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| Female humanities majors can take the course as part of an academic concentration in homemaking. The class is rooted in the
teachings of the Bible, as one student's notes show. carmen k. sisson |
In this college course, a focus on homemaking
A Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, offers classes that stress traditional marital roles, spawning controversy and curiosity.
By Carmen K. Sisson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the December 3, 2007 edition
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FORT WORTH, Texas - It's a familiar scene: Women gathered around the table, talking about men, talking about children, talking about life. Some are barely out of high school, too young to know the joys, or hardships, of marriage. Others have been married a while, long enough to nod in sage unison as the woman at the head of the table talks about love, loss, commitment. There is no coffee here – the 20-somethings prefer bottled water – and no pastries. But there is a thirst for knowledge, a hunger rumbling beneath the scritch-scratch of pens and soft snores of the black Labrador collapsed in the corner.
If there's controversy brewing here in Fort Worth – and some say there is – it's not on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and not in this room. Nine women have gathered for the college's latest offering, a female-only elective course designed to teach women how to better manage their households and, it is hoped, stanch the rising tide of divorce in the Bible Belt.
The class, "Biblical Model for Home and Family," is one of nine courses, with others focusing on the value of a child, clothing construction, nutrition, and meal preparation, that make up a homemaking concentration Southwestern began offering female humanities majors this fall.
The move has attracted criticism, but Bible-based homemaking courses aren't that unusual. Masters College, a Christian liberal-arts school in California, offers courses teaching women how to cook, manage time, and "joyfully submit to their husbands." Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., offers a marriage and family class teaching wives how to meet their husbands' needs and keep marriage exciting.
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Behind many of these classes are ideals as deeply rooted in the Southern Baptist faith as the oak trees that dot Southwestern's lawn. The husband is the head of the household. The wife is his helper. Both are equal in God's eyes, but their roles are not interchangeable. The Baptist Faith and Message, a doctrinal statement adopted in 2000 by the Southern Baptist Convention, outlines those roles clearly: "A husband ... has the God-given responsibility to provide for, protect, and lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband...."
Dr. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern, led the committee that wrote the statement of faith. His wife, Dr. Dorothy Patterson, the sole female professor at the college, teaches "The Biblical Model for Home and Family" from their home on campus. But make no mistake – though she lists "homemaker" as her occupation on tax returns, she's a trained theologian as well, holding multiple degrees.
Seated in a plush chair in the couple's expansive library, a glass of sweet tea in her hand, she commands respect. Ultimately, this is the message she teaches her students, respect for their husbands and for scripture, which she says trumps everything. Drawing inspiration from Titus 2:5, which exhorts women to love their husbands, love their children, and be "discreet, chaste homemakers," Mrs. Patterson broaches no apology for the course. "These women are going to be pastors' wives," she explains. "They need to know this."
Though women can choose from 10 program tracks at Southwestern, they aren't allowed to pursue a divinity degree – Southern Baptists assign pastoral leadership only to men. Likewise, men aren't allowed in any of the classes within the homemaking concentration. They have their own class – "The Christian Home."
Patterson says while she believes women are called to stay at home, and that men prefer them to, it's a choice that each woman must make for herself by examining scripture, praying, and discussing it with her husband. She says many women feel conflicted by the demands of work and family life as well as societal pressures to pursue a career. "The home has been so denigrated that women who choose to stay there are treated like they've lost their minds," Patterson says. "But if you're working for the people you love, that has to be at least as important as working in a restaurant."
She and others believe more traditional marriages could also help reduce the nation's divorce rate, which US Census Bureau statistics show is highest in the Baptist-heavy Bible Belt.
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