🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm no baptist and certainly no apoligist for their brand of Christianity,
but I think you don't understand their teachings on this matter at all. 
What I am saying is that you have misstated the teaching grossly, so I
really don't see how your dire predictions of family dissolution can
possibly be valid.  That's not to say that I completely agree with this
teaching either, but I will say that we should consider the opposite.  What
if neither partner ever submitted?  What if both continued in a stubborn
willfulness?  Is this good for the children?  Is this the Christian
realization of the family?  Certainly not.  

Spousal power struggles?  To worry about this shows a complete
misunderstanding of the very nature of marriage itself.  Whatever happened
to unselfish, disinterested Love?  Discussions of power don't leave much
room for this.

C.S. Mills <chmills@flash.net> wrote in article
<35AA7B5F.49CB@flash.net>...
> --The recent change in the  (Southern) Baptist Faith and Message
> regarding women submitting to their husbands and disciplining of
> children could have
> serious repercussions on children of already dysfunctional  Baptist
> families.
> --The Southern Baptist Convention has oversimplified spousal power
> struggles by the changes they  have made to their Baptist Faith and
> Message.  Baptist pastoral support for wives  to honestly and
> vigorously  communicate their own views in the marriage will decrease
> with this renewed emphasis on wifely submission and on the husband as
> God's spokesman in the home. 
> --Any time forthright communication shuts down, problems in
> relationships get hidden. 
> --In this case, when the more timid "good Baptist wife" (of which there
> are many) feels that the Bible stops her from talking openly to her
> husband, her friends, or even her pastor  about family matters upon
> which her  husband disagrees with her (she is to "submit graciously"),
> she may well turn to her children as her only allies. 
> --Children pay the greatest emotional price when parents use their
> children as pawns in family power games. Make no mistake about it, when
> vigorous parental  communication is blocked by giving the message that
> only one parent hears the voice of God regarding family matters, the
> children will become pawns of one or both parents; ultimately, the
> children will get blamed for acting out their painfully felt distress in
> families  where parents use the kids to win the battles.  With the
> renewed emphasis upon disciplining the children, the children will be
> easily scapegoated. 
> --For all but the healthiest families, the newest additions to the
> Baptist Faith and Message will result in more dishonest, more
> manipulative parents, and emotionally sicker children.
> 
> C.S. Mills
> chmills@flash.net
>