I disagree, I crave respect much more than love and so do many women if they really stopped to think about it.

As for the biblical references – it’s funny, I am not a particularly religious person but that is exactly the way my wife and I are. She is a queen in my eyes and I am here to protect, defend and care for her. In turn she defers to my judgment and I am in charge.

I still as her opinion because I value it, but if I decide something she never second guesses me, instead she supports me and if I turn out to be wrong she never throws it in my face.

Guess I got lucky

And, Christoph, on November 5th, someone asked me how I felt about it (meaning the election). I had calmed down enough to be rational, and I said “Well, this is what he wanted – well, he’s got it.” I’m softening a bit – he hasn’t appointed nearly as leftward-leaning a cabinet as he could have. Some of his picks are suspect, but so were some from the current administration. (I’m still praying for the excellent health of all Supreme Court justices.)

I really hope (heh) that he is able to pull off the change (heh) that our country needs. He certainly moderated from the primaries to the general election, and it looks like, now that he’s privy to things like classified threat reports, that he’s moderating even further. I can’t help but think, as we see the downfall of Gov. Blago and company, if maybe Obama didn’t just use them to get to the top, and is now throwing them under the bus (figuratively, of course – he’s not a Clinton).

Of course, I could be wrong – it’s happened a time or two before. I guess I’d describe myself as cynically optimistic.

It still seems prudent to be on guard for totalitarian impulses (that’s always prudent according to the founding fathers and they were wise men: It’s trebly so when your elected President has ties to domestic terrorists who, among other things, planned mass exterminations of their political opponents) yet at the same time, his appointments haven’t all been insane. Warren, who is to speak at Obama’s inauguration, certainly seems like a good fellow.

This is either window dressing for a deeper plan (dictators often kissed a bunch of ass on the way up) or perhaps he simply wants to do the best job possible, despite his mushy liberal head.

I pray for the latter and am more optimistic about it as a possibility than I was a month ago.

I’m old enough to be your grandfather, yet you just taught me something. Thanks! (And Merry Christmas!)

My husband is politically conservative, but one reason I am happy to be married to him is that he realizes that his father’s lack of respect for his mother’s work was a destructive force in their marriage, and he is committed to showing me respect as well as love. We argue about politics a lot, but when I point out to him that he is disrespecting me (as when he asked me not to talk publicly about his boss, but had been bad-mouthing my employer), he recognizes this is a problem and stops. He doesn’t say, “But I looove you, so it’s OK for me to disrespect you, since women don’t really need respect.”

Indeed, this very binary between love and respect is bizarre. You cannot truly love an equal without respecting him. And respect without love is a sentiment for the workplace, not for the family.

It will be interesting to see how many commenters you get in the next few days with some variant of “I’m not a big fan of Rick Warren, but…” and the same would be true for me. I’m not here to bash Warren, but he’s no more an example of the “Christian Right” than Obama is an example of a “moderate.” Watching the activist left blow fuses over Warren and his watered-down Gospel-lite, you’ve got to imagine the meltdown they’d suffer if confronted by the hardcore real deal.

Just to engage your Biblical theme (occupational hazard), I’m going to add a touch for the husbands, especially those who like to press the “submit” message. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…” How much did Christ love the church? Enough to give His life for it. If we men are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, it seems to me that means if we’re not willing to sacrifice and even die for our wives, we’re falling short.

Keep up the good writing, Cassy – looking forward to reading more…