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The selection of Rick Warren to speak at Obama’s inauguration has liberals outraged, as John Hawkins shows (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!). Feminists in particular seem especially angry, presumably because Warren compares abortion to the Holocaust. He’s been labeled a bigot repeatedly.
I think Feministe, though, sums up the real problem liberals are having here rather well:
While we on the left obviously do need to understand that Obama is going to make compromises and he’s going to disappoint us, it’s crucial that we don’t just follow in lockstep. Part of the reason the religious right has political capital is because they kick and scream and mobilize when their agenda isn’t on the table. It strikes me as phenomenally stupid for progressives to sit down and shut up now that we have a center-left President-elect. Instead, this should be the time for us to really raise our voices and remind Obama that we are his base and we are part of the electorate as much as religious conservatives. Sitting around backing up his more moderate decisions isn’t going to give him any incentive to move left. We have to be pragmatic, and we have to understand why he takes a particular course (and we have to remember that he’s not a left-wing dream; he’s a fairly moderate Democrat). But insisting that everyone get in line and support every decision he makes is not a good strategy if we want to give him a reason — and the ability — to support our agenda.
Aside from the insane notion that Obama is a moderate — and out of curiosity, if he isn’t the left-wing dream, what the hell is?? — it’s especially interesting how honest this post was. The real issue at hand is that Obama is “catering” to the “religious right”. Get it? He’s supposed to do nothing but appease the radical liberals, and ignore anyone who doesn’t fit exactly into that mold. The terrifying notion is that apparently, Obama needs to move more to the left!
The other interesting thing about the Feministe post was the whining about Rick Warren’s advocacy for wives to submit to their husbands, as is said in the Bible. Now I know, that goes against everything feminism holds dear: a woman actually deferring to a man?! SEXIST!!! But if there were any feminists willing to delve a little deeper into what God asks of men and women in their marriage, perhaps they wouldn’t find it so terrible.
The commandment for wives to submit to their husbands is found in Ephesians, and goes as follows:
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Notice how much emphasis is put on how much the husband is supposed to sacrifice for his wife, how much he is supposed to love her. Women, meanwhile, are supposed to respect their husbands and submit to them. The fact that feminists do not understand this at all shows that, as usual, they have absolutely zero understanding of men and healthy relationships.
See, for most men and most women, they want different things. Men need respect more than they need love. If a man’s wife loves him more than anything in the world, but never shows him any respect, he will be unhappy. Likewise, women do not crave respect the way that they crave love. A woman needs to know that her husband loves her, and that she will always come first to him. And while everyone is different and there are of course exceptions to every rule, it stands to reason that men would rather be unloved than disrespected, and women would rather be disrespected than unloved. Could it possibly be that this Bible verse is simply advocating that we give our spouses what it is that they need?
Of course, when it comes to feminism, that wouldn’t matter anyway, because it would get in the way of their shrill screeching of SEXISM!!!!! But like I said, if feminists had even the slightest understanding of men, they likely would not get so offended at the command for wives to respect their husbands… but then again, they also likely wouldn’t be feminists anymore, either.
And because Rick Warren, a Christian, wants to follow the commands presented in the Bible (a shocking concept, I know — a Christian following the Bible!), it’s one more notch against him, unsurprisingly. Add in the fact that he’s — gasp!! — against abortion (another shocking concept, a Christian who is pro-life) and he doesn’t stand a chance with feminists. And given the ideological strangehold currently in existence in feminism, anyone whose ideas aren’t perfectly in synch with the feminist leaders aren’t allowed. Not only are they not allowed, but they shouldn’t be given a platform and probably shouldn’t even exist!
I’m not a huge Rick Warren follower, but it is really sad to see someone so demonized by the left simply for daring to lead his life using Judeo-Christian ideals. It’s not surprising in the least, but it is still very, very sad.
Like you, Cassy, I’m not much of a Warren fan. If lefties could think for a second, they would realize that Warren treated Obama decently over the last year and he’s in Obama’s camp on many things (climate change, government poverty programs, etc.).
Your understanding of Ephisians is correct. Most critics of Christianity fail to understand that telling husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the church is very powerful. Any man who treats his wife with love, respct, compassion, understanding and with a servant’s heart will be a very happy husband because he’s made his wife the queen.
Telling wives to submit to their husbands plays very much into the male ego. What man doesn’t want to be the king of his castle? But if his wife is a constant nag and kicks him around, he won’t love her or even be nice to each other.
Following Ephesians is the greatest protection against divorce.
Or, in simpler terms, to quote the wisdom of Jeff Foxworthy: “Rule number one: If she ain’t happy, you ain’t happy. And if she’s unhappy long enough, you’re going to be unhappy with just half your stuff.”
J David says: Quoting Scripture like this is pretty radical, there, Cassy. A good way to extend a conservative male audience, but what about all of the “empowered women” out there?
The Left hates a happy home with every fiber of their being, and the culture is falling, as well as the country being mortally endangered, starting in the destruction of the nuclear family. Every structure in society, governmental, corporate, religious, or whatever, has a chain of authority(and the “leader” is really the final scapegoat), as well as the family. That does not make the rights of each member “unequal” just because everyone is not making the final call on decisions, equally important duties of each are just differently defined. The duty of the husband to obey Christ is heavier even than the duty of the wife to obey the husband(through whom God’s will is dispensed once she voluntarily takes the VOW to obey at the wedding)
Had my evangelical mother simply obeyed this scripture, which, as the daughter of a pastor, she knew very well, I would likely have married twenty+ years ago, my parents would be financially secure right now, and there would have been infinitely less stress in the home, among many things.
If God were only “fair”(just), He would have wiped out the human race, and there wouldn’t have been a Christmas (or an Easter), but He is merciful as well as just, and gracious on top of that(He doesn’t give us what we deserve, and we don’t deserve what he does give us), and He tells us how to live for our benefit, not to be oppressive. Those who do not trust and obey suffer the natural consequences for spurning God’s way for their own.
btenney says: Don’t Know any Scripture, Never felt the presence of God. Don’t have any problem with Birth Control.
Abortion feels like Murder. With the emphasis on late term Abortion, how long until the death of a 2 or 3 year old is accepted as ‘Extremely Late Term Abortion’?
I’ve become a regular reader of yours since Ace linked you on the dress code post, and you’re consistently right-on.
It will be interesting to see how many commenters you get in the next few days with some variant of “I’m not a big fan of Rick Warren, but…” and the same would be true for me. I’m not here to bash Warren, but he’s no more an example of the “Christian Right” than Obama is an example of a “moderate.” Watching the activist left blow fuses over Warren and his watered-down Gospel-lite, you’ve got to imagine the meltdown they’d suffer if confronted by the hardcore real deal.
Just to engage your Biblical theme (occupational hazard), I’m going to add a touch for the husbands, especially those who like to press the “submit” message. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…” How much did Christ love the church? Enough to give His life for it. If we men are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, it seems to me that means if we’re not willing to sacrifice and even die for our wives, we’re falling short.
Keep up the good writing, Cassy – looking forward to reading more…
As a married woman, I find this post’s claims about the needs of men and women utterly ludicrous. Many women divorce their husbands precisely because they feel disrespected; their husbands might “love” them in the way one loves an inferior, but their husbands don’t respect the women’s contributions to family welfare.
My husband is politically conservative, but one reason I am happy to be married to him is that he realizes that his father’s lack of respect for his mother’s work was a destructive force in their marriage, and he is committed to showing me respect as well as love. We argue about politics a lot, but when I point out to him that he is disrespecting me (as when he asked me not to talk publicly about his boss, but had been bad-mouthing my employer), he recognizes this is a problem and stops. He doesn’t say, “But I looove you, so it’s OK for me to disrespect you, since women don’t really need respect.”
Indeed, this very binary between love and respect is bizarre. You cannot truly love an equal without respecting him. And respect without love is a sentiment for the workplace, not for the family.
Knott Buyinit says: “See, for most men and most women, they want different things. Men need respect more than they need love. If a man’s wife loves him more than anything in the world, but never shows him any respect, he will be unhappy. Likewise, women do not crave respect the way that they crave love. A woman needs to know that her husband loves her, and that she will always come first to him.”
I’m old enough to be your grandfather, yet you just taught me something. Thanks! (And Merry Christmas!)
Christoph says: Originally I expected terrible things from Obama. With his past associations and attempts to hide or minimize them, this seemed prudent.
It still seems prudent to be on guard for totalitarian impulses (that’s always prudent according to the founding fathers and they were wise men: It’s trebly so when your elected President has ties to domestic terrorists who, among other things, planned mass exterminations of their political opponents) yet at the same time, his appointments haven’t all been insane. Warren, who is to speak at Obama’s inauguration, certainly seems like a good fellow.
This is either window dressing for a deeper plan (dictators often kissed a bunch of ass on the way up) or perhaps he simply wants to do the best job possible, despite his mushy liberal head.
I pray for the latter and am more optimistic about it as a possibility than I was a month ago.
Good analysis, Cassy. The “submit” part always gets the press (remember the brouhaha over the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution a few years ago?), but the next part is even more radical. How did Christ show His love? By laying down His life, killed for things He didn’t even do – claiming to be God isn’t blasphemy if it’s true! (Note to any atheists – I’m not interested in debating this.)
And, Christoph, on November 5th, someone asked me how I felt about it (meaning the election). I had calmed down enough to be rational, and I said “Well, this is what he wanted – well, he’s got it.” I’m softening a bit – he hasn’t appointed nearly as leftward-leaning a cabinet as he could have. Some of his picks are suspect, but so were some from the current administration. (I’m still praying for the excellent health of all Supreme Court justices.)
I really hope (heh) that he is able to pull off the change (heh) that our country needs. He certainly moderated from the primaries to the general election, and it looks like, now that he’s privy to things like classified threat reports, that he’s moderating even further. I can’t help but think, as we see the downfall of Gov. Blago and company, if maybe Obama didn’t just use them to get to the top, and is now throwing them under the bus (figuratively, of course – he’s not a Clinton).
Of course, I could be wrong – it’s happened a time or two before. I guess I’d describe myself as cynically optimistic.
Daniel, I like to use the term ‘pragmatic’. I always hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
As for the biblical references – it’s funny, I am not a particularly religious person but that is exactly the way my wife and I are. She is a queen in my eyes and I am here to protect, defend and care for her. In turn she defers to my judgment and I am in charge.
I still as her opinion because I value it, but if I decide something she never second guesses me, instead she supports me and if I turn out to be wrong she never throws it in my face.
Guess I got lucky 🙂
btenney says: I just can’t pass up an Opportunity to say again,”If Abortion is your preferred method of Birth Contol, You are a Slut”.
qaz says: “Likewise, women do not crave respect the way that they crave love.”
I disagree, I crave respect much more than love and so do many women if they really stopped to think about it.
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