More on the VP candidate
I was asked this weekend why I was confused about Susan Palin. I share the same confusion with Rev. Stuckwisch and Father Hollywood (in the comments to Rev. S’s post).. I urge you to mull this one over and offer any opinions:Â
thinking-out-loud: Am I Missing Something?
But I am having a hard time understanding the appropriateness of nominating a woman for such an office as Vice President of the United States (or governor of a state, for that matter). How does this fit the order of creation? How does it harmonize with the headship of a husband and father for his wife, family and household? I realize that civil government is not the church, and this isn’t a matter of the pastoral office, but I haven’t bought the recent rhetoric that the roles of men and women are distinguished solely by the prohibition of women’s ordination. It’s clear that women should not be ordained to the pastoral office, but it doesn’t follow that a woman should be free and clear to do anything and everything else that a man might otherwise do.
I’m not commenting here on the broader topic of women in the workplace, nor even the more general topic of women in politics. I’m confused enough as it is trying to sort out this present case at hand. I know that a husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is the Head of His Church. I know that a father is the head of his household. And I believe, teach and confess with the Large Catechism that the government is the office of father writ large. Presidents and Kings are the fathers of their countries. Vice President isn’t quite President, but it strikes me as not so far removed, in so far as my question is concerned.
Related posts:
I may be wrong on this…but I see this a two kingdom issue. I never even considered the order of creation angle until reading this post. Even after reading Pastor Stuckwisch’s post I’m still not seeing a order of creation problem. Again, maybe I wrong on this but I dont see how.
Better a wise Turk than a foolish Christian.
If a woman can lead and can establish justice on earth, good for her.
Gaba’s Notebook: a Traditionalist Lutheran Blog: Is Palin a Victim of Sexism? (http://latifhakigaba.blogspot.com/2008/09/is-palin-victim-of-sexism.html)
Is a woman in civil government a thing of which we ought to be proud? No, it is not. On this point I am neither ecstatic (sorry Fr. Fritz), nor stoked (sorry Fr. Beisel). The Christian woman, taking the Blessed Virgin Mary as her archetype, is content to be ruled by those God has placed over her, and she knows, and glories in the fact, that she is the type of the Church, and of truest Christianity, when she most fully lives out the receptive character of her feminine nature. As shockingly out of place in 2008 as it may seem, it must be said, therefore, that it is precisely in the realm of the home that the woman is most fully herself. She, in fact, is the home, which thankfully (eucharistically) receives the man in her life.