Practical Theology for Women
October 6, 2014
October 6, 2014
Submission and the Mutual Lust for Autonomy
Category Archives: Marriage
Confused About Submission? Some Clarification!
In a cut and dried world of blue skies and straightforward rules, the answer to misogyny is to cheerfully encourage women to suck it up and suffer like Christ. Problem solved with deeply ingrained theological beliefs still intact. It’s challenging to leave your spoon feeders behind you and sit down with just the Bible and your questions.
One of my favorite online friends, Jennifer Ross, is part of a documentary project that is being released August 26: Unmarried: The Rise of Singleness.
The price will be $18 when it is released, BUT – right now you can pre-purchase it for only $13.
This release falls in the same month our 20-year-old son will be marrying his 20-year-old fiance. One week to go, and I will be a mother-in-law. That feels weird to me, I have to admit. Wasn’t it only yesterday I was on a date with my 2-year-old in his favorite restaurant (McDonalds) eating french fries? Just the two of us? I can’t think of that without crying. It inspires me to smother my current 2-year-old with a few more hugs than he likes every day.
I’ll post some wedding pictures when it’s all over. In the meantime, check out this thought-provoking documentary HERE.
Should a Husband Force His Wife to Home School?
Picture this: it’s the Judgement Day, and you are standing next to your spouse and kids. Maybe your family of origin too. Maybe your friends from college. Hey, there’s a whole crowd of people you recognize all around you. It’s like “This is Your Life” from Sesame Street.
Will Someone Please Make Her Shut Up?
Whole Family Strong
May 1, 2013
May 1, 2013
Why do women feel the need to tell us the same junk over and over and over? Why do they feel the need to nag and complain about every stupid little thing? It’s aggravating. It’s demeaning. It becomes bullying after a while. It’s completely unnecessary. Seems like it should qualify as abuse. Can I get an amen out there?
Well, guys. Here’s the problem with that.
When I hear a guy complain about his nagging wife, I NEVER assume it’s her fault.
Never.
Read the rest of Will Someone Please Make Her Shut Up? by Erik Matlock
My own caveat about this post: there IS such a thing as a “nagging wife.” You know. A chronically self-centered, dissatisfied, ungrateful woman. Of course there is, or the Bible wouldn’t mention her. But in the majority of counseling cases when a woman initiates a cry for help, she isn’t being a “nag.” Her husband may SAY she is a nag, but she is not this woman the Bible is talking about. The husband is just using verses against her to confuse her, make her doubt herself, and keep her “in line” so he can control her while living however he wants to live. It is in defense of the majority of women who fall into THAT category that this guy is writing. Capiche?
Shut Up Wives
Practical Theology for Women
July 28, 2014
July 28, 2014
I’m an outspoken, feisty person. My husband is gentle and kind and easygoing. After I heard about the “shut your wife up or I’ll shut her up for you,” I spent years stifling my voice, afraid I’d get my loving husband “in trouble” with church leadership. All of this destroyed me because … it was coming from a pastor in the pulpit. I trusted him because he kept preaching about needing to blindly trust your pastors, and I didn’t want to disobey God. I feel like his teaching targets women from abusive backgrounds and screws them up further by insisting on trust and then spewing a skewed view of women.
Read the rest of The Harmful Teaching of Wives as Their Husband’s Porn Stars
Deprogramming from “Christian” Lies: Women Submit No Matter What Part Three
What if you are a wife, and your husband is not asking you to sin; he just doesn’t agree with you on things. How do you come to a final decision on something when you’ve reached an impasse?
Deprogramming from “Christian” Lies: Women Submit No Matter What (Part One)
A reader commented recently: “What do you think the Bible means when it tells Christian women to “submit” to their husbands? Do you think it was just for that culture?” Let’s figure that out.
The Role of Women in Their Own Destruction (Authority and Abuse Part Two)
One of the most destructive books for Christian women on the market (in my personal opinion) is Created to Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl. And there was a time when I recommended that book to women. I cringe to admit that. I would read her caustic message delivered in a sarcastic, critical, angry tone, and I would cheer. Now my flesh crawls.
“The problem with interpreting Genesis 3:16 to teach that women more than men have a desire to control is not that women don’t often act independently of God, but that, first, that’s not what this verse is saying, and two, men struggle with such lust for autonomy as much if not more than women. But who gets rebuked for rebellion in most modern Christian dialogue? Who gets instructed to obey their authorities? Have you heard an argument for submission lately that doesn’t focus on wives to husbands, kids to parents, or church members to elders? In my little neck of the woods, discussions on submission get aimed at these groups. Period. Today, I want to talk about our mutual lust for autonomy and the widespread need in the Body of Christ for submission that transcends gender. Who, oh husband, parent, pastor, or judge, are YOU submitted to? Who can tell you NO?”
Read the rest of this article by Wendy Alsup HERE.