The Lost Art of Servanthood

April 3, 2013 10:34 AM

"I know about my friend in Lebanon whose husband broke her teeth when she became a Christian. (And how she stayed with him, anyway, and how he became a Christian because of the way she continued to serve him.)" - Emily Wierenga writes "A letter to my feminist sisters"
posted by crayz (8 comments total)

The other day my husband asked me to make nachos with him. To stand at the counter and cut onions for him, while he prepared the cheese and the chips and I was picking up books our children had strewn across the floor and I snapped.

“I am not your servant!” I cried.

This has literally never happened to me. I must not be a feminist sister.

(I get perhaps irrationally annoyed by pieces which start out by assuming that the author's particular hangups are universal hangups.)
posted by muddgirl at 10:42 AM on April 3, 2013

Cut onions for your husband's nachos, of a piece with having your teeth broken in for your religion. Emily Wierenga, you have a brain disease.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:43 AM on April 3, 2013 [2 favorites]

The article: "I also know that the way I treat my husband, and men in general, is not dependent on how they treat me. It’s dependent on my obedience to Jesus– a man who died for me."

As a man, let me quote Patti Smith: "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine."
posted by benito.strauss at 10:43 AM on April 3, 2013 [4 favorites]

Huh, that was a pretty lightweight, 'my religion is the one true way', 'but I'm totes a feminist who just happens to believe men should rule the world', irritating, smug, piece.
posted by jacalata at 10:43 AM on April 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'd say more about the verse "there is neither neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" but I'm having trouble thinking calmly and rationally about this page, which suggests that this thread will not end well.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:44 AM on April 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm not able to extract plausible meaning from whatever this is.

The teeth anecdote seems to be intended as inspirational?

Don't conform to this bizarre notion of feminism that I don't think really exists because Jesus?
posted by cmoj at 10:45 AM on April 3, 2013 [3 favorites]

The teeth anecdote was utterly grotesque. So her husband broke her teeth because she became Christian, but because she remained his obedient servant he decided he might as well be Christian too, if it improved his status quo? Yuck.
posted by Aubergine at 10:46 AM on April 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is a great article about servanthood and a terrible article about feminism- "feminist sisters", my eye. Glad to see Rachel Held Evans is already coming on strong in the comment section.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:47 AM on April 3, 2013 [2 favorites]