Biblical Male Headship

 With regard to the ongoing debate over “patriarchy”: if one wants to quibble over the term, then use another term. Call it what I was taught growing up. Call it “Male Headship”. It simply goes back to the Biblical teaching that godly men are intended by God to be the ones leading in the Church, in the family, and in the broader society.

Any attempt to subvert this teaching using the Deborah episode in Judges ignores the broader context of Judges itself, that Israel was in a state of being given over to the consequences of their sin for failing to take dominion as God had commanded them. Rather than subverting the doctrine of Male Headship, the Deborah episode confirms it and reinforces it.

We are in the state we are in in America today because we all - both men and women - have failed to obey God in this area. And no amount of trying to justify feminism or trying to make it work is going to change that. Society and its relationships will continue to suffer so long as we keep trying to do things our way rather than God’s.