The Scotoma of Western Christianity

Covenant headship is thrown around a lot in the Reformed circles I swim in. For some, it’s an issue of contention. For others – an interesting topic. But there are some for whom it’s a fundamental framework for all of life. I’m somewhere in that last category. The water’s great in the pool I’m in and there’s plenty of room.

Unfortunately, I believe Christians in the western part of our planet have widespread scotoma on this issue. If you don’t know what scotoma is, you’re not alone. I actually just learned the definition. My text file program keeps underlining it red for me, so if you know what it is, you’re ahead of its vocabulary. Scotoma is a medical condition otherwise known as a blind spot. You can see, but not everything clearly. You have a spot that is hazy, dark, or discolored. You can have severe scotoma with multiple blind spots. That’s probably more of what Western Christianity has today. But I believe a blind spot related to covenant headship triggers much of the other haze we deal with. So, if we can start to see clearly here, a lot of the other questions answer themselves.

Many church leaders and laymen don’t understand what covenant headship is and what it looks like. And many that do, hate it. We can rephrase covenant headship into an alliterated form that performs a double play as a definition. Covenant headship boils down to representative rule. A covenant head has authority to decide and execute on behalf of and for the good of those whom he is representing. His authority is always contextualized. His rule is representative.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, a backdrop is necessary. The cart can only drag the horse for so long. Some institutions are enacted by men, such as universities, media, religious denominations, and the likes. Other institutions, the more fundamental sort, are enacted by God. These are the Family, the Government, and the Church. God prescribed a domain for the institutions He set up, covenanted with them, and deals with them directly.

Now, every time a covenant is made by God with a group of people, there is always a representative of the group – the covenant head. That’s the structure that God designed. This representative speaks and acts on behalf of the group, so that when the representative is speaking, the group is speaking, and when the representative is acting, the group is acting. This may sound like the representative will develop an unhealthy swagger that might cause sever back pain, but only if the role is misunderstood.

The Covenant Head represents the group and reports to God. Both aspects place a certain level of responsibility on the Head to represent the group well and to report to God on how he’s doing. With that responsibility comes the authority to rule. Representative rule means responsible reporting. I didn’t even have to go to seminary to be able to alliterate like that.

The structure of covenant headship creates order and accountability in God’s world. Instead of submitting to that structure, Western Christianity has been enraptured with lust for High Gloss Individualism – the pig with a gold ring in it’s nose. Seeking liberation from God’s structure, our polity is full of free-spirited anarchists ready to be swooped up by the next dictator, our churches are empty because individual-minded Christians are “zooming” at home while they watch the woman in the pulpit, and our families have wives and kids liberated from the rule of the patriarch.

As soon as “authority to rule” is mentioned, especially in reference to the husband’s role to make decisions and speak on behalf of his family, the call for equality comes over the intercom with sirens blasting and red lights flashing. Even among Bible-loving Christians, this disdain for representative rule is not lacking. Now, I know that the shape of my neck was designed perfectly for an axe blade. But I would request that you at least finish reading this page before unsheathing your weapon. At that point, you can go at it if you’d like.

God has structured His world with covenantal institutions, and commissioned representatives for the covenants. That’s why when Adam disobeyed God, all mankind fell. In Adam, we all disobeyed. He represented us. That’s also why in Christ, the Church is justified. He is the Head of the Church. His sacrifice was effective to the extent that it was representative. He didn’t pay for the sins of fallen angels because He does not represent them. He is their Lord. But he is not their covenant head.

Covenants are the tendons of the created order. The way a torn tendon affects the stability of the entire body, transgressing our covenants destabilizes institutions and creates orderless, fluid societies with rampant chaos. Covenants are the mortar holding our brick wall together. The more people esteem individualism and scrape off the crusty mortar, the more fragile everything around us becomes. Established covenants are not tumbleweeds – annoyingly drifting about in the wilderness. Treating them as such doesn’t make them so, but instead transforms our society into something resembling a tumbleweed. Covenants are a binding reality. God is not mocked.

The institution that acts as a building block for civilization – an atom, if you may – is the family. If we get it wrong there, we can’t get it right anywhere else. This also happens to be, I believe, where Western Christianity’s scotoma is most severe. Covenant headship at home is neglected even by some who would fill in the correct bubbles on a multiple-choice exam.

The husband has the authority to rule in his home because he’s responsible for his home – he is the covenant head. There is no way out of that reality. You can pretend that an individualistic world works and flourishes. You can even try to build such a world with suffrage and “Votes For Women.” You’ll just have to deal with the generational consequences of neglecting our covenants. That’s because in God’s reality, the man is always the head of his home. The man always represents his home. Saying that he doesn’t and trying to structure society apart from father-rule doesn’t change God’s design. It just makes life more difficult. God made him to be the head.

A husband has three options when it comes to his role of headship. The first option is for him to neglect his responsibility to represent his family and become domineering and abusive. A husband who acts like a tough jerk toward his family is an unfaithful head. Whether or not he raises his hand or voice against his wife, if his words and actions demonstrate that he refuses to represent her, and instead stands apart from his family as a self-righteous ruler, he is an unfaithful head. The only thing that makes it worse is if he appeals to his “Divine Right of Rule” to guilt his wife and kids into submission, being both abusive and manipulative. He is ruling, albeit poorly, but not representing. And nonetheless, this abusive jerk is still the head of his home, with his family bearing the consequences of his decisions.

The second option a husband has in his role is to neglect his responsibility to rule his family. There is a sort of passivity that neglects a proper response to the situation. Simply abdicating or avoiding an issue is definitely not taking responsibility. A husband who responds to the problems in his home is closer to faithfulness than the one who doesn’t. However, always being in a position to respond is still not a ruling position. The ruler is the one who initiates. A husband who is simply his wife’s friend and supporter, who only encourages and nourishes the kids, is an unfaithful head because, although he may be representing his family, he is not ruling them. A husband who refuses to rule, is nonetheless, still the head. There is no way out of that. The consequences of his unfaithfulness create a family that resembles a chaff in the wind – a tumbleweed.

The third option for the husband is to faithfully play the role that God has ordained for him. He is the representative ruler of his home – the covenant head. The representative husband understands that he is a member of his household, and that every one of his words and actions impact his family. He speaks and acts on behalf of his household and does so for their good. He knows that his family will bear the consequences of his actions, and that brings him to his knees as he reports directly to God. The ruling husband sets the course and the pace for his household as he leads his family. His wife and kids follow him because he is leading, not just responding to their outcries. The ruling husband judges, decrees, and decides. This is his role to play before God and for the sake of his family. He is the patriarch that provides for and protects his people. A representative ruler sits on a throne, but only after rising from his knees and letting his kids play on his lap.

Presenting patriarchy as some outdated, overbearing social system is not just false, but also sinful. Oh no! I said it! Well, I guess now is the time you can start unsheathing your blade, if you’d like. While you do that, I’ll say it again, just for the sake of clarity and effect. Lambasting patriarchy and promoting individualism, whether with our words or with our lifestyle, is sinful because God set up the man to be the representative ruler of his household – the covenant head.