"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. . . . Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5)
Paul did not say, just to be even-handed, that husbands should submit to their wives in everything. Nope! Before push comes to shove, wives should submit to their husbands!
Michele Bachmann believes that, and says so. She said, for instance, that her husband, Marcus, told her that she should study tax law. "Why should I go and do something like that?", Michele told a campaign audience. "But the Lord says, be submissive wives. You are to be submissive to your husbands."
She studied tax law.
Now she wants to become the President of the United States. Marcus isn't running for the office: Michele is. Does that mean that she is going to do what Marcus tells her to do?
Oh, no, no!, Michele says. "What submission means to us, it means respect. I respect my husband."
Well, good! And I hope Marcus respects his wife, as well. But that has nothing to do with what the blessed St. Paul said about 2000 years ago. Paul did not say that Christ and the Church were equals, or that they should talks things over, and respectfully come to a decision. He said that the Church should be submissive to Christ, and that husbands and wives were in a similar relationship: "Wives should be submissive to their husbands in everything."
Oh, you know!, some guy in the Family Research Council, says. It is different if you are the President of the United States, and if Marcus is your husband. Think of it as a kind of tie-break, he suggests. They talk, respectfully, and if they don't agree, Marcus has the tie-break: something like the U.S. Senate. Joe Biden gets to decide. So in a tie, Marcus gets to decide.
There! That should make you feel better! So long as they agree, there is no subservience problem. It isn't really subservience: they agree, together, like Christ and the Church. And if they don't agree, Marcus gets the deciding vote. They do it Christ's way. Or Marcus' way. You know, like the Church. . . .
In today's local paper, a husband in Duluth explained why his wife wore a headdress, even in hot summer weather. She was just doing what her religion required. Actually, the New Testament says women should keep their heads modestly covered, too, to show respect. And, the Duluth husband, went on, it was a man's responsibility to provide for his wife, and to show her great, great respect. We used to call that, "putting your wife on a pedestal".
My angel! My trophy! All that.
No! No! Please, "No!".
That is nothing more than the ethic of Semitic people, two thousand years ago! Maybe that couple in Duluth, and the Bachmanns, want to do things that way. Maybe. We can let them be. But it would be awful if children were being taught that is how it ought to be. It ought not to be like that! It is an abuse of women!
In the Presidency, it would be intolerable! If we wanted Marcus Bachmann to make the final decisions, we should elect him. But more important than that, we cannot aspire to be an ancient, Semitic society, in which males are regarded as god-like, and women are to be treated like jewelry, not even if the jewelry is put on a pedestal, under glass, veiled.
We need an amendment to the Constitution! Anyone who wants to become President should have to produce a long-form birth certificate (or bus pass, or something) that proves that he or she is at least 35 at the time of taking office, and no more than 100. Every president should have some adult experience in the contemporary world.
Paul did not say, just to be even-handed, that husbands should submit to their wives in everything. Nope! Before push comes to shove, wives should submit to their husbands!
Michele Bachmann believes that, and says so. She said, for instance, that her husband, Marcus, told her that she should study tax law. "Why should I go and do something like that?", Michele told a campaign audience. "But the Lord says, be submissive wives. You are to be submissive to your husbands." She studied tax law.
Now she wants to become the President of the United States. Marcus isn't running for the office: Michele is. Does that mean that she is going to do what Marcus tells her to do?
Oh, no, no!, Michele says. "What submission means to us, it means respect. I respect my husband."
Well, good! And I hope Marcus respects his wife, as well. But that has nothing to do with what the blessed St. Paul said about 2000 years ago. Paul did not say that Christ and the Church were equals, or that they should talks things over, and respectfully come to a decision. He said that the Church should be submissive to Christ, and that husbands and wives were in a similar relationship: "Wives should be submissive to their husbands in everything."
Oh, you know!, some guy in the Family Research Council, says. It is different if you are the President of the United States, and if Marcus is your husband. Think of it as a kind of tie-break, he suggests. They talk, respectfully, and if they don't agree, Marcus has the tie-break: something like the U.S. Senate. Joe Biden gets to decide. So in a tie, Marcus gets to decide.
There! That should make you feel better! So long as they agree, there is no subservience problem. It isn't really subservience: they agree, together, like Christ and the Church. And if they don't agree, Marcus gets the deciding vote. They do it Christ's way. Or Marcus' way. You know, like the Church. . . .
In today's local paper, a husband in Duluth explained why his wife wore a headdress, even in hot summer weather. She was just doing what her religion required. Actually, the New Testament says women should keep their heads modestly covered, too, to show respect. And, the Duluth husband, went on, it was a man's responsibility to provide for his wife, and to show her great, great respect. We used to call that, "putting your wife on a pedestal".
My angel! My trophy! All that.
No! No! Please, "No!".
That is nothing more than the ethic of Semitic people, two thousand years ago! Maybe that couple in Duluth, and the Bachmanns, want to do things that way. Maybe. We can let them be. But it would be awful if children were being taught that is how it ought to be. It ought not to be like that! It is an abuse of women!
In the Presidency, it would be intolerable! If we wanted Marcus Bachmann to make the final decisions, we should elect him. But more important than that, we cannot aspire to be an ancient, Semitic society, in which males are regarded as god-like, and women are to be treated like jewelry, not even if the jewelry is put on a pedestal, under glass, veiled.
We need an amendment to the Constitution! Anyone who wants to become President should have to produce a long-form birth certificate (or bus pass, or something) that proves that he or she is at least 35 at the time of taking office, and no more than 100. Every president should have some adult experience in the contemporary world.
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