Lux Lucet

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. (Col.3:19)

The Biblical doctrine of marriage is among the most hated teachings of Scripture. It is under constant assault both within and without the walls of the visible church. One of the reasons for this overt hostility, perhaps the main reason, is what the Bible has to say about the relationship between husband and wife. For the Bible does not support the sexual egalitarianism demanded in marriage by feminist theory, but rather Scripture teaches the marital relationship is one of headship and submission.

Of course, some feminists are more radical than others. Emma Goldman, a prominent anarchist from the early 20^th century, thought of marriage as a bad insurance policy and longed to see the institution ended altogether. She wrote,

“Marriage is primarily and economic arrangement, and insurance pact. It differs from the ordinary life insurance agreement only in that it is more binding, more exacting. Its returns are insignificantly small compared with the investments. In taking out an insurance policy, one pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue payments. If, however, woman’s premium is a husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life “until death doth part.”

Moreover, the marriage insurance condemns her to life-long dependency, to parasitism, to complete uselessness, individual as well as social.” (Emma Goldman in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings, Miriam Schneir ed., Vintage Books, New York, pg. 318)

Goldman also called marriage, “that poor little State and Church-begotten weed.” It would seem that Miss Goldman was confused about both the origin and nature of marriage.

One writer not thus confused on the subject of marriage was Gordon Clark. Commenting on Colossians 3:19, he wrote,

“Womens’ lib is anti-Christian because it has a wrong idea of woman’s role and an equally wrong idea of man. Man was created first, and then woman was made from man’s side for the purpose of being a help-meet to him. This superiority and inferiority is not the result of sin, but was inherent in the original state of righteousness. Sin destroyed the harmony, but the deleterious effects of sin will not be cancelled by the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment].

Goldman complained about the slave-like subjection of the wife in marriage. Because of sin, no doubt some marriages have indeed resembled her bleak portrait. But then, that sad state of affairs is the not the fault of Christian teaching and practice, but rather the lack of it. Clark continues,

“First of all, the subjection of the wife to her husband is a form of subjection appropriate to the Lord’s’ criteria. The wife is not a slave. Nor has the husband any authority to impose sinful burdens upon her. On the contrary, the husband must love his wife and not irritate her. The loving union is broken by adultery, and it is well to note that the Old Testament condemns both sinners, the man as well as the women, to the same penalty, namely, capital punishment.

Far from stripping women of their self-respect and usefulness as Goldman charges, marriage according to Christian doctrine teaches just the opposite. Now Goldman, who was raised an orthodox Jew and later declared herself an atheist, might have had an excuse for not understanding the doctrine of marriage as is fully explained in Scripture. But she had no excuse not to know what the Old Testament said about the usefulness and importance of wives. Clark comments,

“The Old Testament also assigns to the faithful wife important functions in the household. Read Proverbs 31:10-31.”

Drawing on another passage from the New Testament, Clark further notes,

Ephesians 5:25 commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, to the extent of sacrificing his life for hers.

Emma Goldman was a confused individual. Had she kept her confusion to herself, that would have been bad for her, but others would have been spared. She was, however, anything but silent, insisting on sowing her anti-Christian ideas far and wide. To the extent that her feminism triumphs, civility is destroyed. With this in mind, can anyone be surprised that our culture goes from bad to worse?