For the women in the congregation, I am not even going to attempt to justify St. Paul's words: "Wives, obey your husband..." except to say this: There are some parts of the Scripture that are applicable at all times in all places. There are others that were appropriate to a specific place and a specific time, but now have been superseded by the Holy Spirit. If that were not so, we would all still be eating kosher ” following the dietary laws of the Hebrew scriptures.

Within the culture that St. Paul lived, "Wives, obey your husbands..." was somewhat taken for granted. That was the social order. That was the way things were done. That Paul meant no harm is obvious from the next few verses, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." I've got a fee…