Lies About Submission

Here's a topic that came up recently on one of the message boards I frequent. What lies about submission have you been taught? I've sure been taught a lot of lies about submission! Many of them from Christian forums. Here are some that come to mind right away.

• The husband is the boss of the wife.

• The wife has to obey her husband.

• Egalitarian marriage is a myth.

• If the husband isn't in charge of the finances, he's rebelling against God.

• If the wife works outside the home, she's rebelling against God, especially if she earns more than her husband does.

• The wife should follow her husband except into sin. She lacks the discernment to know if something is sin or not, so she should just give him the benefit of the doubt and obey anyway.

• A wife can't go wrong by obeying her husband.

• If the husband beats his wife, it's because she isn't submissive enough.

• If she questions his decision, she is usurping his authority and is engaging in witchcraft (rebellion).

• All husbands want quiet, submissive, stay-at-home wives who raise the children and keep house perfectly... even if they say otherwise.

• The male ego is fragile; a wife shouldn't be better than her husband at anything, or else he'll feel threatened.

• Marriage should be based on a military model. The man giving the orders and the woman jumping to obey them. This is a relationship of "equals."

• The husband is spiritually stronger than the wife; that's why he should obey God, while his wife should obey him.

• God gave women husbands because they're incapable of discerning his will for themselves; they need husbands to act as "priest of the home" and be their go-between.

• Wives are more easily deceived than husbands; that's why they should trust his judgment over their own, keep their mouths shut, and obey him even if their intellect and instincts are leading them differently.

LIES, LIES, LIES!

Thank God that neither my husband nor I are trapped by these lies any longer, and that our marriage is able to grow as God intended it.