You know, I could almost believe this. But after ten years in the most evangelical, conservative, fundamentalist Christian church there is out here, I have found that there are a plethora of bitter, angry, venomous, hate-filled Christian women, all coiled and ready to blame their men for everything and as a kicker, ready, willing, and able to use the Bible as their means to that end and their personal weapon for payback.
It's happened over and over through the years. I was a lay minister who provided marital counseling until I just couldn't do it anymore. I simply could not referee at anymore shriek sessions that featured women who went into marriage with the idea that their husband would provide them with everything they wanted and cure everything that ailed them. And when that didn't work, out came the hissing alley cat, finger pointed in accusation, all the while trolling for the next prospect warming up in the bullpen.
Our pastor always ran a marriage and family series every couple of years or so. In the last eighteen months, we've run the same study four times. I asked one of the associate pastors what the criteria was for doing this series. He told me that when the battered spouse crisis calls (both sexes) and divorce counseling sessions reached a critical point, that triggered the study.
Four times in the last eighteen months. Church is no place to look for Ms. Right. She's as screwed up, resentful, controlling and filled with hate as any radical feminist you will ever meet in a single's bar.
There are days when I honestly believe there is no hope for this world.
See, I take this as evidence for my claim that the bitterness of the American female reaches across all segments of society. NOT just the women I know; reports like this are coming in from all over. But let's be fair, to complain and nag and be bitter is a stereotypically female thing to do at times, perhaps it's not their Americanness but just plain what a female does when things go wrong. Men drink and withdraw, women blame and complain.
What denomination are you?
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is suffering, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
The Peace of the Lord be with you.