The Women's Liberty Bell Blog... by Harville Hendrix

Harville Hendrix, Ph. D. is a Clinical Pastoral Counselor who is known internationally for his work with couples. He and his wife Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D. cocreated Imago Relationship Therapy and developed the concept of “conscious partnership.” Their partnership and collaboration has resulted in nine books on intimate relationships and parenting. Harville holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and Theology from the University of Chicago and has received an honorary doctorate and two distinguished service awards. For more information about Helen & Harville's latest book Making Marriage Simple: http://www.harvillehendrix.com/index.php

I am so impressed with the efforts Emily Nielsen Jones is making to bring to light ways in the Christian world that women are written about in a secondary way.  I have studied marriages for 40 years. My experiences as clinician, theorist and author, document to me that if the husband and wife in a marriage replicate a dominator-subordinator model, where the husband is given greater esteem and the wife is in some sort of secondary role, it’s much harder for the marriage to thrive and their children to thrive.  There is no safety in a context within equality.  Healthy marriages are ones where mutual regard, mutual respect, shared responsibility and equality characterize daily living.

This conversation should not even be occurring at this time, when women are receiving so much respect in other sectors of the culture.

In my view, the fact that this conversation is occurring is a tragedy and challenge that needs to be taken on.  The conversation should be brought to an end with the full honoring of women’s status as human beings and their contributions to the culture.  It is a commitment to the ethic of equality that will keep marriages and homes a place where everyone, every member can thrive and prosper.

Harville Hendrix