The leveling of seminary
I just thought of something, seminary has this odd leveling affect for people who are both liberal and conservative according to roles in the household. The standard conservative, patriarchial view on roles is that men support the wives, but the catch 22 of this for conservatives who are married is that if the husband decides to go into the ministry they would go to a seminary that teaches men are the head, the only head, and everything should remain as is – the odd thing is that if these men are full-time in school almost undoubtedly their own wives have to support them with some kind of full-time job. Husbands then have the advantage to find the humility of not being the bread winner, and having to rely on their wives in ways their own culture has told them is distinctly wrong and unbiblical. I love this tragic-irony, or from my perspective theological-humor. God is a divine trickster or jokster after all and loves to shake us up and challenege our human-made ideas. I for one struggled with this concept, even as an out spoken “Jesus following bible-believing feminist.” Its hard to find yourself at the mercy of others, whether it is your husband, wife, friend or foe. And thus the leveling effects of seminary are important in this way.