At the Seneca Falls 2 Conference, two years ago, July 24, 2010, a small group of people met for the purpose of furthering women’s equality in the church and in the home. Just as Lucretia Motts and Elizabeth Cody Stanton hoped to make a difference at the original Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 in the way women were treated by society and the church and the government, this group hoped to free women from religious bodies that still seek to demean women.
Jocelyn Andersen, author of Woman, this is War, and Shirley Taylor, founder of bWe Baptist Women for Equality met with Waneta Dawn, Cindy Kunsman, and Janice Levinson in Orlando, Florida. The Freedom for Christian Women Coalition (FreeCWC) was formed, the Declaration of Sentiments was read, and an apology from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood was demanded.
It's been two years, so I just took a little sidetrip to the www.cbmw.com website to see for myself again the ignorance perpetuated by these people. All are old names we are familiar with. Piper, Patterson, Ware and the list goes on. There are some women on the board, and as we noted at the Seneca Falls 2 Conference, these women give their names, and then the distinction Homemaker – or Pastor’s wife. The men of course, give their acquired distinctions in education and religion first. The men are are not homemakers.
Now I find that really funny. Not ha-ha funny. But peculiar. You know why? Because the Danvers Statement itself was conceived by this group and that Statement says plainly in Rationale #3: “the increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarianism with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in Scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives.” (the leadership in the home is implied).
Because you see, in that sentence above, the household is the man’s. Look at the Bible and you will see that the MAN is to be the Homemaker. They love 2 Timothy 3, but they are selling us a bill of goods when they tell us that women are to be homemakers according to scripture.
Nowhere does the Bible tell women to be Homemakers. Look at 2 Timothy 3:4 “He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. (For if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?)”
Do you see that? The Council on Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood does not have a scripture that tells women they are to be homemakers. They don’t even tell women that in their own Danvers Statement. Rationale #3 gives the homemaking to the husband, just as 2 Timothy 3:4 gives the responsibility of homemaking to the husband.
The husband makes the home, and the wife cooperates with him by being submissive and allowing him to make the decisions, spend the money, control the kids. That leaves cookin' and cleanin' for her to do.
The definition of a homemaker is one who manages a household. It would appear that the Council has it wrong. They really want her to be the Maid. Otherwise, when the husband comes home, he is in her domain, and she sets the rules – in other words – a homemaker would be superior to her husband in the home.
Maybe we should change the distinction of the women Council members from Homemaker to Maid. Then to be Bbilical, the men must be Homemakers. If the men are not homemakers, they are AWOL (absent without leave), and cannot claim Biblical Manhood.
The Council Members list would look like this:
Dorothy Patterson, Maid
Mary Kassain, Maid
Rebecca Jones, Maid
Susan Hunt, Maid
Mary Farrar, Maid
Daniel Akin, Homemaker
John Piper, Homemaker
Albert Mohler, Homemaker
Bruce Ware, Homemaker
Wayne Grudem, Homemaker
Donald Balesa, Homemaker
James Borland, Homemaker
J Ligon Duncan III, Homemaker
Steve Farrar, Homemaker
Joshua Harris, Homemaker
Daniel Humbach, Homemaker
W Wayne House, Homemaker
Elliott Johnson, Homemaker
Peter Jones, Homemaker
George Knight, Homemaker
C. H. Mahaney, Homemaker
James Stahr, Homemaker
Erik Thoemen, Homemaker
The CBMW has changed the definition of Homemaker. If they kept the correct meaning of homemaker, the men would be the homemakers. The wife is the maid with bedroom privileges.
What contortions they go to to elevate men above women. Don't accept that. Be a partner with your spouse. Neither spouse needs a leader. You are equal. Equal - no buts.
posted by Shirley Taylor (http://www.bwebaptistwomenforequality.wordpress.com/)
