Mailbag: Women and their Godly Christian Husbands
Subject: interesting.....
Patronizing to women? The bible says wives should submit to their husbands as the body of Christ submits to Jeus. it ALSO says husbands should LOVE their wives as Jesus loves us, that means unconditionally and eternally.
Actually, Jesus doesn't love us unconditionally because unless we believe in Jesus and believe in the doctrines that Christians say we must believe, we'll spend eternity in Hell. Now, I know that some Christians will respond by saying that Jesus would continue to love us, even as we roast in the fires and suffering unimaginable torment, but quite frankly that sort of "love" I can do without. Such "love" the Nazis had for the Jews they sent into the gas chambers, and at least the Jews being slaughtered saw an end to their suffering, so given a choice between the "love" of this god and the "love" of a Nazi stormtrooper, I think I'd be inclined to go with the latter.
Now, given the fact that Jesus' "love" is very much conditioned on strict obedience, I think it's fair to say that any husband whose "love" of his wife is conditioned upon her strict obedience is not being a very good or loving spouse. I wonder what my wife would say if I told her I'd only love her so long as she submits to me and obeys me in all things - even when my commands are not understandable and seem strange because, after all, she needs to have "faith" in me and in my goodness.
Yes, that sound you hear is her laughing uncontrollably - it's a pity that Southern Baptist women didn't give their husbands the same treatment when their denomination adopted a resolution stipulating that wives should submit to their husbands. Sometimes a good belly-laugh is just what is needed to drive away pretentious, self-righteous arrogance.
The only thing feminism has done for our society is exploit the female body to sell products to drooling men. Yippee, we now have the right to work full time (most of us have to, to survive) and also raise our children and do the housework, the carpooling and almost everything else. Man does his 8 hour day, and he comes home and his work is over. Yeah, feminism sure made us free! lol.
Actually, the female body was being used to sell products to drooling men long before feminism came around. Men didn't start drooling over women because of feminists, men started drooling over women when they hit puberty - feminism or no feminism. If anything, feminism has been trying to tell men that women are there for more than just something to drool over.
Yes, women do now have the right to work full time - that was something once denied to women. Because work often isn't enjoyable, it doesn't seem like much of a "right" - but I think that's largely because it has become so accepted that we can't imagine what it was like for women not to have the right to work.
A job is a means to economic independence - when you have a right to any job you are qualified for, it means that you can do what you want with your life. Women who have the right to work aren't forced to marry simply for the chance to leave home - and they aren't forced to remain with abusive husbands. Women who work can make a life for themselves that doesn't revolve around the home and nothing else - or not, if they so choose.
The fact that many men don't do their share of work around the house is indeed a real problem, but for Alice to blame feminism for this is to get things exactly backwards. Men not pulling their weight is not a consequence of feminism, it's a consequence of men acting like jerks - and men were acting like jerks long before feminism came around, often in conjunction with the aforementioned drooling.
The "fear" of God you refer to does not mean terror at the thought of Him. it means respect and awe for who He is. The same kind of respect and awe a child has for a parent. They know that their parents love them unconditionally, but that they will be corrected when they do wrong. Same concept.
Actually, the "fear" of God that I might write about is the "fear" that unless you do things exactly as you are instructed, you'll be sent to Hell for all of eternity where you will suffer an infinite amount of torment. It's not unlike the "fear" experienced by Jews living in Nazi Germany. Such "fear" has nothing to do with respect and awe; instead, it's all about living in the presence of a vicious, capricious bully who could choose another path, but has opted to create a situation where many suffer horribly.
Any parent who raised their children in a manner similar to how God is depicted as treating humans either in the New or in the Old Testaments would likely be arrested and jailed for child abuse. In fact, I would expect to see Christian pundits on the news lamenting the lack of religion as a cause for such terrible abuse, failing utterly to understand just what is they are condemning.
More selections from the Agnosticism / Atheism Mailbag...
Comments
I’ll address two issues here. First, what it means to be a Christian. Second, the issue of submission and how it is commonly misunderstood.
As is common, Alice greatly misunderstands what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. True Christianity is about a relationship, not religion. It’s not about following rules. Salvation is through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, dying for our sins (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9), not following rules or doing the right thing. We cannot do the right things, and even if we could we wouldn’t (Romans 3:23). It’s about living your life in a way that exemplifies the example and teaching Jesus gave us. Among other things, he taught us to love our neighbors AND our enemies and to love God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Her comparison of Jesus’ love to Nazis is ignorant and shows a real lack of understanding of the whole issue. I won’t bother commenting on that, because it’s an empty irrelevant argument. Many non-Christians have a problem with the concept of hell. They ask, “Why ‘would loving’ God send people to hell?” The short answer is this: God doesn’t send anyone to hell. He simply gives us a choice. Believe in His Son Jesus Christ, that he died for our sins and that He rose from the dead, and we are in need of a Savior because of our sins against God. “What sins?,” you might ask. Have you ever stolen anything? Everyone has, either directly (stealing something tangible) or indirectly (e.g. stealing time from your employer). You’ve broken one of God’s Ten Commandments. Have you ever lied? Broke another one. Have you ever looked as someone with lust in your heart? Jesus said that’s the same as committing adultery. What about being really angry with someone and calling them names? Jesus said that’s the same as murder. So, that’s four of the Ten Commandments already. Should I go on? I don’t think so. You get the idea. Romans 3:23 says that we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard. So we’re all headed for hell. Why, because God is a mean ogre who wants to send people to hell? No. Because we have all sinned. The solution? Someone or something has to pay for our sins, and that’s what Jesus did on the cross. We can never be “good enough” to earn our way into heaven. It doesn’t work that way. We simply have to acknowledge our need for forgiveness of our sins and trust in what Jesus did for us. Then, as a result, out of gratitude for what God has done for us, we should live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him, following the example and teaching of Jesus.
The issue of submission is an often misunderstood concept. For instance, Jesus submitted to God the Father and the church submits to Jesus. In both cases, the submission is voluntary and the relationship is totally healthy. Christian men and women who understand the concept of submission of women do not abuse it. Men who lord it over their wives are not applying it correctly. Men are told to be willing to lay down their lives for their wives. Women are NOT told to be doormats with no thoughts or opinions of their own, and they are not told that they are completely at the control of their husbands. This is simply not true. I realize that feminist-oriented women believe that men and women should be equal in every way and every situation, but that just isn’t true and it doesn’t work. Men and women are different, whether you want to admit it or not. We are built differently physically, we are wired different emotionally, and we are designed differently physiologically. In a healthy Christian marriage, the issue of submission is rarely even an issue. Why? Because the husband and wife are a team who work together to make decisions and solve problems. One of the only times submission would really come into play would be if the husband and wife are at a stalemate on a decision and they just can’t seem to agree on it. At this point, submission would mean that the wife simply turns the issue over to the husband, trusting and knowing that he has her best interest at heart and that he will strive to make the best decision for both of them with God’s help. As a woman in this situation, wouldn’t it be freeing to know you have a husband you can trust this much, who you know would give his life to save yours and who you know will do the right thing and make the right decision? This is a more accurate definition of submission, not the distorted views held by anti-Christian, anti-men feminists. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and a man is supposed to be the head of the household in the same way. Jesus was a servant-leader, not a dictator. Everything he did was loving and unselfish, and a Christian husband is supposed to do the same thing, putting his wife’s needs before his own. Anything less is not in line with what the Bible teaches. That, my friends, is a more accurate description of biblical submission.