The Misogynistic, Behind-the-Times Mayor

An email from a mayor in a town in Texas is all over the news outlets around the country. Eric Hogue mayor of Wylie, Texas in an email to the temporary mayor wrote that women shouldn’t lead prayer during the city council’s public meetings. Hogue is also the minister of the local Cottonwood Church of Christ. Jeff Forrester the mayor pro tem, asked about a group leading the prayer. Hogue in an email responded, “..All I ask is that those leading the public prayer be young men.” He then quoted two verses to support his faith: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12 . In his email, he went on to say, “so, I have always requested that a man lead the invocation. I understand not every one may agree with me, but I can’t go against my conscience.”

The reaction to the mayor’s email have been very negative. The Women Organizing Women Democrats plan to protest. Debbie O’Reilly speaking for the group said, “We are not protesting anyone’s religion. We are not protesting his personal views. What he conducts in his church or home is his business, but what we’re protesting is the divisive and misogynistic attitude of this leader. This is about valuing all voices in a public forum. This chamber is not Hogue’s church, and he needs to remember that, or he needs to go.”

To be fair to Eric Hogue, he is not a misogynist. Later in his defense, mayor Hogue said, “I believe a lady can be president of the United States. I believe a lady can be CEO of a company, the superintendent of a school district. But I believe, and this is me, when it comes to somebody to lead the invocation at a city council meeting, because of those two sets of verses, I’m going to choose a male.” So, if he is a woman hater, so is Paul the apostle, after all, he wrote those two verse and so is the Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father and creator of men and women who revealed this inspired message to mankind in the Bible. The mayor pro tem said he had never heard the mayor speak ill of women. Hogue also believes that women can play a leadership role in the church. He said, “There will not be a female song leader. There will not be a female that leads the prayer. Now, there will be ladies that teach other ladies. There will be ladies that teach the children’s classes. But when we’re in a worship service, we’re in a religious service, based on what the scriptures teach, the guys do that”

Another point made by O’Reilly is that Hogue has brought his beliefs outside the church and inappropriately applied them to public secular gatherings like that of a city council meeting. Note the context of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 which says, “let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.” It is true that these verses are in reference to a church assembled to worship God. However, the other passage is a whole different matter. “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence” (1 Tim. 2:11-12). Verse eight of the context tells us: “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere…” Paul’s desire was for males, not females to pray everywhere. Robertson wrote, “This is men in contrast to women” (Robertson, 527). Although in our English translations the impact of Paul’s choice of wording is not felt as strongly as in the original Greek, the meaning is plain, males are to pray publicly or everywhere, not women. This of course, does not mean the women cannot pray in private or bow in prayer with others when a man words a prayer. It does not keep women from leading other women and children in prayer.

Another individual had this to say, “do these same people use only horse drawn vehicles for transport. How about using a tractor to plow a field? This is 2020, not 0020. They need to wake up and move into this century, or at least the 20th century.”

God’s Word does not go out of date. Cultures and times may change however God’s Will for man as revealed in the Bible does not change with the times or from culture to culture. This is not the same as a preacher using a bed sheet to draw on and display his charts, then using a chalkboard and next a white board followed by an overhead projector and finally a computer projector. Instead an inappropriate change would be more like God commanding us to baptize in water and then someone coming up with the grand idea that it would be old to baptize in baby oil. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Peter wrote, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

Many will not agree with mayor Hogue. But his beliefs and practices agree with the Bible. So if he has to go, so must the Bible and God whose Will it is that women are not to pray everywhere or teach or usurp authority over a man in church or in a public setting.

— Daniel R. Vess