In the beginning, God created man and woman. He created them in their image.
Ever since the fall of man, women and men have been at odds. The Gen. 3:16 was a punishment that put man in charge. And that charge was not always kind.
In the Book of Genesis, marriage was always designed to be unilateral. Meaning, the man went to the potential girl’s home and ask her father for permission to marry her. This is where we get Gen. 2 “a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.”
In steps Gender equality. We read in the Bible that there was a constant struggle with headship and submission in the New Testament. Paul had to often correct the women (1 Tim. 2, 1 Cor. 14, Eph. 5) to obey their husband.
This was because the Graeco-Roman laws were bilateral. Meaning, men and women married and divorced at will. They were considered equals. This obviously squashed any patriarchy in the home.
Believers mostly originate from these Gentile cultures. We say, poo-poo to bride prices, betrothal and the like creating a equally shared authority in the home. This was how America was founded. A land of the free and a home of the “fair” practice acts.
As the war for patriarchy fought in the home under Christian and other religious practices became out-dated, a new movement emerged. Feminism.
Feminism fought back. They fought to be equal. They fought for their freedom.
This created a problem for divorces. Divorce in America was based on the English laws. The Matrimony Clause of 1857 was the first time divorce was legislated outside of the church. This gave men the right to initiate a divorce if his wife committed adultery. However, the woman was not allowed to initiate a divorce for adultery alone. There had to be other extenuating evidences.
However, feminism was not going to have this! They pushed to have freedoms to divorce from a man at will. This “at will” freedom was soon put into law by Ronald Reagan in 1969. It was the unilateral “no-fault” divorce. This allowed divorce to be equal, less argumentative, and gave the women the ability to divorce her husband without proving abuse. She was now Free!
This came at a cost. In 1970 other States soon adopted this statue and with it, the “best interest of the Child” standards. This created a whirlwind of devastation across America. The Best interest of the child was to replace the Tender years doctrine. This gave preference to the women if the child was young.
The “best interest of the Child” was a doctrine that came from both Hitler’s reign to America in the 18th century. This was to give power to the Government to decided custody of a child in emergency situations. This, however, was no emergency situation.
This, flipped the script, if you will. Instead of giving more equality to both men and women it gave all authority to the Government. CPS and the United Nations soon caught on to this WONDERFUL, all powerful doctrine and incorporated it into their ligature.
What now?
Now, men fight for equal rights and the woman has all the money, authority and custody. Men have put their tails between their legs and now they are finally paying for it. There are many women in this shared parenting movement but the government is too financially and morally invested. The Title IV-D and Adoption and Safe Families Act has given governmental facilities now financial incentives to carry on.
Is this unfair? Yes!
Can we do anything about it? Maybe.
As the movement continues to fight for shared parenting and repealing unilateral no-fault divorce that started this, they are getting much push-back from those in Government benefiting for Federal funded programs made to support those children taken from the homes.
May God help us!!!
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