Weighing in on Taylor Swift.

Meanness – an old-fashioned word for a modern situation. Meanness is a word we do not use much anymore. We rarely say a person is mean, but it was a common expression many years ago. We all knew what it meant. Mean was what you were when you did something that you knew beyond a doubt that it would hurt somebody, but you did it anyway.

Taylor Swift, country music singer, wrote a song about mean that was very popular. The song is about a bully, and we can relate very well to it because those who preach and teach male headship are bullying women. Her song is titled “Mean.”

“Someday I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?”

It’s time to bring out that word again and use it against those who teach hierarchy, patriarchy, male headship, and male leadership. Those teachings are designed to denigrate women. They are also designed to puff up men.

Many years ago, everyone was concerned with WWJD – What Would Jesus Do? We asked ridiculous questions such as what kind of car Jesus would drive and numerous other trivialities. We didn’t ask if Jesus would write books promoting male leadership over women, or if He would write comments underneath blogs on the Biblical meaning of certain scriptures that would limit women using their spiritual gifts for leadership over men and women, or if he would invite a woman to preach at his weekly church.

We did not ask if Jesus would preach on Sunday morning that women had an obligation to graciously submit to their husbands because by doing so, they would be submitting to Jesus himself.

So here we are today with seminars, blogs, books, movies, sermons, discussions, Bible Studies, and the list goes on, extolling God’s so-called grand design that women are to submit to their husbands, and to all males in a church.

That is mean. That is unmitigated meanness. That is getting pleasure from hurting someone.

Today as I drove home there were two small turtles crossing the road. I pulled over to the side and let them slowly make their way across the street.

It would have been mean to have deliberately attempted to drive over those little turtles. You know it and I know it. It is not something that I would do, but throwing rocks at turtles sunning by a pond is something that was done years ago by young boys.

These boys have grown up and now they are throwing rocks at women. Just for the fun of it. They could leave us alone. They could help us across the street. They could at least pull over and allow us to cross to the other side unmolested.

But they prefer to write blogs, preach sermons, hold complementarian marriage seminars, and gig us in their meanness.

Do they really believe the Bible teaches that men are designed to be leaders over women?

If you are tired of mean boys who have grown up and are still throwing rocks just for the fun of it, will you speak up? Will you get your head out from under your shell and demand the right to cross the street, to preach, to be who God called you to be, without rocks being thrown at you?

http://www.shirleytaylor.net
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Dethroning Male Headship: 2nd Edition