December 30, 2007: Ayatollah Huckabee

Back in the distant days of 1998:

He gave the speech the same year he endorsed the Baptist convention's statement of beliefs on marriage that "a wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." Huckabee and his wife, Janet, signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other evangelical leaders.

He and the Saudis should get along just fine.

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Shame... typical non-religious bigotry. Aw..well, I guess that is the norm for those not familiar with the actual words in the bible.

Yes, he is correct, much to your dismay, not necessarily accepted, but is true according to the bible.

I would actually be aghast if normal non-believers did not condemn him for his words here...join the crowd (sorry to see actually)...

Posted by: Deagle at December 30, 2007 4:53 PM

Mr. Simon,

You are very poorly informed on the concept of servant leadership. No problem there since I don't read your blog for theological guidance, but perhaps you shouldn't assume to understand evangelical Christians and from this arrogance make such an offensive comparison with misogynist Saudis. Christ's directive for husbands to be servant leaders requires total devotion, dedication, and commitment to serve (yes, _serve_) their wives; the polar opposite of your intended analogue.

Your post reads like a one-liner close in search of a setup.

Very foolish and extremely offensive.

Phil

PS - I'm no Huck fan nor a Baptist, just a very disappointed reader.

Posted by: mczoo at December 30, 2007 5:05 PM

Hello Roger,

I don’t claim to be an expert on Jewish practices. However, I did see Fiddler on the Roof—both the movie and musical. At the beginning the villagers sing about their traditions, one of which is that the father is the leader of the family. That custom is something the Jews of Czarist Russia and rulers of modern Saudi Arabia have in common. However, I suspect Tevi and the Saudis would not get along very well. If the Saudis had the opportunity they would cut poor Tevi’s head off.

Don’t you think the Southern Baptist belief has more in common with traditional Judaism than with the Saudi Wahabbis?

Posted by: Hank at December 30, 2007 7:40 PM

If I tried to pull an attitude like Huckabee's in my household, I would be divorced. And my wife is hardly a feminist.

"is true according to the bible"

So?

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at December 30, 2007 9:17 PM

Okay, maybe I overstated my case here...

Undoubtedly Southern Baptists have more in common with traditional Judaism, Hank, but the time has come for modern Christians and Jews to throw off those primitive beliefs about men and women's roles and just allow them to be equal. I admit that as an agnostic I can be impatient with religious beliefs that often feel like superstitions to me, but racial and sexual equality - I mean total equality - are basic human rights .

Posted by: Roger at December 30, 2007 9:24 PM

Oh, I don't know about that, Roger. Just because they say its in the Bible doesn't mean that, you know, the wife is some sort of slave waiting on the master. There are the normal disagreements, heated discussions, compromises, so on and so forth, and the wife is likely to be as much a partner in the family enterprise as in society at large, including its progressive components. And you will certainly find the normal run of personalities in such marriages.

As for the "moderns", I don't think such enlightened sorts as Russell, Sartre, and Welles had all that great a record in their treatment of actual, as opposed to the abstract, women. And the same could be said of the 60's activists.

I think one should judge the treatment of woman by how they are actually treated, not on the basis of some political position. Men will be men, and women women, no matter how progressive their politics. And remember, nothing sells itself on the promise of free nooky quite like progressive politics. Those old silverbacks with their harems knew a good scam when they found it.

Posted by: chuck at December 30, 2007 10:39 PM

I agree that Southern Baptists have more in common with Jews and (other) mainstream Christians than with Wahhabis. But the Bible is a 2000 year old document from the Middle East. I don't think we, in 21st Century America, ought to be using that as a guide for gender relations.

If some of you want to, good luck with it. It's your marriage.

I'm not voting for Huckabee, though.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at December 31, 2007 12:29 AM

I think one should judge the treatment of woman by how they are actually treated, not on the basis of some political position.

And the Bible should be a source of religious inspiration, not political positions.

Posted by: dclydew at January 4, 2008 12:35 PM

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