kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie) (06/03/91)
James Quilty quoted Galatians 3:28 ("There is neither Jew nor Greek...")
to argue against treating men & women differently.
Paul Hudson replies:
>What does Paul mean by this verse? Do slaves have the right to leave
>their masters? Paul wrote many times that slaves should obey their
>masters, even as they were obeying the Lord.
The advice to Christian slaves strikes me as "evangelism by example" -- they
should behave so as to win their human masters to Christ. The advice to
Christian wives looks similar; consider Peter's instructions in 1 Peter 3:1.
My reading of Philemon is that a Christian slave-owner must treat his slaves
as brothers -- which means they are no longer slaves. In Ephesians 6:5-9,
Paul writes that slaves should obey their earthly masters; but he also writes
"And masters, treat your slaves the same way."
Why should a Christian husband do less for his wife?
-=-=-
I generally have a hard time understanding why people find it so upsetting
when someone suggests that women should be treated like people. I like to be
treated like an competent, intelligent person whose opinions matter and whose
wishes should be considered. By the Golden Rule, how I can I treat other
people differently? Why does it matter how many X chromosomes somebody has?
-=-=-
I am usually amused by the discussions about wives-obeying-their-husbands-
and-learning-in-submission-and-asking-questions-later, because my wife Nancy
is significantly more intelligent than I am. She is more educated, has a
better command of logic, a better command of Scripture, more experience with
different branches of Christianty, and a working knowledge of New Testament
Greek.
I should think that makes her a pretty good candidate for Church School
teacher. On the other hand, some conservative Christians don't like good
reasoning and command of Scripture, because these things sometimes undo
traditional teachings. "We may be a Bible-believing church, but we know
what we believe so don't you go bringing the Bible into it."
In any case, I have some questions for the wife-stays-quiet-and-asks-her-
husband-later-and-obeys-him crowd:
Suppose I tell Nancy to think for herself, act like a human being
instead of a robot, and speak her mind when she has something to say.
If she thereafter stops "being submissive" and all the rest, is it okay with
you? I ordered it and she is obeying, which is what you want. Will you now
permit us to run our marriage, or do you want to come over once a week and
check to see if our dinner conversation is right and proper?
I encourage Nancy to refute any fallacy which we come across, either in church
or elsewhere. (Not that she needs much prompting from me to pull out her
logical scissors and make paper dolls of bad arguments.) Is it okay with you
if Nancy complains in Sunday School when the commentary makes an invalid
conclusion? What if she has to explain to somebody (who happens to be an
adult human male) what the fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" is? She
*is* teaching men in church when she makes that explanation.
Or would you just prefer that Nancy let a fallible human teacher mislead
dozens of Christians?
kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu Darren F. Provine ...njin!gboro!kilroy
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for tranquiliser soap