“Total Subjugation”

That's what one person told me that Christianity does to women. It keeps them in total subjugation.

Hmm. No doubt women have been and are even today kept down. I read not too long ago that North American Universities are the worst offenders for pay inequity, with women in all areas being paid substantially less than their male counterparts. It must be because universities are such bastions of Christianity :-)

Nevertheless, people who call themselves Christians have been guilty of wrong behaviours. As an example, I was seeing a couple for marriage counselling. She was a business owner, very assertive and confident outside the home. But in the marriage she was terribly frustrated. The man was domineering and just a little bit this side of outright abusive. When I asked him how he justified such behaviours, he looked at me like I was the village idiot and referred me to Genesis 3:16 “The husband will rule over his wife.

I could feel his world begin to tilt when I pointed out to him that what he was referring to was a curse! Genesis 3:16 is not HOW a man should treat his wife specifically, or women in general. In that verse God is saying that now that sin has entered the world, one of the consequences was going to be men lording it over women. Rather than being prescriptive, God is saying because evil is now part of who you are, this is a tendency that you are going to have to resist.

This consequence of sin, was in contrast to how things were before the fall. It was in contrast to how things were meant to be. Before the fall women were equal to men. The term help-mate (a term that so called feminists cry foul over) is the same term that God uses to describe Himself in His relation to us. It hardly describes a one-down position.

Another part of the curse is that women, “Will desire her husband.” This is the same term to describe sin (Genesis 4:7), wanting to have and to dominate mankind. Women have ever since wanted, desired and felt a desperate need to have or to be like a man. Because of sin, women will feel cheated when not having what men have. This I believe is what we've seen down throughout history and will continue to see until the end of history. Women wanting the “freedom” they think men have and men keeping women in a one-down position. 

Because what men have looks so good to women, they began to smoke like men, ingest alcohol and other drugs like men, work like men, ignore their children like men, screw around like men, get heart disease like men, transmit STD's like men, behave in ways that lead to divorce like men, suicide like men, strive for useless status symbols like men – need I go on? 

Oh Lord, sin makes us soooo stupid. 

And the winners in all this? Men! Men who no longer have to feign an interest in commitment. Men, who can keep women as much, or more vulnerable to exploitation than ever before.

Finally, to submit is not at all the same as subjugation. To submit (men are told to submit to their wives more often than wives are told to submit to their husbands), is an action of love and humility. Couples are to outdo each other in giving in to the wishes of the other. 

In fact males, as the Spiritual Leader of the home, are to model for their families:

Love

Mercy

Compassion

Submission

Forgiveness

Patience

Kindness

Faithfulness

Gentleness and

Self-control

The Bible clearly states, “Submit to each other.” There is no way that anyone can correctly use the Bible to cause anyone to be in a position of subjugation.