Trigger warning: this is not a comfortable topic.
The scariest line I ever read from Abraham Kuyper was “Husbands, rule your wives.” [1] He said it in the context of what to do when they were frustrated over matters to which men are not assigned control, like election outcomes and a king’s actions. He was actually trying to encourage men’s submission to governments and to men and women teachers! He said it appearing to understand the victim would feel the full force of the man’s frustration at a fallen world and would use that to make his local kingdom forcefully, even violently, disciplined. This is what happens when scripture is misread [2]. Even Abraham Kuyper didn’t understand mutual submission or sacrificial servant leadership the way the Bible is interpreted by complementarians today. Many culturally conservative people who are not theologians still misread it this way, and that’s dangerous. The person to be afraid of in most cases is not a stranger, it is those with power in your own household. Apparently that fear is all too real in about a third of American households, the number of households where someone is abused.
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In some of those households, the men think they can tell their women how to vote. With early voting, standing over a person casting a ballot and forcing a particular vote at risk of violence is a risk that should not be ignored. It is a grave hole in the early voting plan. These households may have corrupted forced voting and no one will know unless the victim is willing to speak up. Worse, the actual danger of violence in domestically abusive situations goes way up once the victim does speak up. Lives could be at risk if support systems are not strong enough to protect victims.
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When I came to Arizona I thought early voting was very convenient and a really cool way for working people and immobile people to vote so that turn-out rates would go up. Now, I no longer support it. The signature match process is ripe for corruption as no one’s signature is exactly the same from envelope to envelope and it very public here who is which party. Worse, you don’t know if the person filling out the form was doing it at gunpoint. The stress in households where the men believe the women are obligated to submit to their leadership is very high right now.
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The disgust of most of most women at the allegations of Trump groping is palpable. Working women — especially old ones — learned long ago to take the heat or get out of the corporate kitchen — and while still disgusted are less likely to be single issue voters with disgust as that one issue. We learned long ago there is a time and a way to object and a time to get along and take one for the team. Apparently stay-at-home women are not similarly exposed and their consciences remain more sensitive, as do younger women and some church leaders. Yet in the case of women, their men are more likely to be the very people who believe they can tell their women how to vote.
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I believe both candidates are compromised by allegations that if true would disqualify them or make them impeachable. I also believe none of us will know guilt or innocence before the election as the wheels of properly done justice move excruciatingly slowly. I therefore vote on platform, and count on our justice system to work after the election. I do not believe the American system intends households to vote together as one — we have women’s suffrage so that women can vote their consciences. I believe we must begin to have a tax penalty for nonvoters and eliminate early voting if we want high turnout and integrity voting.
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Our politically correct way of speaking led us to believe we are more evolved than we really are. Fortunately, the truth is out now for all to see. I would rather see the hate and privilege and be able to fight it openly than have all this nice political speak that meant nothing. Voting is too precious for convenience.
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Originally published on Medium in the publication We are all Overcomers. Order historical fiction novel Rekindled with the button below.
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1. Bratt, James D., editor. Abraham Kuyper A Centennial Reader, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (February 13, 1998), p. 138.
2. Genesis 3:16 records the curse on women after the fall. It does say “Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” Like thorns in the ground this is part of a curse that is not part of the good original creation, and like all the curse we strive to eliminate or control the consequence–and since the time of Jesus we have been ever the more successful in this as his arrival was the beginning of the breaking through of the renewed kingdom. The sect of Christianity that is complementarian (other Christians dispute that even these interpretations apply in modern times) use a different part of scripture to affirm the husband’s leadership in the home: namely that in Genesis 3:9 even though Eve ate the apple first God calls out the man and punishes him first. Paul in his primogeniture based culture also notes that Adam was the first of mankind to be created in 1 Timothy 2:13 in affirmation of male leadership in family and public church settings. Biblical servant leadership is not autocratic rule that and should not serve as an outlet for frustrations and there are many books that explain this put out by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
