HelenM

It is a little weird

But at least it shows that there are more things in the Bible than wives submitting no matter what...

There's also the example of Deborah being Judge [in effect, leader] of all Israel, in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&passage=Judges+4&version=NL T" target="_blank">Judges 4</a>. There she was, the leader and she was a woman! (And she was married - and her husband wasn't the judge!)

The interesting thing about the Old Testament is that there is generally no commentary on the narrative passages - such as the two I've mentioned on this thread. It doesn't say "Deborah was a judge" and then go on to say "Of course God doesn't really like women to lead so he only chose her as a last resort - and as a rebuke to Israel to show how sinful Israel was..." That's what the footnotes of Christian study Bible say, more or less. But the Bible text itself doesn't say "this was good" or "this was bad". All the opinions about that come from peoples' interpretations and beliefs about what God does and doesn't like. Which, admittedly, tend to come from somewhere in the Bible - albeit a little indirectly at times . But - I'm just pointing out that people put their own spin on what is good and what is bad. If you read the narrative passages in the Old Testament they are mostly stories without commentary. One is left to draw one's own conclusions about whether the events and behavior described, pleased or displeased God, often. Occasionally it says in the text but often, it is silent.

take care
Helen

HelenM

It sounds like they don't have a somewhat-reasonable 'home' church then . Maybe she can look for one if she's alone during most of the winter. I do think having other people back her up would be the best hope of getting through to her husband. Plus I think she needs the support of like-minded friends which she would find in a good local church.

take care
Helen

Puck

Jagged Little Pill wrote:
Is she taking steps to protect herself financially? Her own bank account?

We had a nice discussion about that yesterday. I asked her how much they now had in savings. She said she didn't know, that there was money going into an IRA, and they had a few grand in regular checking accounts. I told her from what I understood, there was a cap on how much you could put in an IRA each year (?), so where was the rest of the money? She's not naive, she's been terribly ill for quite awhile and hasn't paid much attention, she's also on major opiates, no kidding about the pain she lives with. So...now she knows she must get back into the swing of their finances.

Helen, they did tenetivly start at a new church just before they left. I jsut wish she'd go for a more main-line church, ya know? Unedcuated southern baptist preachers can become so dangerous. She was raised Catholic, with a heavy hand. I tried to lure her to an Episcopilian church, she liked the Viccar well enough, found him well educated and able to hold his own against her own formidable bible knowlegde. She has such bad memories of the Catholic church I guess she can't abide something that reminds her of it. Knowing her as well as I do, I suspect that if she tried the Episcoplains she'd fall in love with them, so maybe I'll try again someday.

She's just one of those people that needs their religion. Unfortunatly, she has the most maddening tendency to pick the wacko ones. The last church, when she didn't get cured by their praying, told her flat out that her faith was weak and it was her own fault she was so ill. At least she had enough sense to know *that* wasn't true and she walked. Idiots.

Well, this little 'atheist' gal has to go pull the water pump off her truck today. Reckon if I pray hard enough?...naw. I haven't done any serious mechanical work in years, sure hope I remember how.

HelenM

I hate when churches/Christians say that Fwiw, the Southern Baptists are unlikely to say that. It's what churches teach who believe all Christians are supposed to be healthy and rich...Southern Baptists don't believe that.

Anyway, I'm glad she left there and I hope she finds a church with supportive people in it.

take care
Helen