Great post, Evan. Evangelicals Christian leadership assumes authority by simply being able to tell a good testimony/teaching and how it applies to them and should apply to others (manipulation on a grand scale based in imagination most of the time.) They are also given the title of leader by being able to spin the narrative to always come back to the accepted talking points to tickle the ears of those desperate for confirmation bias. Those two things are seen as spiritual maturity and that is where the false authority, false expertise, and very lowered real world expectations come from.

I know because I used to be an uppity up in Christian leadership of a conversation therapy cult(ish). When I closed it down I told my mentor, who immediately dropped me, that neither my former boss or myself were actually qualified to be the President and Executive Vice President of a very large organization. My cognitive dissonance was demanding resolution and it came when I accepted that being the EVP of a cult does NOT translate to the for profit world (or anything in the real world. It’s brainwashing and many white CIS power hungry a**holes exploit the sh*t out of it. Some unknowingly (like myself until it was too late and a friend died) and a whole helluva lot that do it knowingly.