In the Nov. 6 edition of the Religious Herald, an article attributed to ABP, written by Bob Allen, was entitled “Trinity debate trickles down to gender roles.”
One paragraph reads, “In a June sermon .. Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Seminary, included an argument for ‘eternal submission' of Christ in a list of 10 reasons ‘why we should affirm that God designed there to be male leadership in the family.' ”
I admit to being a babe-in-the-woods on such matters, but the article then says, “… Ware also said one reason men abuse their wives is because women rebel against their husband's God-given authority.”
I do think I can recognize wild leaps into theological darkness.
In another article, also from ABP and Bob Allen, the title is “Charismatic Southern Baptist churches see themselves as open to spiritual gifts.” It tells how pastor Ron Phillips, suffering burnout after a decade as pastor of Central Baptist Church, experienced a call from God in the middle of the night, and a resulting “baptism of power” in which he wept, sang, laughed, shouted and shook (he received a private prayer language three years later). Now his church experiences trembling, crying, leaping, jumping, and “falling out” in the Spirit.
The congregation, now called Abba's House, describes itself as a “Spirit-filled Southern Baptist church.” The obvious inference is that churches which do not replicate the same experiences are not spirit-filled.
Our country is filled with churches of every denomination whose practices and belief have been altered due to the leadership of the pastor.
In both of these stories (and their conclusions) — the abusive husbands and the “Spirit-filled” church — nothing is said of either the psychological or the practical explanations for the avowed behavior. To accept such conduct as the intent of biblical references alone is to deny the vast literature which seeks to explain such aberrant behavior in more practical, if secular, terms.
Hal Eaton, Mouth of Wilson