A friend e-mailed me about this blog post; nothing terribly new but a good first person perspective. The thing that impressed me was the following section:
“My reservations about where she was headed and wanted to lead me would resurface when I awakened. Why? I wish I could say that my only motive was to be faithful to the Bible. That certainly was a key element in my thinking. But in retrospect, I have had to acknowledge less honorable motives that can be summed up in one wordfear.
Fear. Fear of where it would all leadcould Pat be right and what seemed like the rest of the church wrong? Fear of losing my job at MBI, though there was no credible basis that I was aware of for that possibility. Fear of being taught by a woman, or worse yet, fear of admitting I had been taught by a woman, my wife.
This last fear was the most pernicious and enduring of all. I remember with great shame an episode in the early 1980s, well after I had become an egalitarian, indeed after I had been forced to resign from the Moody faculty for supporting my wife’s egalitarian views as expressed in Woman Be Free. I had been invited to Houghton College to debate the women’s issue with a gentleman who held the traditional hierarchical view. Even back then I normally refused to engage in point by point argumentation of the issues. I simply told the story of how I had become an egalitarian and what I had found compelling that changed my mind, but with one huge omission and distortion. I failed to acknowledge Pat’s key, indeed pivotal part in my journey to biblical egalitarianism. Why? Fear. So I want to say with unambiguous clarity now, Pat started me on this journey and was my teacher along the way.”
This is a powerful passage. Fear drives so much of what we do especially fear of the unknown. I think it goes back to the whole power and control issue and it is not just a male thing. Women have their own way of controlling people and exerting power. Alfred Adler a physician and psychologist, contemporary of Freud, nailed in his works. “Cooperation between the Sexes” is a book derived from Adler’s writings from the 1920- 1930’s! Here are a few excerpts:
In our culture women’s inferiority, although not existent in reality and denied by all reasonable persons, is still founded in law and tradition.
Exactly in the relationship of the sexes subordination is as unbearable as in the lives of nations.
We have no reason to oppose the present goals of the woman’s movement of freedom and equal rights. Rather, we must actively support them, because ultimately happiness and joy in the life of all humanity will depend on the creation of conditions that will enable women to become reconciled with their feminine role, and on how men will answer the problem of their relationship to women.
As I read this book I am struck with how much it could be written to our generation. Now I admit that we have come so much further. I would say we have equality under the law but tradition is still behind, even in non-religious culture. I would change the wording of feminine role to feminine being int he last quote.
I think two of the biggest fears us humans face are the unknown and loneliness. Women who won’t leave abusive partners are often afraid of being alone, a warm body that hits or yells at you is better than no body. Now I admit that reason just skims the surface but in all my research on abused women and abusers this is a huge factor. The abuser enforces this often by telling her she is lucky to have him because no one else will. Men who abuse women are afraid of losing control. Fear that causes control and fear that causes loyalty = abuse.
As I think through the ramifications of fear I am actually starting really understand what it means to fear the Lord. When one fears the Lord the future no longer has power if we can get to a place where we understand who our God is. When I submit MY LIFE to the Lord I am giving ultimate control of my life to God and it is scary and fearful but it is not fear of the unknown or loneliness. God knows the future, he is the future and he has made a covenant with us through the person and work of Jesus. Jesus embodies the perfect love. If I can truly come to a place where I believe this and live my life according to it than I have nothing left to fear. It frees me up to enter into human relationships authentically and from a place of freedom. Freedom for the other person and freedom for me. Fear of the Lord = submitting control = FREEDOM!?!?!
As I work through my theory of psychology, which will shape the future of my career, the dilemma I feel I am faced with is discovering what I believe drives human behavior, mental health and mental illness. Fear is a big driving factor in my opinion and is what draws me to the existential view point. But then there is Adler who is more focused on sociological factors including the foundational work on feminist theory. As I marry the two I find my analytical my mind gravitating to the Adlerian social – psychology and my philosophical side gravitating to the existential in particular an existential view in the vein of Kierkegaard and John G. Finch.
As I read back through this post I am tempted to either delete it or edit it but as I think about why I started this blog in the first place it was to discover and reveal my authentic self. Like it or not this zig zag rambling is often what occurs in my mind. A simple post on egalitarian theology sparks the dialogue in my mind to my theory of psychology. It’s all connect as I am a whole person not compartmentalized into parts. What I do in my spirituality, theology, psychology and day to day life is all intertwined.
