Linda could listen to Pastor Ryan O’Rourke’s Irish brogue all day. “It gives him an advantage over other preachers,” she mused.  The Pastor’s parents brought him from Ireland to the States when he was eight years old so his Dublin accent was still easily recognized.

But this morning it wasn’t the pastor’s brogue, but the question he asked that grabbed her attention: “How many of you believe that the New Testament approves of the institution of slavery? Raise your hands if you do.”

Everyone chuckled quietly. Their pastor sometimes used an outlandish question or statement to introduce his sermon topics. No one even looked around to see if anyone would raise their hand. No one would, of course.

That is until Pastor O’Rourke looked down at the second row on the left where little Tommie Winford held his hand high in the air. He was only seven so his hand didn’t stick up very high and everyone knew that Tommie liked attention and always had something to say. Everyone knew that Tommie’s mouth usually ran way ahead of his brain.

“Well, Tommie,” the pastor spoke kindly, “You’re one of only two with their hands up, so what are you thinking?”

“Two” did he say? Now everyone was looking around to see who else had their hand up suggesting they believed the Bible approved of Christians having slaves.

There he was, halfway back on the right side of the sanctuary. It was Cam Stevens – a surly teenager who grew up in the church and was on nearly everyone’s prayer list. Cam had a reputation for rebellion against his parents and seemed to never miss an opportunity to embarrass them in front of their church family. His latest gig was White Nationalism. His Tweets and Facebook posts were full of racial prejudice and hate. Sometimes he even wore a Nazi swastika on an arm band.

“Surprise!” Cam said loud enough for everyone to hear. “It’s me. The church’s favorite rebel.”

It was true, of course. Half-true, at least. No one would disagree that Cam was the church rebel. But nobody would use the word “favorite” to describe him. Oh, he was smart enough. His high school teachers said he was bored in school because he was so brilliant. If only he could channel that intelligence. Cam actually seemed to know the Bible better than most of the church members, but he typically only used that knowledge to get under people’s skin. Today was no exception.

Cam continued with a kind of mocking ministerial tone, “Dearly beloved,” he paused for effect, “please open your Holy Bible to the sixth chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians.” Even Pastor O’Rourke seemed too stunned to know what to do. You could hear the shuffle of pages as people turned to the passage.

“Have you ever noticed in verse 5” . . . Cam paused ever so briefly . . . “that the revered apostle commanded slaves to obey their masters? That certainly sounds to me as if the Bible approves of slavery.” He paused again to let his words sink in, then, before anyone could interrupt, he continued. “Or, have you noticed that Paul was addressing three relationships: wives and husbands, children and fathers, and slaves and masters?”

Several members cautiously nodded to this last observation. Clearly that is what Paul did in Ephesians 5:21-6:9. Where was Cam going with this?

“The pastor asked one question and only two of us raised our hands. Let me ask another. How many of you believe that the Bible teaches that wives are supposed to submit to their husbands?” He looked around as a few people timidly held up their hands and, after a few seconds, were joined by nearly the entire congregation.

“How about you deacon Fredrickson? Do you believe your wife is supposed to submit to you?” The deacon squirmed because he did believe the Bible taught that, but was afraid Cam was leading him into some kind of trap. “Well,” Cam pressed, “Do you or don’t you believe your wife should submit to you?”

With a sheepish glance at his wife Barb who was glaring at him, the deacon meekly replied, “Yes, I do. That is what Paul commands.”

“There you have it.” Cam gloated. “You all affirm that Paul approves of wives submitting to their husbands, but only little Tommie and I believe what Paul wrote just a few verses later – that it’s okay to have slaves and they are supposed to submit to their masters.”

Now even Pastor O’Roarke was perspiring. He hadn’t intended for his sermon opposing the evils of racism, human trafficking, and slavery to go off the rails like this.

“You’re all just a bunch of hypocrites,” Cam emphasized with an angry wave of his hand to include the whole congregation. “You take one part of the Bible to support oppressing women and then throw out another part a few verses later that supports the oppression of slaves. At least I’m honest about it. My White Nationalist friends believe that some races are just inferior and ought to be subjugated. That’s what the Bible says but you won’t admit it. If you believe Ephesians supports the submission of women to their husbands then you’ve also got to believe that it supports the submission of slaves to their masters.”

The congregation sat in stunned silence.

Cam added one last comment. “If you actually do believe all of the Bible, then maybe you should come with me tonight to learn more about White Nationalism. See me after church for the details.” As he sat down, no one could miss the smug look on Cam’s face.

Now of course, that story is imaginary.

But it recalls a stunning moment in my own life when, in the midst of preparing a sermon series on the three relationships in Ephesians 5:21-6:9 I was suddenly struck by the incongruity of the way I had always preached from the passage about wives and husbands in contrast to how I preached about slaves and masters. I was forced to ask myself the question, “What does slavery have to do with marriage?”

If the passage reveals God’s approval of patriarchy (wives must submit to husbands) then it also approves of slavery (slaves must submit to masters). I had always taught the former, but I totally rejected the latter. That’s why in dealing with slaves and masters, I had always ignored interpretationand jumpedimmediately to application and preached about employees and their bosses, which is absolutely NOT what Paul was writing about.

That launched me onto a serious and deep study of Paul’s three parallel relationships and became one of the tipping points in my investigation of what the Bible teaches about gender roles in the church and marriage.

If you’d like to know more about that part of my journey, read chapter five in my book (“Submission—a personal tipping point”).

Of course, if you’re okay with the idea that God approves of the institution of slavery, perhaps you won’t appreciate what I discovered and wrote about in my book, “Should Women Be Pastors and Leaders in Church? My Journey to Discover What the Bible Says About Gender Roles”

Available at amazon.com; barnesandnoble.com; westbowpress.com; or from me.