By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Dr. Myles Munroe as he addressed Spring Breakers at last year's inaugural 'Fun in the Son' gospel show. - Contributed
RENOWNED AUTHOR and television preacher, Dr. Myles Munroe, believes it is not a good idea for married women to retain their maiden name. In so doing, he says, the seeds for the parting of the union are sown.
Pastor Munroe was in the island for part one of ' Fun in the Son' the music and worship show which was held last week in Ocho Rios. Part two continues this weekend. He shared his thoughts with The Gleaner via telephone in an interview which covered a wide range of issues. Pastor Munroe, a Bahamian, said: "The male was created by God to be the foundation of the family. Only the male is designated as father by God. What does 'father' mean? It means source and sustainer. When you read the Genesis record of humanity and its creation you will remember that women did not come from the soil. God took them out of the man. So man became the source of the woman. Therefore, it is natural to call him 'Abba' (the Hebrew word which means father.)
"The male is the source of the female. That automatically makes the male the source and the sustainer of the female. That's why women want to be, desire to be, loved by a man who will support them, who will sustain them and who will take care of them. Even if a woman makes more money than a man, she wants to feel that he will take care of her, protect her, preserve her, and support her because she needs that. He continued: "When you read Genesis chapter 2 which says 'For this cause should a man leave his mother and father and cleave unto his wife,' - nowhere in Scripture does the Bible ever command a woman to leave her father. It commands the man to leave his father and his mother but not the woman. The reason was because a female was never designed by God to really leave her father. She simply changes fathers. Because she came from a father, and she has to be with a father all the time. So a woman, really, when she gets married at the altar, it is natural and proper for the father of that woman to transfer her to the other father (the groom). That is why it is improper, traditionally and spiritually speaking, for a mother to give her daughter away, or a mother even to give her son away. The father is supposed to do it because she is leaving one father going to another father ( the groom). The Hebrew mind has an understanding, he said, "That when you name a thing, you become responsible for it. That is why when God named something, He became responsible for it. God told Adam to name the animals, therefore God made man responsible for taking care of the earth. Notice God did not name Eve. He told Adam 'You name your own wife.' When Adam named her, he became responsible for her. When a woman gets married, the reason why she loses her (maiden) name, is because she transfers responsibility from her father to the man (her husband). That is why she takes on his name (surname). When a woman refuses to lose her original name, she is literally saying that she is not completely under that new man. And that is why that man who she is married to, never feels that he completely has responsibility nor does he feel obligated in most cases to take responsibility for that woman. The fact that she has two names, that is hyphenated names in most instances, communicates to him that she does not completely give herself to him. And that is why it is very important for women to surrender their (maiden) name when they get married.
He argues that when married women fail to surrender their maiden name, the seeds of a parting are sown right there. When this happens, the man never feels complete ownership of that relationship. That's probably why Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton had such problems.
In much of his writings and sermons, Dr. Munroe has focused a lot on gender issues. He states: "No matter who you are, relationships either destroy or they create a better destiny. Ninety per cent of all the problems in the world are relationship-based, so I believe you cannot be an effective leader unless your relationships are in good order. You are as good as your relationship with your wife, your children and your co-workers.
The pastor of a 2,000-strong church, the Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship, in Nassau, Dr. Munroe believes it is important to retain God's image as Father.
"I want to stress that in the Old Testament the word 'father' hardly ever was used because the old Hebrew concept of God was not one of endearment but rather one of judgement. Jesus Christ came to introduce God in a way we were not used to. He was the first one to use the word 'Father' so profusely. It affected the religious leaders who were trained by Old Testament philosophy. I believe that the key to your entire fulfilment on this earth is the Fatherhood image of God. 'Father' is the Hebrew word 'Abba' and it means source and sustainer. It is not a name. It is a title. And when Jesus said that God is our Father He was telling us that He is our source and He sustains us. He is responsible for taking care of us. And that is why when you ever get to the point where you understand that God is your Father you stop worrying completely. When Jesus said, 'Why do you worry about what you shall eat, what you will drink, what you will wear, how you will live'- his next statement was 'Your Father knows you need these things.' He said, 'You just focus on the Kingdom of God, seek that first and all these things will be added (unto you). Because if He is your Father then He is obligated to take care of you. If he is just your Saviour, then He will save you, redeem you. The purpose of His giving us the Holy Spirit is to help us to cry Abba Father. That is a tough thing for God to get Christians to do. Many Christians do not know God as their Father. They know Him as their Saviour.
Dr. Munroe is also alarmed at efforts to
create gender-neutral Bibles. He said: "Persons who attempt to do that - do not understand the Bible and they are actually trying to impose their personal and private idiosyncrasies on the historical text. That's
Famed preacher , Myles Munroe, speaks candidly about gender issues
lubricious. I told you the meaning of the word 'Father.' To call God 'her' is actually proof of your ignorance as someone reading the Bible. A true scholar knows that the word 'Father' does not mean male. It simply means source and sustainer. And that is exactly what God is and exactly what a male is based on the Creation story. If you were to change the words from 'Father God' to 'Mother God' then you have destroyed your very source of security in God because He is your source. Mothers are not source, women do not carry seed. To make God a mother is to literally curse God and to tell Him He did not create everything. It is the height of ignorance and poor understanding of historical documents and a lack of interpretation skills. If churches focus more on teaching and less on emotions, there is likely to be an increased attendance of men in church, Dr. Munroe said.
For as it is now much of the church is programmed for females by its appeal to emotions, he said. "Women are (primarily) emotional creatures. Men are not. Men are (primarily) logical creatures. So the church actually discourages men from attending the activities because men are shy when it comes to emotional involvement. Men are analytical, calculating, and so because they are that way, we need to redesign and take another look at our church programming philosophy. I believe if the church focuses more on teaching rather than feeling, if it focuses more on instruction rather than emotion - you will see men coming to the church. In churches with a strong teaching ministry, there will tend to be a good representation of men. In his own church in the Bahamas, Pastor Munroe says that men constitute 80 per cent of worshippers in the congregation, while neighbouring churches have 60 per cent women to men. "That is because we focus specifically on designing the programme of the church for men. If the men don't come in - the families will be in trouble. Satan does not mind if the women go to church. He doesn't want the men to go to church, because he knows that the men are the foundation of the family. If you want to destroy the family just remove the man and you got a woman carrying a load she is not designed to carry. If you get the men in order, the women will follow," he said.
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
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