Project Freethought

In my spare time I like to do some reading. As it happened, I stumbled upon a subject I found captivating as well as utterly astonishing. It read like a horror story straight from the front lines of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, or Iran; women, being taught to submit to their husbands for the love of God. As I continued to explore I was bewildered by what I found. American women being led by the likes of Martha Peace, a 62 –year-old Georgia native and former nurse, are being told to give up their own personal aspirations in exchange for the Lord’s system of righteousness. Submit and obey your husband, this was the message being disseminated. Martha Peace has written five books on biblical womanhood, conservative Christianity’s answer to the women’s movement. Among them are The Excellent Wife and Damsels in Distress, a set of biblical solutions to female problems ranging from PMS to depression to “feminist tendencies.” It’s common for a young Christian wife to rebel against home life as her primary ministry, Peace writes in Becoming a Titus 2 Woman, which lays out the principles of her ministry model.

I find it astonishing, in this day and age, women of all people are advocating abandoning the rights so many other women fought so hard for no more than 50 years ago. Women are told, by Peace, that their priorities may include rising early to feed the family, being available anytime to satisfy a husband’s desires (barring a few “ungodly” or “homosexual” acts), seeking his approval regarding work, appearance and leisure, and accepting that he has the final say in all arguments. She should accept her husband’s final answer as God’s will for her at that time. The wife should also suppress selfish desires for romance and careers; the wife should practice addressing her spouse in soothing tones. “If you disobey your husband,” Peace claims, “you are indirectly shaking your fist at God.” I can’t help but feel sorry for the people that are susceptible to such rhetoric. I’m sure this way of thinking is scarce?

Peace, frighteningly enough, is growing in popularity. She is a celebrity in fundamentalist circles, with appearances at conferences and Bible meetings throughout the world. But she is just one among hundreds of professional Titus 2 mentors, older women who help younger ones- as outlined by Apostle Paul in Titus 2:5 – “to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” Her presence is being felt and her dogma being accepted among the reformed evangelical community as well. Saddleback megachurch pastor Rick Warren, Obama’s controversial pick for the inaugural invocation, also preaches wifely submission. The church website cites Ephesians: “So you wives must willingly obey your husband in everything, just as the Church obeys Christ.”

As an alternative to the feminist movement, this disgusting submissive movement offers a division of duties and authority. Men, the embodiment of Christ, are the breadwinners and spiritual leaders in worship, decision making, finances, and sex. Women, representing the church, are encouragers, completers, and helpmeets, bound to transform the culture by example and to sacrifice in God’s honor. According to this movement the Lord’s system is righteous and ungrateful feelings are sins to be surmounted, and feminist rebellion is a cultural scourge to be eradicated. The radical leap taken by Titus 2 women is unconditional surrender, an army of women, fighting for their own subordination based on the promise that the meek shall inherit the Earth.