Dr. Dobson & Authority
in three branches of government
*Warning: Some sacred cows may be dissected and BBQed in this blog. If you don’t like tri-tip or blood-shed, do not read.
Confession: I’ve read about three books by Dr. James Dobson and I’ve found all three superbly helpful. This book, which I found at my local little library, is no exception. It’s called Parenting Isn’t For Cowards, and even though it was originally published in 1987, it has many practical and solid instructions for parents. I particularly appreciated how Dr. Dobson corrects himself about something he previously published. I also appreciated how he admits that he is not a theologian. His specialty is Parent and Family Counseling.
While reading his chapter entitled “Suggestions For Parents of Adolescents", I came across this section about single moms:
Not only are they doing a job that should have been shouldered by two, they must also deal with behavioral problems that fathers are more ideally suited to handle. It is generally understood that a man’s larger size, deeper voice and masculine demeanor make it easier for him to deal with defiance in the younger generation. Likewise, I believe the exercise of authority is a mantle ascribed to him by the Creator. (Dobson, 159)
Aha! What a marvelous find! Here Dobson gives us a clear and what I think is a true observation about the nature of men and how that makes them generally better suited to enforce the law in the home. I’d add that men’s larger size, deeper voice, and the way in which their brains are wired make men better equipped to enforce the law in society too. Sure, some moms are authoritarians, and some women make scary cops, but generally speaking, men are best suited to enforce laws.
However, do you see the jump that Dobson makes next? He goes from being family counselor to something of a theologian in one sentence. He says that men’s being physically better suited to deal with defiance is like God choosing men to exercise authority. These two things—being law enforcers and being the authority—are not equivalent, but his language makes it sound like men are best at one thing and thus chosen for both. He doesn’t say that this mantle of authority is for men to be the family leader, and in fact, a few pages later, he says both parents need to run the home and make a stand against defiant kids. But if someone wasn’t on guard, they might think Dobson is saying that because men are better enforcers, God chose them to be the family leaders.
We need to be very careful around this sort of association because it’s easy for this kind of language to confuse us about who is supposed to lead in a family, church, or country. What Dr. Dobson says about men’s physical bodies does seem to be true, but I don’t think that translates into being a spiritual leader. Allow me to try clarifying some things.
First, the executive power or law enforcement in a government cannot be the same branch of government as those who make the laws or discern what those laws mean. Why not? Because if the law enforcement becomes the ones who make and interpret the laws, they will make and interpret laws to protect, empower, and value themselves over others. It’s just the way our sinful selves work. Unfortunately, this is how most of church history has operated. Men serve as both the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Another way to say this is they serve as both kings and priests to women who are the submissive subjects given the supposed privilege and calling of helping men feel valued and capable of doing everything themselves (with God’s blessing and help, of course). Bleah! What a merciless and bloody history of exclusion and pride that has been!
Certainly, an executive branch of government is necessary to keep people safe, but the executive branch must not have more authority over those who make or interpret laws. If the executive branch has authority over those who make and interpret the rules, that government, parental structure, or church becomes corrupt pretty quickly.
Interpreters
I find it interesting that shortly after Dobson says the above quote, he stresses how important it is to have mothers as family interpreters. Oh, Dr. Dobson! How enlightening! This seems true as well! God uniquely designed women with interconnected brains. Not only that but women’s bodies can form and connect to their children in a way that men can’t.
Thus, doesn’t it seem like God designed women to be better at having God’s word form them within and in relating that formation to other ideas, things, and people outside themselves? Gosh, it seems like it does.
Unfortunately, Dr. Dobson doesn’t make this connection. Rather, when he says that women are the family interpreters, he doesn’t mean interpreters of God’s laws for spiritual formation but interpreters of their husband’s actions to their children. He doesn’t mean that women are better equipped to connect God’s laws to our whole selves and to others, but to interpret the executive decisions of the man to others. What a shame!
He, in following church tradition, seems to be saying that men were designed and chosen by God to do everything themselves: relate God’s laws to a family and then enforce them doing it. Men are king-priests. Women are neither. Rather, women apologize, justify, and smooth out all the relationships damaged and destroyed by having this sort of government. Yikes! This does not sound like God’s design for humanity at all.
To be kind, Dobson wrote this book long before some new information came to light about Paul’s writings on women. I wonder if Dr. Dobson already knows this information. After all, this is an old book and when it comes to the practical application, he says both men and women need to enforce and interpret for and with each other. It seems that his practical applications already understand how it is not man’s job alone to discern or bring about God’s will. Perhaps this line about the mantle of authority is merely Dobson’s way of agreeing with theologians of his day. And perhaps if Dr. Dobson had lived during the early 1000’s CE, he would’ve said, “Likewise, I believe the exercise of authority is a mantle ascribed to the Pope by the Creator.”
Enforcer and Interpreter in Genesis
Anyway, I think this understanding of men and women as enforcers and interpreters sheds light on the Genesis story and the unique tendencies that men and women have. Let me try putting it together.
God made Adam. Then God, as the legislative branch of government, gave the law to Adam. Adam’s body and brain physically symbolize the enforcement and guarding of the law like an executive branch of government. Then God said it wasn’t good for man to be alone. It’s not enough to do the law and protect the law, the law must form us from the inside out.
So God made Eve with her relational brain and formational body. She was like the judicial branch, that is, the one best suited to interpret the word of God within herself. Perhaps another way of saying this is her body mirrors how a baby (i.e. the law of God) informs all her actions, emotions, thoughts, and relationships. You see, it wasn’t enough for Adam to enforce the law. He needed to have the law to form him on the inside. So God made Eve to symbolize this.
What a fantastic duo God made! The woman, whose body symbolized the formation of the law within us, and the man, whose body symbolized the enforcement of the law outside us! What could possibly go wrong?
Yeah, we know how that turned out, don’t we? Talk about a failure of both the executive and judicial branches. Adam didn’t enforce the law when Eve was tempted, and Eve didn’t use the law to form a correct decision. They were missing one more element of the government. They had the word of God given to them; now they needed to become the word themselves. The word needed to become flesh.
See, people don’t become like Christ by enforcing the law. That is to say, people aren’t saved by works alone. Likewise, people don’t become like Christ by having the Word of God formed in them alone. That is to say, people aren’t saved by faith alone. Our salvation is Christ being made manifest in our flesh. That is, our faith in Christ makes our lives work. The two go together!
We must be made into the law of God both inside and out. That is, we must become God’s words and do God’s words. God’s words must be written on our hearts to correctly form us and enforce us. Christ made this possible for us by coming to earth as the first Word of God. Now, God’s word can be sown in our hearts. When we believe, we become united with Christ and begin a new life as one of God’s spoken words. Only then do we become this beauty trinity of rulership within us: forming and enforcing God’s laws in ourselves for the benefit of others.
Oh wow! If that doesn’t give you goosebumps, I don’t know what will. Hope this blesses you. Now I’m off to cook a pot roast with this slain cow.
Dr. James Dobson. Parenting Isn’t For Cowards: Dealing Confidently with the Frustrations of Child-Rearing. (Word Books: Waco, 1987.)