Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Evangelical Women are to Be Submissive To Their Husbands

I almost jumped up and screamed at Sally Quinn when she said this as she was beig interviewed on CNN yesterday.


Now, Ms. Quinn knows a thing about religion as she founded and moderates a blog on the Washington Post called "On Faith".  However, it really makes me mad when people keep twisting Ephesians 5:22 - 33.  Basically, everyone stops at Ephesians 5:24.  Men seem to turn their ears off at verse 25 where it states "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..."  When you look at it this way, we women just need to respect our husbands, our husbands need to love us and be willing to give up their lives for us. 


Palin's Pregnancy Problem


I'll be honest, I bristled at this verse for years before I had some really good Bible teaching on what God really meant by it.  I recommend the book Love and Respect for an indepth look into this verse and what it means about relationships.  I'm not going to get into a theological argument on what this verse means - - other than to say I know it does not mean women are less than men.  I know it does not mean that women must subservient to men.  At its base, we are suppose to be respectful to the men in our lives and men are to be loving to the women in their lives.


Now where the heck am I going?  Sally Quinn pretty much stated on CNN that Palin's priority should really be in the home especially in her current situation with a special needs baby and a pregnant daughter.  Quinn said something along the lines about how Palin was so different from Evangelical women in that she works outside the home.  As an Evangelical woman, I was really insulted by that.


Why do so many people think that, if you are a Christian woman, your place is to be married, in the home with a bunch of children?  Why do some people think that if you are a Christian woman, that you shouldn't have a successful or powerful career?  Why do people think that the only way a Christian woman can be fulfilled is to be married with children?  God doesn't call all of us to be wives and mothers.  God doesn't call all wives and mothers to be 'stay at home'.  Take Deborah, one of the Old Testament judges - - God even punished a man for not stepping up and taking the 'lead' as God intended men to do (Judges 4:4-10).  Read Proverbs 31, a Queen is instructing her son, a prince, a future leader, on the type of woman he should be looking for.  She tells him to find a woman that is a good manager, financially responsible, someone who can buy and sell her own property, invest her earnings, run a business, is charitable, kind, and supportive of him.


So many of the critics of Palin and her mothering ability talk as if she is a single mom.  She's married and her husband is the stay at home parent.  Her husband plays the roll that most women play.  A role reversal.  Not the norm.  But the children aren't neglected and running amuck. 


My best friend from Smalltown, Ohio, is an executive with a large U.S. corporation.  She has always made more money than her husband.  Her husband, a college graduate with an Econ degree, decided after several years in corporate America that it wasn't for him.  He liked being outdoors and building stuff.  BF realized that her husband was much happier not working 9-5 in some office.  A happier husband made for a better marriage.  They decided, and she supported his choice.  Her family back in Ohio had a hard time with this - - especially when they decided to have a family.  BF's hubby is a stay at home dad.  He loves it.  Would my friend like to stay at home with their kids?  Of course she would, but that isn't how things were to be.  Feminism gave my BF this opportunity, it gave them the freedom to reverse the rolls.


As an Evangelical woman, I can tell you, for me, Palin's motherhood/grand motherhood is not an issue for me.


 

6 comments:

liberal army wife said...

why do we think this? Because we get evangelical women and men screaming at us that we should!

LAW

Anonymous said...

Our liberal media just like to show us the evangelical nut jobs.
They don't show the million of us sane, normal people that also are Christians.

liberal army wife said...

perhaps, but those that I have met, are very much in that vein, including members of my husband's family. Those same "good Christians" that gave us the cold shoulder after they found out that we aren't of any religion, and ignored me completely whilst my husband was deployed, even when living in the same state, same county.

I'm sick of being told I am going to hell, that I will burn etc etc... because I don't believe EXACTLY the way they do. I'm sick of hearing my son tell me about the snake handling evangelicals that are in his wife's family, who want to cast the devil out of him (he has PTSD, not a devil) Enough already.

LAW

Samantha West said...

Like everything that humans touch, some people bring an ugliness to Christianity that is not inherent to it. These people would bring their ugly, sometimes vile, attitudes to any religion. They are not the majority of Christians

RangersGirl said...

I so agree with everything all you you commented.

I got turned off to Christianity thanks to a super conservative Catholic in my life who believed that if you weren't Catholic you were going to hell, among the other hateful things he said.

I just remember that Religion is about acts -- men doing things inorder to be saved -- Christianity really isn't a religion - - its about a relationship with God.

LAW, good grief - - I'm so sorry your son is dealing with the snake handling evangelicals. And I'm so that other family members just left you hanging during your husband's deployment. The only thing I can say is Christians are sinners like everyone else.

Anonymous said...

Any large group is going to have it's wacky fringes.

I don't judge all animal lovers by the PETA wackos that value animal life above humans.
I don't judge all environmentalist by the ones that burn SUV's.
I don't judge all NRA members by those that think they should be able to own machine guns.
I don't judge all pro-lifers by those that bomb abortion clinics.
I don't judge all Muslims by the 9/11 terrorists.
I don't judge all feminist by the man hating militants.
I don't judge all liberals by the Code Pink crazies.
I don't judge everyone with a Southern accent by KKK members.

The vast majority of all environmentalist, gun owners, feminists, liberals, Muslims, animal lovers, and pro-lifers are normal sane people.
The vast majority of all Christians are too. Don't judge one group by the bad behavior of a small part of it.

Sincerely,
A gun owning, pro-life, feminist, Southern Christian.