BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Many local Southern Baptists are having trouble understanding all the fuss about an amendment on marriage added to the denomination's Baptist Faith and Message.
The first change in the statement of beliefs by the nearly 16 million-member church in 35 years instructs each wife to "submit herself graciously" to her husband, who has a responsibility to "provide for, to protect, and to lead his family."
It was the word "submit" that caught the attention of many people, but Lisa Kershaw of Dent said the meaning of the word had been misunderstood.
"To be submissive to your husband is to love and support him and to be together as one and work together to lead the children," said Mrs. Kershaw, who works in a law office. "I don't think of being submissive as being lower than him. . . . "
Others, including Pastor Wayne Whaley of Victory Baptist Church in Boone County, said the guideline is found in the Bible.
"Scripture tells us to submit to one another," Pastor Whaley said. "I think today's idea of submission is looked at as bowing down to, but as Christians, we're supposed to think more highly of others than we do of ourselves."
Dr. David Hockney, pastor of First Baptist Church of Anderson Hills in Cherry Grove, turned to an unlikely source to illuminate the amendment: author John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, a popular book of advice on understanding the opposite sex. "Men need to be needed, and one way is to make contributions to the family through leadership. A woman will have her needs met if she is loved and cherished by her husband," he said.
