SM

Craig #194 “Say I become an Egal, and my comp friend asks me about it. If I think that the meaning of “authority” and its difference to “leadership”is a good argument for the egal position, and my friend says “I don’t think they mean that” what would I say to back up the meanings as given in #142?”

Authority defined in RBMW:

“36. What is the meaning of authority when you talk about it in relation to the home and the church?
This question is crucial because the New Testament shows that the basic relationships of life fit together in terms of authority and compliance….And in marriage the wife is called to submit to the sacrificial headship of her husband…. What becomes clear as soon as we try to give a definition to this authority is that its *form* changes from one relationship to another. We would define authority in general as the right (Matthew 8:9) and power (Mark 1:27; 1 Corinthians 7:37) and responsibility (2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10) to give direction to another…For Christians, right and power recede and responsibility predominates….Authority becomes a burden to bear… It is a sacred duty to discharge for the good of others…. The transformation of authority is most thorough in marriage. This is why we prefer to speak of *leadership* and *headship* rather than authority….The husband’s authority is a God-given burden to be carried in humility….Thus authority in general is the right, power, and responsibility to direct others.” (pg 71-72) (*emphasis added)

Hier-comps define authority as the right, power, and responsibility to direct others and in the marriage relationship husbandly authority dovetails with wifely compliance. The ellipses were used for brevity’s sake but the response addresses the idea that governments are to establish and justly enforce laws and parents should lovingly enforce compliance, etc. The next natural progression in the discussion would be that husbands “lovingly enforce wifely compliance” since basic relationships are knitted together by authority and compliance and how for Christians authority is transformed in its various forms–government/citizen; employer/employee; parent/child. The article stops short of that. Why?

Moreover, hier-comps actually want to shy away from using the word authority, by renaming it headship and leadership, but still hang on to authority as the right, power, and responsibility to direct others with a qualifier that responsibility predominates right and power. It appears there is an attempt to make husbandly authority and wifely compliance more palatable by first renaming it and then describing the right, power, and responsibility to direct others in an authority-compliance relationship model as a “burden to be carried in humility” and “a sacred duty to discharge for the good of others”.

Craig, I point this out because as I read it, to hier-comps authority and leadership mean the same thing and is something to be exercised or possessed by males only. That is why in their definitions for manhood and womanhood only men lead and women receive masculine leadership.

If you were asked that question, you may have to start with explaining how you understand the terms and are using them.