This Republican Congressman Said What About A Wife's Role?

Republican lawmakers have been known to tick off female voters, to put it mildly. From Rep. Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments in 2013 to the ever-controversial Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a “slut,” some women will tell you the party is engaging in a “war on women.”

And now we have Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., expressing his controversial views about the role of wives in his recent memoir “Just Fly the Plane, Stupid!” Pearce wrote that a wife is supposed to “voluntarily submit” to her husband, but isn’t inferior to him. She must, however, be obedient.

Here’s how the media quotes excerpts of the book:

“The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice,” Pearce wrote. “The husband’s part is to show up during the times of deep stress, take the leadership role and be accountable for the outcome, blaming no one else.”

And…

“The wife’s submission is not a matter of superior versus inferior; rather, it is self-imposed as a matter of obedience to the Lord and of love for her husband.”

And here’s what the congressman had to say about bully husbands:

“Authoritarian control is not given to the husband,” he wrote.

And …

“I reasoned that surely Jesus did not in any way teach the idea of a chauvinistic male-centered marriage,” he wrote in his book. “We are all created in God’s image, I reasoned, so it could not be that the man is in some way superior or the wife inferior.”

Of course, Pearce is getting some flak from liberal media. This is how the congressman’s spokesman Dan Hazelwood came to his defense against a story in the Washington Post (misspellings in the original):

“The Post falsely and inaccurately mischaracterizes Pearce’s comments. The chapter in his book discusses how the Pearces manage their relationship and how they grappled with the bible’s words. This was a piece of either sloppy journalism or willful intent to deceive. The words clearly written show that Pearce believes the phrase ‘submission’ is widely misunderstood in society and criticizes those who distort the bible to justify male dominance. … It is a chapter talking about how he and his wife discussed and grappled with the words in Ephesians.”

It is interesting to note that Republican national leadership wants to begin tutoring men on how to run against female candidates. Pearce’s comments are not as outrageous as Akin’s, but they will probably not win more female votes for the party.