Rep Michelle Bachmann may have won the Straw Poll in Iowa last week, but she faced some tough questions on the way to that victory. One of the most difficult questions, which the presidential candidate still hasn’t really answered, is how she’s going to deal with the fact that her religious beliefs dictate that she be “submissive” to her husband.
So what does a vow to be submissive to your husband mean in this day and age? And how exactly does a woman who chooses to submit to her husband intend to balance that life choice with being the President of the United States of America?
Byron York of the Washington Examiner, a conservative columnist, was booed by the audience for even asking the question. Bachmann just smiled and said, “Thank you for that question, Byron. What submission means to me—if that’s what your question is—it means respect.”
Submission means, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
1: a: a legal agreement to submit to the decision of arbitrators b: an act of submitting something (as for consideration or inspection); also : something submitted (as a manuscript)
2: the condition of being submissive, humble, or compliant
3: an act of submitting to the authority or control of another
Now, hopefully you’d have respect for someone you submitted to, but respecting someone and submitting to them are not the same thing. Even Representative Bachmann’s own descriptions of how her husband has influenced her decisions over the course of their lives together make that clear.
She opened this can of worms by telling the story of how her husband insisted that she go into tax law, which she says bored her and she had no interest in at the time during a campaign speech. In the same speech in 2006 she also described her reluctance to run for congress, which her husband “helped” her overcome with two days of prayer and fasting.
If the very decisions that put Rep Bachmann on the path to run for President were made by her husband, not her, can the American people trust that Michelle Bachmann would be making her own decisions as President? What do you think? Can a woman be both a submissive wife and the leader of the free world at the same time?
Michelle Bachmann’s position betrays her lack of understanding of the values she supposedly lives by. Churches that teach this doctrine of female submission typically do not accept women as pastors. It is not permitted, says 1Tim. 2:12, for a woman to exercise authority over a man.
Personally, I think we can relax that rule in modern Western society. But the conservative view of scripture won’t accept any relaxing of a biblical rule! And Bachmann’s profession that she submits to her husband is an attempt to claim the mantle of conservative Christianity.
If a woman isn’t permitted to exercise the meager authority of a pastor, I don’t see how she can exercise Presidential authority! But consistency is not prized among Republican politicians these days. What counts is espousing the right creed, regardless of what one actually does.
I think Stephen said it very well. Who is her husband? What are his values? If she is going to be submitting to him if she becomes President, then we would be better off hearing speeches from him, rather than her. She’s a very slippery character and not too smart. I don’t think she’s Presidential material.
SCARY!!! Why doesn’t her husband run, he is obviously the one in control. Will he force her to “pray and fast for two days” to bring her around to his understanding of what should be? We do not need a submissive president, we need to know the person we elect will be able to make tough decisions on their own without a husband hiding in the wings. The American people deserve to know more about his values and convictions, based on her confirmation that she is a “submissive wife”.