John Knox (1514 – 1572 AD),  the “father” of the Church of Scotland, wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women while in exile against the three queens who were ruling England, France and Scotland at the time. Knox’s main contention of ‘is that the exercise of authority by women is contrary to both natural law and religion.’

Nature, I say, does paint them forth to be weak, frail, impatient, feeble, and foolish; and experience has declared them to be inconstant, variable, cruel, lacking the spirit of counsel and regiment. And these notable faults have men in all ages espied in that kind, for the which not only they have removed women from rule and authority, but also some have thought that men subject to the counsel or empire of their wives were unworthy of public office.

Did I hear an Amen?  Didn’t think so.  Not from my wife or any of the Wedgewoodians.

Know makes a big deal of Eve eating that Red Delicious. All women suffer dominion by men because of Eve’s sin.

Against God can nothing be more manifest than that a woman shall be exalted to reign above man; for the contrary sentence he has pronounced in these words: “Thy will shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall bear dominion over thee” (Gen. 3:16). As [though] God should say, “Forasmuch as you have abused your former condition, and because your free will has brought yourself and mankind into the bondage of Satan, I therefore will bring you in bondage to man. For where before your obedience should have been voluntary, now it shall be by constraint and by necessity; and that because you have deceived your man, you shall therefore be no longer mistress over your own appetites, over your own will or desires. For in you there is neither reason nor discretion which are able to moderate your affections, and therefore they shall be subject to the desire of your man. He shall be lord and governor, not only over your body, but even over your appetites and will.” This sentence, I say, did God pronounce against Eve and her daughters, as the rest of the scriptures do evidently witness. So that no woman can ever presume to reign above man, but the same she must needs do in despite of God, and in contempt of his punishment and malediction.

I tell my wife frequently (for fun, at least it’s fun for me), “you ate the apple.”  She gives me one of those looks.

 Sadly, it’s 2012 and John Knox’s theology is alive and well in some churches and in the marketplace.