Submission shouldn’t be a one-way street

Spring is here and love is in the air. This morning I awoke to news that one of my best friends is engaged. Two weeks ago I performed a liturgical dance to “The Prayer” at another pal’s wedding and I have two other friends getting hitched this summer. It’s all so romantic!

At the wedding I danced in a couple weeks ago the reverend officiating the ceremony made a statement that I wish I could broadcast in every church in the country. He said that the Bible describes marriage as a relationship based on mutual submission.

As a Christian feminist nothing gets my blood boiling like a person using the biblical command “Wives, submit to your husbands…” to excuse a man who is insensitive, demanding, controlling and even abusive.

These folks tend to ignore the fact that just a few verses down in Romans 5:25 are the words “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Both husbands and wives are to give themselves up for their partners, and you don’t even have to be a Christian to appreciate that it takes selflessness and compromise to make a relationship work. But if there’s only one person being selfless, only one person compromising all the time, that marriage is doomed at “I do.”

That is all. Now go brush up on the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle to get ready for all those wedding receptions.