He orders the wife and kids around because—
He will tell you—
God has put the man in charge.
And if you mess with that—
He will tell you—
You’re daring to defy the authority
Of none other than God himself.
But he himself defies that same authority
When he does not lead them in the manner
Jesus and his apostles instructed—
Courageously laying his own life down daily
To meet their needs in humility and kindness.
And you’ll have a hard time
Getting him to care about this,
Just as you’ll have a hard time
Getting his church to care about this, too—
For it is run by defiant shepherds like him,
Who will refuse to teach and rebuke him
As the Lord requires.
So the wife and kids
Are isolated like prisoners
In his charge,
With nowhere to turn for relief.
And this, they are told,
Is the way God wants it
And they are supposed to find
A way to be happy about it.
But it is such a damnable lie—
This wicked gaslighting from men
Who have commandeered for their own use
Bits and pieces of ancient authority structures
That were predicated upon the principle
That all the people—
And not just the wife and kids—
Were to be accountable under God.
And his day will come,
When having ruined their lives with his own,
He will meet the Master Shepherd at last
And be beaten with many blows
For what he has done—
As will also those church shepherds
Who did not come to the aid
Of his wife and kids,
But let them suffer
Under his tyranny.
