Christians:is this sexist..."Husbands, submit to your wives as to the Goddess. For the Goddess is the .....?

Question

...head of the people, Her body, of whom She is Mother. Now as the people submit to the Mother, so also husbands should submit to their wives in everything." Ephesians 5:22-24, role reversal translation.

Christians, I presume you are familiar with the original text. If you think and believe that men and women are equal but you still think the original verses are OK, how do you feel about them with the roles reversed?

Answer 1

And out came the patriarchal Fundamentalists, preaching everythng from Males as "head of the divine order" to "we have dominion over all the animals and plants".

Give me a break, folks. You BARELY have dominion over your OWN lusts and greed. Do you TRULY think that YOU have dominion over the animals and platns as well? Let's just TEST your dominion. Tell your cat to "go lay down" and just SEE how much dominion you have over a "lowly cat". *Roaring with laughter*.

Morgana, again you are tugging on the tail of the Tiger. They are NOT going to respond to you in ANY sort of favorable way, whatsoever. At least NOT the Fundamentalists. The TRUE Christians on the other hand, WILL respond to your question favorably, or at the very least neutrally. The Fundamentalists see the world as a MALE dominated society and simply will never accept Women as EQUAL, let alone as a dominant force in the universe. It's a shame too. Women have a LOT to offer to our World and just because they are women, they may not get the chance to heavily influence things for a long while yet. We NEED such influence NOW, more than ever but, the males will not willingly surrender their "authority" until the women give them NO other alternative.

Yes, I AM a male, BUT, in the "battle" for recognition of the importance of having FEMALE authority and influence on Human destiny, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Women on this issue. Unequivically.

Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green Witch

Answer 2

possibly we do not know approximately all the goddesses. there is one significant character in the Mahabharata, Draupadi, who has 5 husbands, even with the reality that she's not a goddess. that's thrilling, yet i don't know if there is any particular ingredient being made by that for the period of the story line or in the symbolism the two. She is considered to be a woman of great purity. it might desire to be that lots of the story relies upon heavily on symbolism & the sound of the Sanskrit extremely than on literal meaning. the midsection of the Mahabharata is discovered in the Bhagavad Gita, wherein Krishna instructs Arjuna on a thank you to tutor inward for his capability. different than that, i'm overjoyed that the story of Draupadi is there. i admire the version in the form of a different, The 5 Sons of King Pandu by Elizabeth Seeger. She's a stable author, yet regrettably, she wasn't as much as such using fact the Bhagavad Gita. She additionally tells the story of The Ramayana, yet another sought after e book. even although, Rama's spouse Sita in basic terms has one husband, & he in basic terms has one spouse so some distance as i know. Rama & Sita are a God & Goddess. i don't think of it incredibly takes faraway from those memories to be afflicted that those would be considered myths that have been written by human beings. effective. they're myths. they're nevertheless inspiring & captivating works of literature that pass some time past in time.

Answer 3

Ok, but only if you are willing to accept the role reversal where the woman has to love the man through the ultimate torture and death and the responsibility that comes with that. It seems that people constantly forget that the Bible does not hold back from the man because it says the husband must love their wife as Christ loves the church, in other words crucifixion and if you do know that that entails it is basically the worst pain that can be imagined and then some.

Answer 4

I do believe Raji put it quite perfectly =]

quite frankly, the only problem a lot of Christians will have with this question is that it just makes too much sense...do you see how many defensive (or just illogical) answers you got? as opposed to *anything* that would make your arguement any weaker?
well *I* think that does a great job of answering your question, on it's own really.
hehe I'll suffice it to say; I agree!

blessed be

Answer 5

It's just as sexist in this translation as in the original. The Goddess does not ask submission from us; nor should we ask for submission from our husbands.

But I'm sure you know that, and are looking for reactions. You do realize this like throwing rocks at a hornets nest, don't you? It may be amusing to watch, but you're going to get stung.

Answer 6

Are you going to reverse the roles on the scripture that has serpants crawling on their bellies, eating dust? On the scripture that has children subservant to their parents? To the soil that we walk all over all day? To the animal and plant life over which we have dominion?

WHY do you believe that because God has different roles for men and women that that is sexism? That's like saying that because the buttocks is for excrement that it is discriminatory against the urethra. What?! Men have their role, women theirs, soil its, animals theirs, mountains its, and SO ON! It is not sexist or mountainous or soiled to say that there are different roles. YOU are the one putting value judgements on them. In your mind a woman's role is less than a man's. So, you want to saddle God with the sexist label? Nice try!

Answer 7

Good grief people! Does no one have a Bible? Eph. 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christalso loved the church, and gave himself for it. continue reading and it seems a little less one sided. Very simply one person is responsible for the house hold it is a chain like you would find at work. Achild is responsible to his parents, a wife is responsible to her husband and her husband is responsible to Christ. Sorry ladies it sounds sexist but a mans responsibities is to support and lead his family and the wife was created to help.
But if you continue reading it states explicitly we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church up to and including sacrificing ourselves. It says a little further down to love our wives as we love ourselves and that no man hateth his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it as the LORD does the church!
So while in this day and age it seems sexist if people followed the whole thing marriages would be stronger and society as a whole would benefit, but everyone sees the word submit and quits reading! A husband and wife are one flesh and should be in submission to each other, but the husband bears the responsibity in Gods eyes.

Answer 8

I would advise you not to play with changing the Word of God. He wrote it a specific way for a specific reason.
Wives are called to submit to the authority of the husband and to respect his position of leadership, not to become dirt under his feet. Spiritually, man and wife are equal, but in the marriage relationship, God designed it the way He said. When you flip the balance He created, all that results in frustration and confusion. It doesn't work! Like I said, there is a purpose for the way He made it, and trying to change anything that God said is the most disastrous thing anyone could ever do.

Answer 9

I'm Catholic.
You could say the cat is the head of the family and it would make no difference to me. It's not like the constitution, the bible can't be amended.

Answer 10

Lady Morgana, you're making me hot with all this talk about needing to submit to a goddess.

Need I say "Happily!"