I have spent the past several months preaching through the wonderful book of Colossians. I know that it has been a positive experience in my own life, and I believe in the life of our community as well. The last two Sundays, I covered Colossians 3:18-19.

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them (ESV).

Not easy verses to preach on in our day and age! But I spent extra time in study and prayer beforehand and I believe that God honored it. In my study, I read a number of articles and studies on marriage and gender roles in society. There is no shortage of material out there. These included a major study by Maria Shriver released last month on women in the workplace. It polled American’s view’s on the fact that women now make up 50% of the workforce. Most people feel good about this.

The survey found that around three-quarters of men and women believe that the growing presence of women in the workplace has been very or somewhat positive for American society and the economy.

At the same time, a majority of Americans were concerned about this impact upon children.

As more women enter the work force, the survey shows continuing concern for how the trend  is affecting their children and home life. Sixty-five percent of men and women surveyed felt that the decrease in children growing up with a stay-at-home parent has been somewhat or very negative for American society.

Now our society is not going back to the 1950′s “Ozzie and Harriet” setup where the man works all day (and evening) and the woman stays home. While this seems to be an easy answer, I don’t think its that simple. Obviously our society has changed. But I also think that the collapse of this traditional arrangement in the following decade of the 1960′s was because all was not right. The fact that many men were largely absent husbands and distant fathers in this time contributed greatly to our society’s breakdown. Having said that, we cannot ignore the poll’s striking results of more women in the workplace being “positive for our society” and at the same time “negative for our children.”

Another article I read was from the National Catholic Register titled “The Abolition of Man (and Woman).” It took this title from an old C.S. Lewis book. The author is very concerned about how science is adding to our gender confusion in its quest to create a human life. He refers to the recent announcement that scientist have created a monkey from one male’s sperm, one female’s egg, and additional DNA material from another female. He argues that this only further unravels our morality as we set free the distinctions of Male and Female.

The abolition of man and woman is part of a larger cultural revolution, a fact seen quite clearly in the active drive to make male and female obsolete in the culture, as well. First, there is a kind of relentless spirit of androgyny pushed in our intellectual culture, where manliness is actively discouraged and disparaged and womanliness is taken to be a kind of servitude from which women must be delivered. The goal seems to be to make men more like women and women more like men, so that, by their eventual blending together, they become indistinguishable. The result, of course, is that male and female become morally insignificant distinctions in our minds.

There is another related sense of obsolescence because the spirit of androgyny takes flesh in the actual culture and through real social and educational institutions and policies. If the distinct aims of manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood are removed as the proper and good goal of boys and girls, then what, precisely, do boys and girls aim at? They are each taught to aim at the exact same target: becoming self-supporting, individual moneymakers.The guiding assumption that a boy becomes a man precisely in becoming a husband and provider for his family has been replaced by an entirely indistinct, androgynous image of a large boy making money by himself, for himself, and for the satisfaction of his own pleasures. The guiding assumption that a girl becomes a woman by becoming a wife and mother has been replaced by the same indistinct, androgynous image of individual moneymaker working by herself, for herself, and for the satisfaction of her own pleasures.

The Scriptures tell us another story. That God created Man in His own image…as Male and Female. In Genesis 2, we get more details into God purpose. He designed them to be joined together as “One Flesh.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed (Gen. 2:24-25 ESV).

St. Paul tells us that the Husband and Wife becoming of “One Flesh” reflects Christ and the Church (Eph. 5). He calls is a mystery, and it is difficult to grasp it all, but it is a beautiful picture. I believe this story. It is the one I am not only telling, but it is the one I am trying to live with the One Flesh relationship I have with Kristine Ann Copeland.

Shane+