Friday, November 5, 2010

Violence, What Does It Look Like

So often we equate violence with a smack in the face or a some other physical action that causes fleshly injury. There is another kind of violence that is much more subtle and damaging even than that which wounds the physical body.


Some of us who have lived more than 50 years, remember the days when a man would never speak crude language in the presence of a lady. In the eighteen hundreds in England, ladies were not allowed to attend funerals, or bars, or canteens where men hung out. They were considered the gentle gender in need of protection from those things that may emotionally upset them. We know that women had many hardships in their daily lives. Even those who were of healed means, experienced personal loss at young ages. There were diseases, accidents and hard work for those who were commoners. The disease also struck the wealthy, death was a common occurrence for everyone. There were no lack of lessons to be learned in the hardships of life.


There was a mentality in the old days that is conspicuously lacking in our culture today. That is the depth of concern for the well being of others. The women especially have felt the brunt of missing protection from the men. The women blame the men for their selfishness, and the men blame the women for the same reason. When in fact, both bear some responsibility, but the men carry the weight of the responsibility for their misunderstanding of the vision of the Biblical man.


The men abdicated their responsibility in caring for the woman in a loving manner, and the women responded wrongly in anger rather than in prayer. Both are cop able but the man holds the headship position ultimately is accountable for the condition of the home.


In business, if a CEO is not able to motivate his people in a manner that is fair and equitable, then he is accountable to the company for it's success or failure. The underlings are not held responsible for the company as a whole, but the CEO is. When a leader rules harshly and selfishly, then he presents a formula for failure and disaster. Of course the underlings are responsible before God to obey, but they are also responsible before God to inform the leader in a help-meet tone to protect him from disaster or error. 

When the two work together in a Biblical manner with all considerations toward pleasing God, then all works together well.