Because she hasn’t submitted to your husbandly ‘authority’, says Bruce Ware, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary (why oh why couldn’t he be an Episcopalian????)
Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said women desire to have their own way instead of submitting to their husbands because of sin. “And husbands on their parts, because they’re sinners, now respond to that threat to their authority either by being abusive, which is of course one of the ways men can respond when their authority is challenged–or, more commonly, to become passive, acquiescent, and simply not asserting the leadership they ought to as men in their homes and in churches,” Ware said from the pulpit of Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas.
Blah. If it’s sinful for women to ‘desire to have their own way’ why isn’t it sinful for men too? And what kind of disturbed vision of maleness does Ware hold to that he sees men as so weak and impotent that they can only respond to womanly assertiveness by pounding something or sulking? Fundamentalism… it’s been bankrupt since its birth but it’s still paraded by the ignorant.
Hmm… I am reading a bit on radical Islamism this summer for a new course prep this fall. They give the same argument. Sounds like this guy would like a Taliban in our backyard. Of course that was not very successful for the dignity of women…
Dear Jim, I don’t think Ware was advocating that men beat their wives; do you?
In fact, as you assert that men are sinners too, Ware also cited this, (most likely in the next breath of the comment he said on men beating wives):
“”He will have to rule, and because he’s a sinner, this can happen in one of two ways. It can happen either through ruling that is abusive and oppressive–and of course we all know the horrors of that and the ugliness of that–but here’s the other way in which he can respond when his authority is threatened. He can acquiesce. He can become passive. He can give up any responsibility that he thought he had to the leader in the relationship and just say ‘OK dear,’ ‘Whatever you say dear,’ ‘Fine dear’ and become a passive husband, because of sin.”
Is not Ware simply explaining how the “Fall” created the chaos in our world and turned the order of things upside down? selahV
The implication that if women just knuckled under because that is their duty is the problematic core. His explanation that this refusal is at the root of abuse is also nothing other than blaming the victim. His misreading and misapplication of the biblical text is astonishing- for the creation narratives DO NOT describe subordination- but cooperation. And Ephesians too -in saying that women are to ‘cooperate’ with their husbands is more accurate than ’submit’.
So all in all, he has it wrong all around.
Read the linked articles at ethicsdaily. It gets worse.
Husbands as intercessors? Wives as baby machines?
Gahhh.
Hello. I see a slight discrepancy in your entry. Is Bruce Ware professor at Southern or Southwestern Seminary?
“Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said women desire to have their own way instead of submitting to their husbands because of sin. ”
Wow. Morons like this are still walking around unsupervised, huh? No wonder religion gets a bad name.
Sorry- my bad- but in all honesty there is precious little difference (none at all) between SBTS and SWBTS. Now if I had mistakenly said “Princeton” I would deserve widespread excoriation.
Thanks so much for being a male voice in a world where female opposition to the teaching is considered normal and therefore not worth actually considering (according to their definition of Gen. 3:16, where we learn that women who aren’t godly will continually try to rebel against their assigned lot in life).
It’s hard to believe that this stuff is accepted as Biblical. In my opinion, even worse than the abused/abuser statements, was what Ware said about how women are saved. Men get sola fida, women get, er, fida + uvea (faith and womb)? Salvation by faith for men, but salvation through accepting Ware’s definition of female gender roles for women. And instead of being resoundly chastised, Ware’s sermon gets presented as insightful and biblical? Gar…
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I agree it sounds Islamic…
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