If the Church Won’t Censor It, Just Turn Off Your Hearing Aid!
Mary Anne Sonnenschein, contrary to her surname, has been in an unsunny mood of late. In the letters section of the National Catholic Reporter (Sept. 15), she tells about how upset she is that Ephesians 5:21-32 is read in church. She quotes it as follows: “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church…. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.”
She tells us that “Each time this is read in church, many women in the congregation, including myself, cringe and become amazed at how insensitive the liturgists are in putting this text before them….” Insensitive! Oh, perish forbid that the Bible should be insensitive!
But at last there’s a sunshiny outcome for Ms. Sonnenschein: “This year when this text was read, I felt fortunate to be wearing hearing aids. I could just turn them off….”
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Unless women themselves realize what they have rejected and act to reclaim it, their situation, and the situation of all of us, will degenerate toward dehumanization.
Some men are born noble by name, others noble by nature. It's a rare and blessed gift when those characteristics combine in a single life, well lived.