To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed, Titus 2:5.
Our women are under attack. As usual the New Versions do their best to obfuscate and confound the careful instruction and reasoning found in our King James Bible. Look at Titus 2:5 in the NIV and the ESV.
NIV: to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.
ESV: to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Our Bible did not tell them to be self-controlled. It told them to be discreet. I have known many a person who in perfect self-control gossiped, behaved unseemly, and insulted guests. What they lacked was discretion, not self-control. My second observation is the more serious of the two. It is what will motivate the second part of this post.
Our ladies our instructed to be "keepers at home". So what if they are "busy at home"? Are they busy playing video games, watching daytime television, or chatting on the phone? Working at home is somewhat better, but what is that work? The work prescribed in your bible is to keep that home. A home is more than a house or building. There is simply no one who can make it into a home like a godly woman can.
The home is what she is to keep. She is to labor so that the distinctives of their home as envisioned by her and her husband are kept as they see the bible instructing them. Every home is different. Every woman's skill and needs are different. What it will take to keep that home will be in many ways unique to that home.
Happy is the home wherein a husband has not mortgaged his wife's labor for 30 years so that he can have better toys. I have working women in my church who by the circumstances of their home and family have no choice. We respect them and do all that we can to support them. We also have women who have been liberated by husbands who have repented of their selfishness and accepted a lower standard of living to give their wives the luxury of being keepers at home. The wives, children and husbands have flourished in such cases.
It is with these things in mind that the Black Creek Baptist Church is modifying their Constitution to adapt to the current political and social upheavals. It appears probable that the military draft will be reinstituted in the United States. To quote Victor Davis Hanson in a column published on this date in the Jewish World Review;
"After a year of politicizing the U.S. military and its self-induced catastrophe in Afghanistan, America has lost deterrence abroad. China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia are conniving how best to exploit this rare window of global military opportunity."
It is appearing more and more likely that the international situations which have been kept in check by strong deterrence will be worsened by the current supply crises that are arising, the instability of certain regimes within their own power structures, and the perceived weakness of the Western nations, and will bring on more military conflict.
In such a case, the United States would probably begin to draft young men. It is inconceivable in such a circumstance that the courts will not be petitioned to expand the draft to women. I strongly suspect that within the foreseeable future, our daughters and young wives will be in danger of involuntary servitude to the military.
We are not conscientious objectors. We have both men and women war veterans in our congregation. What we hold abhorrent is that any keeper at home be involuntarily pulled out of her home. We stand on biblical grounds. We fully believe that it is the duty of men who when called up to service, they go, but we see no such warrant for women.
Traditionally, when courts or draft boards have considered biblical statements of faith in granting draft deferments, they have looked for clear written statements of faith by the potential draftee's denomination. Such statements of faith are not a guarantee, but they have borne weight. We are peremptorily stating in writing that those who affiliate with our congregation do believe by faith that our women cannot be drafted.
We are writing it now because the courts have traditionally taken a dim view to persons or organizations claiming exemptions to a law after that law is enacted. As an example, the Hopi Indians of the South Western United States cannot be prosecuted for using peyote in their religious services since they used it in their religious traditions long before peyote was made illegal. Likewise, the Roman Catholic Church kept wine in their sacrament even during prohibition because it was an article of faith prior to prohibition. Hippies in the 1960s tried to make LSD a sacrament to protect their right to it after it was made illegal. The courts struck down their effort because they had no such sacrament prior to LSD being banned.
With that in mind, The Black Creek Baptist Church will add the following amendment to our constitution. Will it work? We hope so...
It is the belief of this church and those who by frequent attendance affiliate themselves with it that no female may be compelled by any government or agency to leave her home involuntarily to serve any government purpose other than jury duty. We believe in any woman’s right to serve her nation in any capacity with equal rights and pay as any man would receive. We believe that this can only be done voluntarily. We make no objection to involuntary military service for males and do in fact believe that in a military call-up which conforms to the laws of our state or nation, every man so called must go unless he can show just cause within the framework of law.
We hold this to be an ancient article of the faith that until recent times did not need to be written to be understood, but in these last days is no longer understood by the greater populace of our nation.
Titus 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Titus 2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Titus 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.