Out of sync

by | Jul 9, 2018 | 2018 elections, Editor's Blog | 3 comments

The opposition research on Mark Harris is just starting to emerge. In a sermon from 2013, Harris criticized society for strongly encouraging women to pursue a career outside of the home. He questioned whether careers should be put ahead of being a wife and mother.

“In our culture today, girls are taught from grade school . . . that what is most honorable in life is a career, and their ultimate goal in life is simply to be able to grow up and be independent of anyone or anything,” he’s quoted as saying, and then asking, “Is that a healthy pursuit for society? Is that the healthiest pursuit for our homes?… Is that the healthiest pursuit for the sexes in our generation?”

In the middle of the #MeToo movement, Harris’ words sound out of touch. Right now, women want more influence in society, in part, to reduce the amount of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace because men clearly haven’t done much to prevent it. His words also ignore the reality that too many households require both spouses working to pay the bills.

The problem Harris will face, though, is not just one sermon from five years ago. It’s a pattern of supporting an evangelical movement that has long encouraged women to be subservient to men. In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention rewrote their understanding of Christianity to declare, “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” Harris served as President of the North Carolina State Baptist Convention.

Harris also served on the board of his alma mater, the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary at the time Paige Patterson was president. Patterson was recently fired from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in part, for his mishandling of sexual abuse allegations while he was at Southeastern. Patterson placed a rape victim on probation while discouraging her from reporting the crime to police.

His spokesman complains that Harris is being criticized for “preaching the Word of God.” That’s always a dangerous defense in politics since the Word of God is open to interpretation and Harris’ interpretation may not jive with women in an area like Southeast Charlotte where women bankers, real estate agents and shop owners thrive. Other Christian denominations don’t hold these views.

Women will likely make up a majority of voters in November, and Harris is getting on their wrong side. His views of the role of women in society seem outdated. Instead of trying to accommodate their careers, he says women should question their choices. At a time when women believe their leadership is essential to changing behaviors and expectations in the workplace, Harris encourages fewer women, not more, to assume leadership roles.  His problem is not a one-off sermon, it’s an out-of-sync philosophy.

3 Comments

  1. JC Honeycutt

    Yikes–what century are we living in? Or rather, what century is Mark Harris living in–and what might he do as a member of the Supreme Court if he’s that deeply ensconced in Backwards Land? I’ve worked all my life until recently (I’m in my 70s now and fiscally stable enough to enjoy retirement), and my kid turned out better than OK. People–who when last I heard had free will, including the female members–should live their lives in accordance with their beliefs, not the beliefs of some whack job of Drumpf’s choosing. Count my opinion as a “no–hell, no!”

  2. Troy

    From the same minds that also brought you, ‘Slavery isn’t such a bad thing in totality.’ Theocracy, Corptocracy, Plutocracy all seek to divide and conquer on the same plane with the exception of religion. It is there that we should all band together. It is there we should humble ourselves (well not ALL of us; just the poor people) before the host and be thankful for what we have and covet our neighbor or our neighbors’ things. A form of control by the few against the many.

    Women are just the latest stripe in this suitcoat of deceit that has finally worked its way to a threadbare state. Women deserve, as do all human beings, the freedom to make their own choices about themselves without be told, coerced, forced, cajoled, or guilted into doing something against their will. No statute, law, more, tradition, or biblical teaching should run counter to that. If the choices we make are wrong and violate God’s law, that is between that person and God. Far right fundamentalist groups like the Moral Majority and other like minded neo-fascist groups hiding behind the cross should have no say in the matter; except for themselves.

    Those groups certainly don’t mind banding together for what they consider to be the work of God and the betterment of society, but God forbid (excuse the pun) let people with contradictory views try to band together; Satan himself has laid waste to the Earth.

    I agree with Michael Steele (just this once). “Shut the Hell up.” If fundamentalists like Harris and the others who march lock step to the drum of piety in the name of self righteousness can give Donald Trump a forgiveness token for all that he has done and is doing and can still stand support this man, you don’t need to be telling me a thing.

    It makes me wonder too…who is really at work here; God or Satan. For my money, it isn’t God.

  3. Scott

    No mention of the role that income plays in family decisions. Want the society of the 50s?, make it so that men and women are paid well for the jobs they find to do where they live.
    The job you have is the job you have.
    It has been a long time since I was in school in North Carolina. Far as it was NC education was not so great.
    Theocrats are always saying “God will provide.” Billy Graham went around preaching that unions were sinful for assuming employers worked to advance their own selfish interests.
    From people in robes it has been Barber on the right track.

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