“Most Southern Baptists do believe that while husband and wife are equal, that in a marriage the wife is to voluntarily place herself under ‘the servant leadership of her husband,'” said Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention public policy head and Sarah Palin groupie, in a Baptist Press column Friday.
SBC leadership has no problem fully grasping the mind of God and the clear intent of scripture on all matters. Yet when it comes to the role of women in church and society the application of their proclamations often is uneven.
But Land wants the Southern Baptist herd to follow him into the voting booth without hesitation. So he makes this clear point: women can be anything they want to be (if their husbands approve) except a pastor or the leader of their homes.
OK, we get that. And, when it comes to the home, Land explained, “the wife is to voluntarily place herself” under the authority of her husband.
And if she doesn’t? Then, apparently, she violates the clear male-female roles delineated in the Bible and is an affront to God.
That not something most good Christian women want to do. Sounds a lot more coercive than voluntary.
Some schools and courts require community service. If the work is required, it is not voluntary. Call yourself a community servant but not a volunteer.
That may be why the Apostle Paul talked about mutual submission for marital partners — just one of the many Bible verses and biblical concepts that fundamentalists choose to ignore.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
