Cheryl

Hi Lin,

No, Lepine doesn’t prescribe a “priest” for the man, because the man doesn’t need a priest for him. The woman is apparently the only needy one and he is there to “fill” her need for a priest. This is just so unbiblical and I am afraid that men with their heads filled with this new “job” description will not even understand how hurtful and unloving it is to have your own in-house sin detector. If the wife protests his treatment, that won’t help because Lepine says, “…he needs to obey God’s call regardless of how his wife will respond.” I see a recipe for a disastrous and unhappy marriage.

It also seems to me that Lepine should know better just from his own words. He says “Most books I’ve read on how to have a happy marriage don’t suggest that one of the keys is confronting sin in your mate.” There is a reason why most books don’t suggest this confrontation method. It is because it doesn’t work and it only sets a division and a hostility between husband and wife. There doesn’t appear to be any equality for the woman in a “role” that gives her the ability to confront her husband’s sin. While I don’t recommend this type of confrontation either, it comes across as the man is on a high pedestal and he gets to choose how he lays down the law. In fact Lepine says “He is to know and apply the law of God in the home.” If that doesn’t ring some warning bells in our heads regarding what the husband can do regarding his wife’s “sin”, then we may be very comfortable in Muslim countries where the husband has the right to discipline his wife in anyway he chooses without consequence. If he kills her for disobeying him or for ruining a dinner, then she deserves it. It really does make me shudder how far we have gone away from God’s original intent of a one-flesh union and towards the world’s way where the man is the true master and king of his home.