From the Principal’s Desk
Dear Parents,
When I was a youngster, I observed my surroundings quite diligently whenever I rode in a car. As I moved from the back seat to the front seat, I increasingly noticed the drivers of other cars and tried to see if I knew them. You see, the church I grew up in was fairly large and the town I grew up in was fairly small. So it was not uncommon to see someone we knew when driving around town.
Whenever I would see a man and a woman in the same car, almost always the man was driving. That seemed perfectly normal to me because that is how it was in my family. Today it tends to go the opposite direction: if a man and woman ride in the same car, odds are that the woman is driving. Some may say that there is nothing to this and that we certainly should not make a big deal about it. But my thinking about the matter is that it represents a shift in society about the role of the man vs. the role of the woman.
Two basic views about the man-woman relationship exist today: complemetarianism and egalitarianism. Complementarianism is the view that the men and women have complementary roles, the man taking the leadership position and the woman assuming a support role. Egalitarianism holds that men and women share equally in authority and responsibilities. The question is this: which way is right? To answer the question we must go to the Bible.
Two verses stand out immediately to me when I think of the issue. The first is Genesis 2:20. There as Adam was naming the animals, he saw male and female for each of the animals; “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” The idea of “an help meet” is a suitable helper; a person who comes alongside and assists another in completing a task. The animals had designed helpers, but Adam did not. So God created Eve out of Adam’s side. Thus we see that the woman is to be the helper of the man. She complements the man. The second verse I think of is Ephesians 5:22. Writing about the husband-wife relationship, the Apostle Paul says that wives are to submit themselves unto their own husbands, as unto the Lord. The verb submit in this verse has the idea of willingly placing oneself under another. Certainly in essence, the man and the woman are equal (i.e. the man is not better than the woman, neither is the woman better than the man). But in role, the man is to be in charge, and the woman is to submit. This is God’s way. Even in the Godhead, God the Father has greater authority than God the Son. They are both fully divine in essence, but in role the Son submits to the Father.
Complementarianism is God’s way, and our society used to practice this way. Strong male leadership protects the family, honors the wife, and helps to preserve the nation. Unfortunately our country has veered from God’s design in the name of equality and has embraced egalitarianism. What might seem equal actually is harmful.
I would like to think that most of the mothers in our school see their husbands as the head of their home. But it is possible for families to be influenced by the pervading cultural philosophy of our day. As a principal where I see the rub is in discipline. Dads tend to take a firmer position on child discipline than do moms. There is always the exception, but as a rule this is how it goes. I definitely think there is value in the husband’s and wife’s talking about how to handle certain discipline situations, especially major ones. But in many cases I have witnessed the father’s desire to go a strong direction in discipline but the mother interferes and prevents what is needed. This is the wrong way. Moms, I wanted to encourage you, trust your husband and let him be in charge.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton
Dear Parents,
When I was a youngster, I observed my surroundings quite diligently whenever I rode in a car. As I moved from the back seat to the front seat, I increasingly noticed the drivers of other cars and tried to see if I knew them. You see, the church I grew up in was fairly large and the town I grew up in was fairly small. So it was not uncommon to see someone we knew when driving around town.
Whenever I would see a man and a woman in the same car, almost always the man was driving. That seemed perfectly normal to me because that is how it was in my family. Today it tends to go the opposite direction: if a man and woman ride in the same car, odds are that the woman is driving. Some may say that there is nothing to this and that we certainly should not make a big deal about it. But my thinking about the matter is that it represents a shift in society about the role of the man vs. the role of the woman.
Two basic views about the man-woman relationship exist today: complemetarianism and egalitarianism. Complementarianism is the view that the men and women have complementary roles, the man taking the leadership position and the woman assuming a support role. Egalitarianism holds that men and women share equally in authority and responsibilities. The question is this: which way is right? To answer the question we must go to the Bible.
Two verses stand out immediately to me when I think of the issue. The first is Genesis 2:20. There as Adam was naming the animals, he saw male and female for each of the animals; “but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” The idea of “an help meet” is a suitable helper; a person who comes alongside and assists another in completing a task. The animals had designed helpers, but Adam did not. So God created Eve out of Adam’s side. Thus we see that the woman is to be the helper of the man. She complements the man. The second verse I think of is Ephesians 5:22. Writing about the husband-wife relationship, the Apostle Paul says that wives are to submit themselves unto their own husbands, as unto the Lord. The verb submit in this verse has the idea of willingly placing oneself under another. Certainly in essence, the man and the woman are equal (i.e. the man is not better than the woman, neither is the woman better than the man). But in role, the man is to be in charge, and the woman is to submit. This is God’s way. Even in the Godhead, God the Father has greater authority than God the Son. They are both fully divine in essence, but in role the Son submits to the Father.
Complementarianism is God’s way, and our society used to practice this way. Strong male leadership protects the family, honors the wife, and helps to preserve the nation. Unfortunately our country has veered from God’s design in the name of equality and has embraced egalitarianism. What might seem equal actually is harmful.
I would like to think that most of the mothers in our school see their husbands as the head of their home. But it is possible for families to be influenced by the pervading cultural philosophy of our day. As a principal where I see the rub is in discipline. Dads tend to take a firmer position on child discipline than do moms. There is always the exception, but as a rule this is how it goes. I definitely think there is value in the husband’s and wife’s talking about how to handle certain discipline situations, especially major ones. But in many cases I have witnessed the father’s desire to go a strong direction in discipline but the mother interferes and prevents what is needed. This is the wrong way. Moms, I wanted to encourage you, trust your husband and let him be in charge.
Sincerely,
Pastor Sutton