Today’s passage explains why previous generations of women insisted on wearing hats to church (v. 5), and why men still remove their caps to pray (v. 4). But it also contains some of the most difficult and disputed words in the entire New Testament: “The head of a wife is her husband” (v. 3). Especially in the aftermath of the “Me Too” movement, which exposed many prominent figures as being guilty of sexual abuse and harassment, it’s hard for many modern people to believe Paul’s words. It’s much easier simply to dismiss him as yet another clueless man and move on to the next chapter. And if we take verse 16 seriously, it’s likely that many of Paul’s readers in first-century Corinth disagreed with him as well.

But let’s face it – if we Christians get into the habit of ignoring or dismissing the parts of Scripture we don’t understand or disagree with, where do we stop? After all, many of our early twentieth-century ancestors who carefully observed Paul’s teachings on hats and hairstyles ignored what he says in the very next chapter about the unity of all Christians: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (12:13). Rejecting this clear Biblical teaching and embracing instead the latest scientific theories concerning racial superiority, they approved of race-based segregation, even as their equally properly dressed ancestors justified race-based slavery primarily on economic grounds.

But instead of doing what they did, allowing only our reason or experience to guide our lives, maybe we are supposed to hold these seemingly mutually contradictory ideas in tension: A Christian man is at the same time subject to Christ and the head of his family (v. 3). The first woman was created to be a helper suited to the first man (v. 9), but men are now born of women, and thus dependent on them for life (v. 12). And, although there is doubtless much room for cultural variance in the particular way it’s done, maybe even our hats and hairstyles are supposed to be a way for Christians to demonstrate our obedience to God, as well as our submission to one another in the Lord.

Gloria Steinem may famously have observed, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,” but Paul says, “In the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman” (v. 11). And given the complete hash that the sexual revolution has made out of the institution of marriage, and the pain and poverty so many women and children have experienced as a result, maybe we shouldn’t dismiss Paul’s words so quickly. Maybe Paul knows better than Gloria Steinem after all.

I Corinthians 11:2-16 (ESV)

2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.
6 For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.
7 For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.
8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.
10 That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman;
12 for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.
13 Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?
14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,
15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.