Godly men must take leadership roles

IN THE movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, daughter Toula complains to her mother: “Dad is so stubborn. What he says, goes. Ah, the man is the head of the house!”

Her mother, however, knows better: “Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.”

This says a lot about the gender roles in many households. God has ordained men as the heads of their families, and leaders of his church, the body of believers. But that does not mean no mutual respect and willingness to serve are required to turn the head on the neck.

God allocated complementary roles to men and women, not competing ones, in spite of women proving themselves as more than capable participants on the labour market.

In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says: “But I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

Consequently patriarchy, paternalism and male leadership in the good sense of the word are not unnatural.

Men who have lost sight of their own master, both inside and outside of church structures, have lost sight of the divine pattern for their family.

Yet the abuse of women and children by clergy and authoritarian, unloving men, should not taint God’s perfect plan.

If anything, it is male leadership that has been severely missing at all levels of society. More than ever before, we need godly men to take up leadership roles in their family and elsewhere to act as role models for boys and young men, in order to work towards moral regeneration. ROBERT DE NEEF

Howick