African Initiated Churches and Gender Equality: Interpreting the concept of wife submission in the context of marital equality in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Marital equality has been a challenge among all religious faiths worldwide from time immemorial. Without a doubt, gender inequality is a pervasive issue that exists in most of the world’s religions. The subjugation of women to men is an unfortunate reality that cannot be ignored or overlooked. It is a critical issue that needs to be addressed and resolved to bring about equality and justice for all. This research focused specifically on the marital inequalities that African Initiated Churches in Zimbabwe present through their perceptions, interpretations, and beliefs of the doctrine of wife submission. The insights of social conflict theory are utilized to interrogate the marital inequalities that are found in the African Initiated Churches in Zimbabwe. This discussion is based on the research that was carried out through interviews, with semi-structured questions, of a sample of twenty members (ten males and ten females) of eleven different African Initiated Churches in Zimbabwe. The main findings of this research are that the doctrine of wife submission is being interpreted in a way that contradicts marital equality by African Initiated Churches in Zimbabwe. This interpretation renders wives subordinate to their husbands, which creates a social conflict when their needs are not adequately represented by their husbands. This article ultimately recommends that the doctrine of wife submission be reinterpreted to fit into the contemporary marital equality discourse through Bible annotations that are marital equality compliant on the Biblical passages that are perpetuating a wife’s submission.