Please don't be fooled by the title; Rice doesn't merely speak against bossy wives, or even just against women pastoring. If he did, I'd find him a lot more forgivable; not only do I agree that wives shouldn't be bossy, but I know that many truly Godly men (and women) believe that the Word of God doesn't allow women to pastor. No, this guy goes a lot further than that: he outrightly says that men may rule their wives and he forbids women (or tries to) from even teaching anyone with male organs. And then, to top it all off: He doesn't believe that women may cut their hair. Yes, you read that right. Now, I've heard many, MANY stupid things in my time, but I'd say this is the red nose that completes the clown's face. I had to laugh rather than rage when I saw this book, because it's obviously the sort that only extremely naive and possibly cultish women will buy into.
Truth be told, it was this guy's arrogance that really did him in for me, as well as the fact that some women have really been hurt by this. On the first page alone, Rice mentions a friend of his who wisely told him that he was wasting his breath and that no woman would listen to him. Rice says, "Well, this man was mistaken, and I have proved it. Many women now wear their hair long because they've heard me teach and preach on the subject and some women have even refused teaching Bible classes with students of both sex because the Bible outrightly forbids them to teach men."
Firstly, Rice, the only Bible that condemns women teaching men is the one that exists in your own mind. Even if the Bible did forbid women pastoring, it sure as heck doesn't forbid them teaching men. Just ask Deborah, Huldah, and Phoebe. Perhaps you should see a therapist and try to figure out what EXACTLY you think will happen to a man's manhood if he hears a woman teach. As for your arrogant words that the people who don't agree with you might as well cut Bible passages out, I think that's what you should do. You see, the Bible tells both husbands and wives to practice submission, and it VERY clearly exhorts women to teach anyone, including men. And secondly, your friend was half right; no woman who has not been brainwashed will listen to your words or your book. The Bible never tells women they can't cut their hair, and the only thing more pathetic than a man who's threatened by a woman teaching is a man who's threatened by a woman's..well, hair. Rice's arrogance is not restricted to women alone, though; he also freely mocks any men who don't agree with him. He claims that "weak" preachers don't mention the topic of women's hair length, and this too gave me a laugh. I know of very few complimentarian males who would preach this nonsense.
Rice's entire belief system revolves around controlling and repressing women to the point of suffocation. Every point of advice he gives has to do with women being under extreme authority and control, almost always that of a man. According to him, anyone who has female organs must spend their lives serving those with male organs: women can't speak in church, they can't teach men, they have to keep their hair long because they were made for men and their glory, and when in church, they must keep their hair covered lest it overwhelm any men. He even plainly says that bobbed hair is a sign of rebellion against fathers and husbands, as if fathers and husbands even have the right to control something like that! It's entirely about men, not God; the practical worship of males by females that this man exhorts is impossible to miss.
There's really nothing to be gained from this book but humor, if you can manage to find any. Just consider it the joke of an urban legend.
PS: Speaking of urban legends, I just found out that this guy was the father of the woman who wrote the equally awful book, "Me? Obey Him?", Elizabeth Rice Handford. Well, THAT explains a lot. Apparently, she found a hubby who was just as controlling as Daddy was, and considering the fact that she gives equally bogus advice in her book, such as telling women not to refuse their husbands even if they're told to get abortions (just pray instead, and the problem will vanish), it's easy to see where she got her old-fashioned and self-contradicting notions.
What can I say? So far, this family is by far the silliest Christian writing family that I've ever seen, bar none. They're no Ruth and Billy Graham, that's for certain. I also read that Rice fathered five other daughters. Poor things..
