Waneta Dawn

“So if this man, for example, is calling her to engage in abusive acts willingly (group sex or something really weird, bizarre, harmful, that clearly would be sin),”

I notice that Piper’s examples are far out–things he thinks no “Christian” husband would do. What he doesn’t realize is that abusers do demand bizarre, weird and harmful acts. But those to whom wife submission is one of the top 10 biblical checkpoints, easily dismiss the fact that they are bizarre and focus instead on the wife’s supposed error.

My husband demanded something quite bizarre. When our daughter was small, she got the hand-held egg beater and waved it around in the living room, hitting the TV screen with it, and leaving a 2 inch scratch on the screen. My husband ordered that I had to get rid of the egg beater. (how bizarre and ridiculous and what poor stewardship! How many other items were there that I would have to get rid of if they my daughter did damage with them? We may have to empty out the house! And I would have to replace the item(s) later, which would be harmful to our bank account.) When I told my uncle this story, he looked shocked and took a few seconds to recover. When he did, he brushed off the fact that my husband had demanded something so bizarre, and proceeded to tell me that I was the problem, and that I should go home and submit to my husband.

Yet, I doubt this is the type of bizarre or harmful or sin Piper had in mind. From his example of group sex, he clearly is referring to actions that he the “pastor” would see as bizarrre, harmful, or sinful action. Stuff like a wife’s husband demanding that she pose for Playboy, or kill someone. The “big sins.” But the Bible does not differentiate between big and little sins. There is no such thing as a “little white lie” or a “little sin” in the Bible. Those “little sins” are just as clearly sin as the “bigger sins.”

According to the comment Nick made on Hannah’s blog, looking at “little sins” that a husband commits is simply an issue with “what the Word of God states about the difference between men and women’s roles.” Apparently, a wife not submitting to her husband’s “little sin” is a “big sin” as far as Nick and Piper are concerned.