We get to their Affirmation #6. Seeking to be holy, they finally bring Christ into the picture. They use holy speak of Redemption in Christ. This is the only one of their Affirmations about Jesus, and they get this one wrong, too. Of course they go back to the famous “Fall” mentioned in Genesis and the curse. Oh my gosh, you gotta laugh at the contortions they go through to justify denying women their full humanity before God and their full salvation thru Christ.
As explained previously, this is the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s signature statement which they call The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. This is one of the most misogynistic documents in modern Christianity. However, the Southern Baptist Convention half wrote it and endorses it and they teach it in their seminaries, and other entities have adopted it. This post is a continuation of my explanation (using a little fun because you gotta laugh).
Their Affirmation #6 has three parts to their “Redemption in Christ” and aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.
My Response to Part #1. That is a made-up, distorted theology. Redemption in Christ has nothing to do with male and female relationships. Redemption is about healing both men’s and women’s relationship to God.
Part #2. Husbands should love their wives and women should be happy to submit and let hubby do all the family stuff.
My Response to Part #2. A better statement by the Council would have simply read: “Husbands and wives should respect and love each other and raise their children to love the Lord, as they themselves do.” However, they did not do that. That would have endorsed female equality and would have negated the entire Danvers Statement. So let’s continue with what they did say.
The simple reading of these scriptures instructs wives to submit to their husbands. The Council apparently realized there was a problem with this and decided to pretty it up. Leadership is not mentioned in the scriptures they give. And, even though men are told to love their wives and not harm them, in actuality, a husband can be in love with his wife and still physically and emotionally harm her.
Another problem is that these scriptures do not instruct women in how to accept the authority of her husband, which is not surprising since these scriptures do not give a husband authority.
For centuries men have allowed no exceptions to these scriptures, and if these scriptures are followed as written, it means wives are to submit to their husbands in any and all situations, and to any and all men who are husbands, redeemed or not, and harsh or not.
Men and governments have used these scriptures against women and have allowed wives to be abused, both physically and mentally. Many husbands who do not even attend church, abuse their wives based on these scriptures. There are instances of pastors telling women that they must submit to certain levels of abuse, including physical abuse, because women are to submit to their husbands, redeemed or not.
Wives do not need to be under the authority of a husband-leader. What man wants a wife-child as a companion? The woman Adam was given in the Garden was a companion fully grown and fully responsible. It is our children who need leaders—the leadership of both mothers and fathers.
Part #3. Guess what! Women can receive salvation and go to heaven, too! Guess What again! She can do everything in church that a man won’t do.
My Response. They do not deny that women can receive salvation; it is just that women’s salvation comes with restrictions. According to Bruce Ware, a woman’s salvation comes first by accepting the “role” he says God gave her, and then by accepting God.4
This is where they tell women that they cannot do this and cannot do that in church. Of course each church decides exactly what this and that means. One rule of thumb is to see what the church considers “important” work, and that is for men; the rest can be done by either women or men.
Next Blog: Affirmation #7, #8, #9, #10. Wifey is supposed to determine if he is asking her to sin and other stuff
Shirley Taylor Books (available on Amazon in print and on Kindle)
The Biblical Marriage Myth: The Devil Comes Calling
The Power of a Book: The Street Evangelist
Raising the Hood: A Christian Look at Manhood and Womanhood
Women Equal – No Buts: Powered by the Same Source
Dethroning Male Headship: 2nd Edition
From Wife to Widow: What I Know Now
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