Male headship theology

It is important to understand this theology. It is pervasive. While Baptists do not directly say that young women should remain at home under the rule of their fathers, they promote the belief that mothers and children are to be ruled by the husband.

Russell Moore, when he was president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said egalitarian couples “preach a false gospel” by viewing men and women as equal partners in marriage. Moore said, “And sometimes you have people who are preaching a false gospel to themselves in their homes by men who aren’t loving their wives as themselves and wives who aren’t submitting to their husbands…That then plays itself out in other ways later on in that person’s walk with Christ.” The original link is no longer active, but take my word for it or google and you can find it posted on other websites.

Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a recognized spokesman for all things Southern Baptist, wrote an article called “Women and Children First” which tells women that they are the losers when they seek equality. He tells women that they should go back to the time when men would give their lives for their wives, such as when the Titanic sank. Sounds good, but it will not float. It is patriarchy at its worst, and I repeat, this teaching is not found in the Bible. (Women and Children First? A Tale of Two Ships. March 8, 2010)

The Bible gives no examples of men giving up their lives for their wives or families. This is not to say they would not or did not, but there is no example in the Bible of men doing it. The patriarch Abraham gave up his wife to the Pharaoh’s bed to save his own skin. Esther, a woman, came close to giving up her life to save men’s lives when she defied another Pharaoh. Moses’ life was saved by three women: his mother, his sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter.

What Mohler doesn’t understand is that women have always been willing to give their own lives to birth children in order to have children or so that their husbands have an heir in societies where that is their main purpose. Men have never been put to that test, and to suggest that men are more noble than women is foolish.

How are you going to convince men to give up their lives for their wives? Why should they? Jesus gave his life for us, and that is sufficient sacrifice for women.

Reposted from 2013.