What Ordain Women says the Proclamation on the Family says, with implied direct paraphrase: This lack of female authority does not stop at the church doors. The Church’s Proclamation on the Family declares that men preside over their wives and families, thus preserving an antiquated and unequal model in both the domestic and ecclesiastical realms. ordainwomen.org/faq/ What the text actually says ... By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed. Clearly the inflection placed on preside in the paraphrase does not convey what the authors plainly meant. Reasonable minds may differ as to whether the distinct and equally valuable roles--in an *equal partnership that is more important than anything that makes the papers--are antiquated, or prophetic. And while ascribing motives is dicey, I generally surmise that if someone inserts a word that is not in the text and then leaves out crucial phrasing in the next two sentences, it is unlikely to have been happenstance.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:19:50 +0000