I was prompted to blog today by this post over at Dalrock.
Dalrock was asked some questions by a commenter named Rachel about how to help her daughters find husbands. Her inquiries concerned her daughters' behavior with young men and whether a Christian girl should "settle" in choosing a marriage partner. This mother obviously has concerns about her daughters being at risk for spinsterhood and she wants to avoid that.
While Rachel didn't mention her husband, Dalrock said that she does have a husband. If that is the case, why is she not following his lead on this matter of marrying off the daughters? Why did Dalrock, who blogs specifically for Christian men, not direct her to seek wisdom from her husband? To his credit, Dalrock admitted that he has no experience in this area. But one thing I have learned from knowing God is that God empowers those whom He has put in authority and gives wisdom to those who ask, without upbraiding.
Unfortunately, Dalrock went on to offer advice on the behavior of young women in general. By doing this, he is consenting to the presupposition that single women should be on the hunt for their own husbands and that they are somehow qualified by their design to do this. It is saying, if only we can explain these things to women, they will behave exactly correctly and use good judgment and make right decisions. And yet we know, and Dalrock knows from his years in the manosphere that women, by their very design, do NOT make good decisions based on reason and sense.
Women are simply unqualified to decide who they should marry. It isn't a matter of intelligence or training. It isn't even a matter of godly character.
What should Dalrock have done instead? He should have appealed to men who have already had success with their daughters. He should have appealed to men who have spent years studying the Bible to see what God has said about marriage, about sex, and about avoiding fornication. Interestingly, in the comments, such a man appeared!
Most of the comments consist of complaining about how awful women are and how hopeless it is to think a man can get a good wife or that daughters can be raised to adulthood without rebelling and fornicating and choosing the world over Christ. And when a commenter suggests that dads can have fulfilling marriages and joyful daughters who look to dad to find them a husband by following the guidance of the Word, the other men pile on with shouts of "You'll go to jail!" "It can't be done!" "It's too hard!" "No one will like you!"
Yes. Daddy is not a popular guy. So what? Do you want your daughter to be a fornicator or a spinster? Do you want her to be a shrieking feminist? If not, take heart. God is good and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
There are a LOT of comments, so hopefully this link will take you to where the good comments start.
Arranged Marriage: a daughter's perspective
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It's a good thing we've been waiting a year on this perspective. I think
it gives time for the daughter to really come to terms with what happened
and wha...
8 years ago
2 comments:
Dear subjectbydesign, i read dUHrock's blog too, and other (uh-hem) "Christian" blogs. No wonder folks are falling away!
I like Dalrock. I think he does an excellent job of pointing out the feminism in the mainstream of evangelicalism. His posts on courtly love and how Christians have been duped into following that deception are very informative. But where he lacks usefulness (and this includes nearly all of his regular commenters) is that he has no experience raising sons and daughters and getting them married in a way that actually DOES fit within Biblical parameters. Romance is just a part of sexual relationships, and in the Bible we don't see sex (or romance) as something God permits outside of marriage. That principle right there is where people miss the mark most often, and once a person accepts that romance outside of marriage is ok, then you are going to have dating and courtship and fornication. The only way to avoid this is through arranging marriages and restricting romance to within marriage.
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