Today’s Scripture Reading (October
11, 2015): Numbers 30
Maybe one of
the shortest marriages in history was between Britney Spears and her childhood
friend, Jason Alexander. The marriage took place in January 2004 and it lasted
for 55 hours. Officially the reason for the annulment was that “Spears lacked
understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing
to the marriage.” Translation: someone among her handlers decided that the
marriage was not a good career move and pushed to have the marriage overturned.
Britney Spears, at the age of twenty-two was deemed not old enough or
responsible enough to make a vow on her own – she needed permission get married.
The idea is
an ancient one. Some people before a certain age would be considered incapable
of making a promise. And with good reason. It takes a certain amount of “growing
up” before we are able to make good cause and effect decisions. A child is much
more likely, at least usually, to make rash or incorrect decisions. It is the
idea behind an “Age of Majority” law. If you are below that age, there are certain
decisions that you are unable to make (marriage is often one of them.) There
are also certain crimes for which you can’t be charged. The Age of Majority is
often somewhere between sixteen and twenty-one, but it can be as low as twelve.
And the reality is that those ages are actually all probably low. We really don’t
begin to the see the world as an adult until we are somewhere around
twenty-five.
In male
dominated societies, that idea of being able to make vows is shifted from a set
age to the idea of a relationship with a man. For a woman within these
societies, they are deemed incapable of making their own decisions if they have
a significant man in their lives – a father when they are younger and a husband
when they are older. And although I admit that the idea of a position of
majority, the ability for a person to make a vow on their own initiative, based
on sex sounds primitive, it is still a reality for women in many parts of our
contemporary world. It also might not be a bad idea, although I would widen the
idea.
The reality
behind the law as it is applied to a marital unit is that both partners in a
marriage must be pulling in the same direction if the marriage is going to
work. In a male dominated society, the direction is set by the man and the woman
is expected to comply. But in egalitarian societies that is not the case. In
these societies, it might not be that this rule needs to be tossed out, but
rather that it needs to be extended. Both people in the marriage still need to agree
on decisions, because even in egalitarian societies the marital unit needs to
pull together in the same direction – the only thing that changes is that it is
no longer exclusively the job of the male to set the direction. So unity in
decision making remains essential.
Some
institutions are responding to this reality and require the active of agreement
of both the husband and the wife before a decision can be made. The idea is
nothing more than an extension of this law – and both the husband and the wife
need to agree before any promise is considered to be valid.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers
31
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