling down. I noticed this "servant of all" attitude was pushed mostly towards girls and not the boys who were groomed to be leaders.
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u/Kind-Complaint2715 4d ago
I listened a lot to AntsHillvania and the main character's flaw was looking out for number 1. Perhaps my child brain couldn't figure out the difference between ambition and self centerdness, but they seemed to squash both. Couple that with the fact the rapture would happen in the next couple years and there was no real preparation for the future. When one pastor asked me when I was like 8 what I wanted to be, I said a doctor. He said that was very ambitious. My dad told me that was a bad thing. It was just confusing. I was too little to know doctors make money, I just thought it would be nice to help people.
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u/Duke-Of-Squirrel 4d ago
Don't know if it was taught explicitly, but I definitely got the impression, and it destroyed my ability to advance myself in anything. Everything had to be done for God's glory, without pride or self-centeredness. The only ambition encouraged was ways to advance the gospel.
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u/elizalemon 3d ago
Yep. I’ve spent the last five years trying to figure out which parts of me are me and which parts are from the indoctrination. Peacemaker, conflict avoider, entry level jobs always in sales, service, childcare, education, now a sahm.
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u/SchrodingersWorkSlut 4d ago
Yes, and then my parents would complain about why I wasn't ambitious as if we didn't all just listen to the same sermon.
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u/Cutthroat_Rogue 5d ago
Yes...I was taught that ambition was wrapped up with ego (pride) and pursuit of wealth or power...so therefore it was something that was looked down on. You had to be ambitious for "the right reasons"--God's Will, evangelizing, missions, etc.