Author to discuss question of submission

2/26/2005

Author P. Bunny Wilson remembers getting ready for a radio interview when the talk show host warned her: Bunny, I hope you re a strong woman because people are champing at the bit to get to you.

She went on the air to discuss the subject of submission, and although the host expected to tear her apart as someone who is out of touch with modern society, Mrs. Wilson was up for the challenge.

I said, Bob, the reason I came on the air today is to tell the listeners you are a submitted man.

The author of seven books including Seven Secrets Women Want To Know, Knight In Shining Armor, Liberated Through Submission, and God Is in the Bedroom Too, Mrs. Wilson proceeded to grill the host about who owned the radio station and whether he had to answer to a program manager.

The host acknowledged that he did, in fact, have to abide by the decisions of the owner and the program manager.

He said, I guess you re right, Bunny, Mrs. Wilson recalled with a laugh.

The same scenario played out with a number of callers to the radio show until Mrs. Wilson felt she had made her point: It s never a question whether a person is submitted; the question is to what or whom they submit.

She will discuss such topics in her talk, Secrets Women Want To Know, at the 25th Annual Changed Life Seminar March 5 at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

I call them secrets because secrets are whispers, not only discussed, Mrs. Wilson said in an interview this week from her Los Angeles home. The principles I talk about are controversial and are not usually discussed in a very friendly way.

In the biblical book of Ephesians, Chapter 5, Apostle Paul writes: Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

Mrs. Wilson described submission as a positive, powerful, and aggressive principle that has been designed by God for every man and woman, married and single.

Furthermore, she said, it is not just a biblical principle, but a universal one.

When two Christians wed, she said, God designates the husband as the final decision maker. That does not mean the wife does not have any input, it just means that somebody is designated to be the one who makes the final decision.

She and her husband of 32 years, the Rev. Frank Wilson, can go for months without disagreeing on any major issues, she said. But if they do come to an impasse, they will discuss it and then Frank makes the final decision.

In my marriage relationship, submission is not an oppressive, ominous force that hangs over our relationship, Mrs. Wilson said. I give him the benefit of my input. We can go days exchanging ideas and opinions, but every now and then, a subject comes up where we totally do not agree.

Such an agreement to submit is helpful to everyone, not just Christians, she said.

Two people that are atheists, they might decide that, This year you make the final decision, and next year I ll make the final decision.

And they can alternate until the time they die, but there will be a peace in their relationship because somebody has to be the final decision maker, or you ll come to a place where you just can t move.

Mrs. Wilson, whose Liberated through Submission and Knight in Shining Armor have sold more than 100,000 copies each, said she never intended to be an author.

I never had a desire, I don t even remember growing up desiring to write or excelling in English, or wanting that to be a career.

As a matter of fact, I came into being a Christian from being an atheist, and when I fell in love with Jesus, I fell in love with his Word.

She said that when she read Ephesians 5:22, about wives submitting to their husbands, My first thought was, Why would God mess up a good book with something like that? I have the answer two weeks before my husband has the question.

But the more she studied and practiced the principle, the more she became convinced that it works.

As she spoke about submission in churches, she started getting more and more offers for speaking engagements. But her children were young and she didn t want to be away from the family.

I said, Lord, I can t go to all these places and speak, but I want the message, the truth of the principle, to come out. He impressed on my heart to write a book and then I would not have to go. And when I completed it, I discovered I had the gift of writing.

P. Bunny Wilson will speak at the nondenominational 25th Annual Changed Life Seminar March 25 at Emmanuel Baptist Church, 4207 West Laskey Rd. Registration begins at 8:15 a.m. and the sessions concluded at 2:45. The cost is $20, including lunch. For information, call Judy Dashner, 734-850-1135.

Contact David Yonke at:dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.