Mothers, Role of

Mike Ford, citing James Taranto's article on The Politicization of Motherhood, showcasing a book written by Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar, a work which ironically has received praise from conservatives and scorn from her fellow liberals, offers empirical evidence that mothers are crucial in developing the baby's nervous system during the first three years, something that husbands, fathers or day care centers cannot do. Because the new-born baby has no developed central nervous system, the mother, through conveying the hormone oxytocin through gentle talk, eye contact, and breast feeding, constructs and regulates the baby's nervous system, making the infant less prone to attention deficit disorders, aggression and depression. Millennial leftists, who feel that gender is a construct created by a patriarchal society, have totally rejected this book, even though rigorous scientific research solidly supports it. Rearing a child is teamwork with the mother and the father bringing different aspects to the emergent personality. The Proverbs 31 woman displays a composite of strength and nurturing totally ignored by leftist justice warriors, who scornfully deride the God-created special differences between the genders.

Feminism has been growing in strength through Western culture for more than a century, leaving its despoiling mark on the family, the workplace, and society in general. Mike Ford, commenting on research done by author Erica Komisar, explains that the facts indicate that children - and society as a whole - function better when mothers fulfill the role of nurturers in the home.

Martin Collins, cautioning us that radical feminism has deteriorated and compromised all human institutions—from governmental, educational, corporate, religious (including certain segments of the greater church of God) right down to the family structure—charges that men have abdicated their God-ordained leadership roles, producing chaos and confusion in the wake of this abandonment. The family structure, with assigned orders of responsibility (not orders of importance implying superiority or inferiority), is paramount to God's plan. The Bible contains the domestic history of the family, receiving blessings or cursing according to the success or failure of the father's leadership. The family structure was intended to mirror the Divine spiritual structure with Christ submitting to God the Father and the Church submitting to Christ. In the family, the husband submits to Christ and the wife submits to her husband. As Christ loves the Church, the husband is commanded to love his wife as he loves his own body, sacrificing for her and protecting her, regarding her as co-regent and chief counselor, delegating essential complementary duties to her. He is prohibited from being a pompous tyrant (intimidating her and provoking his children to wrath), but he is enjoined to provide leadership and make decisions, mirroring Christ's relationship to the Church. As men assume their roles as leaders of families, this also extends into the church and into the community. As men abdicate this responsibility, women have been forced to fill the leadership vacuum, contrary to God's intention. As we fulfill our God-ordained family roles, we qualify to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ, ruling over the entire universe.

Present-day America is suffering a plague of dysfunctional families as it never has experienced before. Charles Whitaker documents not only the crisis but also the costs to individuals and society at large when children fail to receive the loving instruction and stability of whole families.

Richard Ritenbaugh, in reflecting upon biblically ordained marriage roles, realizes they are at odds or in conflict with cultural expectations, especially the influences of radical feminism and postmodernism, which viciously militate against the truths of the Bible. This message focuses upon the characteristics and attributes of the perfect wife, designed to be a comparable aide, companion, or helper, to complete a "one-flesh" unit. If either the husband or wife steps outside their prescribed, ordained roles, automatic friction and strife will occur. Biblical instructions concerning marriage roles'submitting and loving (not always the easiest to fulfill)'are intended to bring us back to the perfect state that existed before sin entered the picture. Fulfilling our roles reverses the curse placed upon our parents Adam and Eve. Marriage could be likened to a school enabling us to learn God-plane behavior.

Though experts proclaimed the twentieth century the Century of the Child in 1899, from a biblical perspective our social advancements have made life worse for our children. Martin Collins shows how the Bible predicted this of the end-time generations. (Also includes the inset "America's Lost Children.")

The second part in this series of three deals with God's curse on Eve for her part in the sin in the Garden of Eden. In this curse lies the beginnings of both women's difficulties in childbearing and the battle of the sexes. The effects of this curse are still being felt daily!