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Should Women have a Spiritual Head other than Jesus?

If a woman's husband is not a spiritual person, should she have other men that she submits to and receives spiritual direction from?
What if her non-spiritual husband discourages her (as a member of the church) from going to church or covering her head? Should she submit to his wishes or just his demands?

What about single women?

Does submitting to a church as a whole (both men and women) fill this role of a spiritual head?


Posting in this thread is limited to conservative Anabaptists and other Plain people of similar beliefs.

Ernie wrote:Does submitting to a church as a whole (both men and women) fill this role of a spiritual head?

Why wouldn't it? Maybe I'm missing something, but anything more than that seems extrabiblical at best and misogynistic at worst.

PeterG wrote:

Ernie wrote:Does submitting to a church as a whole (both men and women) fill this role of a spiritual head?

Why wouldn't it? Maybe I'm missing something, but anything more than that seems extrabiblical at best and misogynistic at worst.

What if the church is not unified in their advice? Does the woman pick the advice that seems the most helpful? Or should she submit to the leader's advice?

My single daughters make some decisions on their own, sometimes they ask me or their brothers for advice and then act on that. We would not tell them what they have to do. Depending on what it is they may also ask a trusted leader in the church. We have many single women in our churches; I am sure there are some families where the father insists on being their head. I am sure their are other situations, especially as father gets older that he prefers they find someone else they trust. It is not wise for them to seek advice from another lay person, unless they go through the man's wife.

So even though her father or brother or minister gives her advice, the single woman still has Jesus as her Head.

I answered above from the perspective of a single woman "in the church." Our friend, Lucy, in Ireland wants to wear her cape dress and covering but this really upsets her parents. She has no church in Northern Ireland to support her so we advised her to wear a modest dress, something that would cover the same way as a cape dress would and to wear a veiling that does not look like part of a nun's dress.

The woman with an unbelieving husband can attempt to placate her husband in similar manner while getting advice from the church. She is in a very unpleasant situation and may need to remove herself from her husband's influence. As long as she is with him, he is still her head in some respects. In other ways, she can feel reassured that Christ is her Head. The church can advise and she needs to conform to the church, but her head is Christ.

So maybe I should ask the question this way,
Should women have a spiritual head (a human one) who is submitted to Jesus?

Ernie wrote:So maybe I should ask the question this way,
Should women have a spiritual head (a human one) who is submitted to Jesus?

They should submit to the church leaders, who are men. Regardless of what Charity people believe, they don’t need a designated man to play their own personal head.

Every person should submit to the brethren in church and particularly the ordained leaders. If a Christian wife has a Christian husband, that's even easier since she can submit to him. (But he needs to submit to the brethren too, lest his leadership become poor leadership, and his wife suffer.)

Outside of a spiritual context, Christians are commanded to submit to normal authority, like slaves to masters, subjects to governments, or employees to employers. This authority isn't absolute but is encouraged. I would view a Christian wife with an unbelieving husband as a similar situation - she should submit as much as possible, but it is not absolute. In such a case, her "spiritual head" is the brethren and leadership of the church she is part of. If she doesn't have one, then she is missing out on the blessing of brotherhood and spiritual leadership.

The idea of a "spiritual head that is Jesus" is ephemeral - for most people, this ends up being "my spiritual head is whatever my feelings are telling me and that I can convince myself is what Jesus is saying to me". For example, some people feel that Jesus tells them to leave their spouse. I would argue that person's spiritual head isn't Jesus, but something sinister.

I wasn't intending my previous comment to be derogatory to Charity people. I'm quite close to some, and have only heard this thinking from them and as far as I can think of, nobody else. And I have discussed and disagreed with them on this point.

Ernie wrote:Should Women have a Spiritual Head other than Jesus?

If a woman's husband is not a spiritual person, should she have other men that she submits to and receives spiritual direction from?
What if her non-spiritual husband discourages her (as a member of the church) from going to church or covering her head? Should she submit to his wishes or just his demands?

What about single women?

Does submitting to a church as a whole (both men and women) fill this role of a spiritual head?


Posting in this thread is limited to conservative Anabaptists and other Plain people of similar beliefs.

This question of authority is often tied to the head covering. And it acts as something of a referendum on the covering instead of what level of authority a man has as a husband. Take people who are very weak* in their beliefs on the covering. These people will say to obey the husband on the matter, take it off. But these same people would strongly stand against the husband should he make other unbiblical, immoral demands, for example that she walk around in swim wear in public.

*weak may not be the best word here, especially given how one views the covering. But I'm to weary to find a different word. My point is that most people will advise the wife to disobey her husband at some level. Not many people actually would advise the wife to be as Sara to Abraham and lie for her husband. Except possibly some of you rascally Charity people who have brought that up to me in the past.