A Jewish Take on Patriarchalism

A wonderful opinion piece appeared in the Chicago Tribune on September 6, 1998, shortly after the Southern Baptists reimbraced a patriarchal social order. The Northwestern University law professor wrote the following.

“Though I yield to no person in my commitment to the accepted tenets of gender equality, I actually took some satisfaction in the Baptists’ pronouncement since it implicitly repealed their controversial 1996 resolution to preach conversion to the Jews. What, after all, is more likely to drive Jewish females away from evangelists than raising ’submissiveness’ to a religious requirement.

“I do know a thing or two about Jewish women (including the one to whom I have been happily married for 20 years). And while she is extraordinarily gracious in many situations, you can be absolutely assured that ’submission’ is entirely absent from her behavioral repertoire…. My good, asertive, outspoken, forceful Jewish wife will simply never be fodder for conversion to a creed that expects her to be submissive, graciously or otherwise. There is no submission in our family and not much ’servant leadership’ either. What we have instead, in a tradition dating back to our matriarchs, is debate, disagreement, dialogue and then more debate. I always thought that approach made our marriage happier, stronger, and certainly more interesting. Now it has the added benefit of making us immune to proselytization.” — Steven Lubet.

And thanks to Alan Johnson who quotes this letter in his Priscilla Papers article (Fall, 2003), “A Christian Understanding of Submission.”