Description
Bully Pulpit is the latest book by author, blogger, and seminary president and professor, Michael J. Kruger. This book’s focus is spiritual abuse and while Bully Pulpit is easy to comprehend the anecdotes included in its pages aren’t necessarily easy to read. I do believe that if you’ve encountered spiritual abuse, you will be encouraged by this book. There were many times in the book when Dr. Kruger included scenarios of spiritual abuse and it was validating to see him acknowledge these instances as sinful.
Upon examining the origins of spiritual abuse on page 44, Dr. Kruger gave readers an overview of Genesis 3 and sin’s origins. It shocked me to read that because of the fall, “. . . husbands would need to guard against sinfully dominating their wives. . . ” This page also mentioned how sin breaks other relationships which leads to spiritual and other types of abuse. However, this line about husbands sinfully dominating their wives is one that I highlighted and went back to reread multiple times to make sure I was reading correctly. I’ve struggled with complementarian ideals because of the way passages like this are taught.
I’ve never heard it taught that men have to be on guard against sinfully dominating their wives – I have been taught many times however, that women have a desire to usurp the “authority” of their husbands (authority is in quotes since the Bible does not use this word in reference to marriage.) Genesis 3’s reference to a woman’s desire to rule over her husband comes from a Hebrew term that is very difficult to translate. Even commentators and theologians have not reached a firm consensus about how to translate it, [1] so it was incredibly refreshing to see Dr. Kruger give an objective look at the passage. His godly tenderness toward women is so apparent in Bully Pulpit. Read my full review here.
