Carmen J. Bryant, August, 2002
9
would not put a woman in that kind of bind.
17
Her "miracle" is argued from a different
standpoint by her father:
The plain, simple fact is that when a lost man sees his wife transformed before
him [through submission] . . . [and that she] is more anxious to make him
happy, and is easier to live with, such a man then is going to be glad of the
great improvement in his wife. And however wicked he is, he will not want
that beautiful and holy character desecrated and spoiled.
18
If you were that kind of a wife, being subject to your husband as unto the
Lord, your husband would not want to desecrate and defile and lead into sin
such a lovely Christian character.
19
Both Rice and Handford show an incredible naiveté! They have ignored the
amount of hatred evil has for good or the delight that evil has when good is despoiled.
20
They dismiss women's claims of injustice with a trite condemnation that they have not
submitted enough.
According to Handford, a wife must not listen to her conscience because a
woman's conscience can become distorted.
21
She must instead listen to the voice of God
through her husband.
22
Submission to her husband is submission to God. Having properly
17
Ibid., 39. Handford also says, "God never gives two commands impossible to obey. He will never make a
woman choose between two wrongs [i.e., disobeying her husband or disobeying God] if she wholeheartedly
follows the Scriptures" (50). And there is the catch: it is assumed that the woman who does find herself in
such a bind has not "wholeheartedly" followed the Scriptures in being submissive to her husband. The
entire responsibility for a successful marriage is put upon the wife.
18
Rice, 33. Bobbed Hair is still in print.
19
Ibid., 34.
20
Rom. 1:32.
21
Ibid., 40-41. This, of course, is taken from Paul's reference to the "seared conscience" of the false
teacher (1 Tim. 4:2). Handford doesn't say what happens if the husband's conscience is distorted, but in
this case it would be irrelevant. If she obeys her own conscience in violation of her husband's command,
she is guilty. On the other hand, if she obeys her husband's distorted conscience, she remains guiltless. In
such ways women become supporters of false teachers. Will they then be able to say to God on Judgment
Day, "I was just obeying orders"?
22
Such a teaching is very self-centered, though it is masked as a total giving of one's self. The ultimate
concern is being able to blame someone else for one's own sin. Scripturally, however, the question is moot:
participating in another's sin makes one guilty. Committing evil in obedience to authority is submitting to