By Bob Allen
The Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral concerns says domestic violence is an issue not only of social justice but of theology as well.
Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, wrote in a blog Sept. 9 that a man who hits his wife “has surrendered his headship” and ought to be held accountable through “discipline” by his church.
“An abusive man is not an over-enthusiastic complementarian,” Moore said, referring to Southern Baptist teaching that while males and females are equal before God, they are created for complementary roles of headship and submission in the home.
“He is not a complementarian at all,” Moore said. “He is rejecting male headship because he is rejecting his role as provider and protector.”
The Baptist Faith and Message, the denomination’s official statement of belief last revised in 2000, says marriage models the way God relates to his people.
“A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church,” the statement says. “He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.”
Moore said the solution to violence against women is neither “a hyper-masculine paganism” nor “a gender-neutral feminism,” but rather “a truly counter-cultural church, a church that calls men to account for leadership, a leadership that cherishes and protects women and girls.”
“We must teach from our pulpits, our Sunday school classes, and our Vacation Bible Schools that women are to be cherished, honored and protected by men,” Moore said. “This means we teach men to reject American playboy consumerism in light of a Judgment Seat at which they will give account for their care for their families.”
Moore said it also means telling women in Southern Baptist congregations: “A man who hits you has surrendered his headship, and that is the business both of the civil state in enacting public justice and of this church in enacting church discipline.”
Moore said in the public arena, Christians should be the most insistent on legal protections for women. Whatever economic policies they support, Moore said church members must recognize that much of the hardship faced by women today “is the result of men who abandon their commitments.”
A recent poll by LifeWay Research found that 72 percent of pastors think domestic or sexual violence is a problem in their community, and one in four say it is a problem in their church. Most senior pastors said they know victims of domestic violence and believe stopping abuse is a pro-life issue, but a majority rarely or never speak about it from the pulpit.
Critics of the complementarian view say it creates unequal relationships that enable men who are inclined to abuse their wives. Michael Farris, head of the Home School Legal Defense Association recently distanced himself from “patriarchy” taught by two leaders popular among homeschoolers recently forced to step down from ministries amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Owen Strachan, head of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, however, says Christ-like male headship “means you die to yourself daily.”
“Christ-like male headship means on date night/vacations, you think first, ‘What would she like to do?’ not, ‘What would I like to do?’” Strachan wrote in a blog posting titled 10 Ways to Exercise Christ-like Headship.
“Christ-like male headship means that at dinner, after a long day at work, you hold the baby so your wife, frazzled from kids and home, can eat first,” Strahan said. “Christ-like male headship means, when conflict happens (as it will), you lead in apologizing.”