According to guest columnist Robert Parham in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson has announced that the school has begun offering classes to wives of soon-to-be pastors to "train women how to make a Christian home". Evidently this curriculum, offered at more than just this one Baptist seminary, is designed to "teach" women such skills as general homemaking, kitchen organizing, how to keep a day planner,sewing, etc. In other words ladies, the message is clear: stay at home and be subservient to your husbands.
More on the flip...
Writing with great wit, Parham says:
Yes, evidently there is a Christian way for wives to wash clothes, warm leftovers and wax floors. Having made June Cleaver the biblical model for motherhood, training the wives of ministers to be June Cleaver with a Christian twist shouldn't have come as a surprise. The SBC adopted a doctrinal statement in 1998 that a wife had "the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household."
A link to the entire article is here. This piece is a must read, especially if you enjoy quality snark.
Although this opinion piece humorously approaches the farcical concept of June Cleaver as a role model for today's women, it's realistic commentary on the fact that religious and other institutions, and people within them, continue to propagate the concept of subjugation of women.
The seminary President goes on to state:
We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God's word for the home and the family," Patterson told messengers in San Antonio. "If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed."
Yes, they are certainly moving against the tide, and let's hope the tide evolves into a Tsunami that washes this inaccurate Biblical interpretation and it's inherent bigotry into oblivion.
Parham goes on to say more about the curriculum:
The three-hour course on the biblical model for the family did not disclose whether polygamy, a commonly accepted Old Testament practice, was encouraged.
All snark aside, many believe that women have achieved equality in today's society. While undoubtedly significant strides have been accomplished, bear in mind there are many Paige Patterson's out there. They can be found in every institution, and not just religious institutions. Corporate America, government, politics, and even academia have their share of misogonyists who can never accept women as equals. The battle for true equality will continue as long as extremists continue to promote the fictional concept of the June Cleaver wife as reality.
Perhaps this story provides some insight to the feelings of Mary Winkler, the preacher's wife from Selmer, TN who killed her husband with a shotgun several months ago. In an alleged atmosphere of spousal abuse on the part of the husband, June Cleaver could well have shot Ward, too, even in the 50's.