Feminism has led to aggressiveness on the part of the wife, the mother. She is setting herself up as an equal, and undermining the influence of the father in the minds of the children. The unhappy result is the totally false and wrong approach to the whole question. I do not say this in a spirit of criticism. We are seeing this increasingly in this country [England], but to nothing like the extent to which they are see it in the United States of America. There, you have what may more or less be called a matriarchal society, and the man is becoming increasingly regarded merely as the one to provide the dollars, the wage-earner, the man who brings in the necessary money. The woman, the mother, is the cultured person, and the head of the home; and the children look to her. This false unscriptural view of man and woman, and father and mother leads to a matriarchal society, which, it seems to me, is most dangerous. The result is, of course, the growth of crime and all the terrible social problems with which they are grappling in that country. Then, because they influence every other country through their films and in various other ways, this attitude is being spread throughout the entire world. A matriarchal society with the woman as the head and centre of the home is a denial of the biblical teaching, and is, indeed, a repetition of the old sin of Eve.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg. 113
"She is setting herself as an equal" is precisely the sort of teaching that feeds feminism, with the definite sense that men are superior to women. Women daring to be the cultured person?? Where anywhere in the bible does it say that women aren't to be cultured? Where does it say that children should or could only look to the dad or the mum but can't or shouldn't look to both? Sometimes it is easy to think that writers are projecting their own beliefs into a text rather than the other way round.
ReplyDeleteMartin,
ReplyDeleteCONTEXT.
The point is that they say women are to be all these things while the men are to be the dumb ones. And no, the woman is NOT equal in that the wife is 2nd in command in the home. He's not saying a woman is not to be "cultured" rather he is making an opposite statement -- the thought is that the husband is to be none of these things and the wife is to be all of them.
I think it has been expressed really badly then, Paul didn't use specific teaching using the word equality (a very loaded idea) and I would suggest he was wise. We need to use terms such as different role rather than unequal and I would suggest that many men and women don't use terms like second in command or unequal but still maintain a biblical compatability. If the man is like Christ in the home then washing of feet and service would be key.
ReplyDeleteMartin,
ReplyDeleteI think you are getting emotional about semantics. Whether Paul used the words is irrelevant if the words used convey the same thing.
A wife is NOT equal in the home to her husband as far as the leadership role -- she is 2nd in command. She is equal to her husband as a human and as a Christian. Different roles often have a hierarchy, which doesn't lead to inequality of humanity, rather it is "inequality" of leadership. Yes, "equality" is a very loaded word, especially in today's culture of the LEFT. But the fact remains as MLJ stated it.