The Junia Project

Advocating for Women's Equality in the Church and Home

Who Really Cares about Male Headship?

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I recently had a conversation with a good friend. As we were talking, I shared some frustrations I had surrounding ways that many husbands live out headship and their perceived authority in marriage. My friend is in his sixties, he’s a “PK” (pastor’s kid), and a good guy who has loved God his entire life. He’s a husband, dad, grandpa, and successful in his career.

As we talked, he paused and declared; “Tim, you talk so much about equality/inequality, authority, submission, hierarchy, and headship.

Ephesians 5:21-33: How Paul Turns Headship on Its Head

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Ephesians 5:21-33 is often cited as a proof text to endorse male leadership in the home.

In this text, wives are instructed to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Pretty clear, right?

Well, perhaps not. As with the other passages, we need to consider the broader context to discern what’s going on.

The most important thing to notice is that the relationship between husbands and wives is not the main theme that Paul is addressing.

5 Myths of Male Headship

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  I sat down across the table from her. We hadn’t seen each other in a while and I was excited to catch up. She was a youth pastor, one of those with an obvious call on her life for ministry. But as I looked into her eyes, I could see she was worn out. She […]

Co-Leadership in Marriage: Who’s in Authority?

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We believe authority is at the heart of much marriage misunderstanding and debate. Over the years traditional-hierarchical-complementarian marriage-view proponents have described their perceived authority to us in different ways.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Some husbands have told us that as the leader they have a 51 percent role in making decisions and the wife has 49 percent. As we listen to these men explain their marriage, we can’t help but wonder, “How is a 51/49 functional authority any different from a husband who has 99 percent authority and a wife who has 1 percent?” Either way, the husband has final authority to make decisions.

Co-Leadership in Marriage: What about Headship?

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Headship can often become a divisive issue in marriage discussions—especially in religious circles. Various “infallible” headship interpretations and accompanying dialogue could fill a library. Our experience is that people will endlessly argue the original Greek and Hebrew, lexicons, grammar roots, verb tenses, hermeneutical and eschatological anthropomorphisms, and endless jots and tittles until Jesus Christ returns.

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