Bruce Prescott, Executive Director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists and proprietor of the Mainstream Baptist blog, writes that Mike Huckabee's response in the Republican debate last night in South Carolina about his endorsement of the Southern Baptist Convention's 1998 Family Statement was a lie. Specifically, Huckabee was asked about the portion of the statement that requires wives to submit to their husbands:A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.Huckabee first attempted to deflect the question by wondering aloud why he's criticized for bringing religion into the campaign and then is the only one who is asked about religion. Isn't he hilarious? He then gave a non-answer by saying that anyone who knows his wife knows that she is not a submissive person.Prescott:
Huckabee can't have it both ways. He can't endorse the the 1998 family statement and the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message and then endorse the egalitarian interpretation of Ephesians 5 -- an interpretation that the family statement was written to deny.The unconditional nature of the wife's subjugation was made clear in 1998 at the official press conference following the statement's adoption. Dorothy Patterson, wife of Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson and a member of the committee that drafted the family statement, said, "When it comes to submitting to my husband even when he is wrong, I just do it. He is accountable to God."--Sarah Posner
