{"id":19825,"date":"2014-09-12T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T10:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=19825"},"modified":"2014-09-11T14:06:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T18:06:44","slug":"cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking for your family as “tyranny” or as “vocation”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \u201cthe tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\u201d \u00a0<\/a>She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it is for women to live up to the ideal of the whole family sitting down together for a home-cooked meal and concludes that cooking \u2013a task that falls disproportionally on women\u2013is \u201cexpensive and time-consuming and often done for a bunch of ingrates who would rather just be eating fast food anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mollie Hemingway<\/a>\u2014who just joined the First Things stable of web columnists<\/a>\u2013answers this column, slicing and dicing its feminist assumptions.\u00a0 But she does acknowledge that cooking and other domestic tasks can be frustrating, tedious, and challenging.\u00a0 Whereupon she then\u00a0 gives her readers a crash course in the doctrine of vocation, including one of Luther\u2019s best quotations on the subject, how the trials of family life are connected to the blessings of God.<\/p>\n

\n

Normally I will quote the beginning of an article and then give a link to \u201cKeep reading.\u201d\u00a0 This time I will do the opposite.\u00a0 First I will urge you to read Mollie Hemingway\u2019s piece in the Federalist:\u00a0 7 Important Things Slate Misses In Its Attack On Home-Cooked Meals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now I quote her conclusion, including the quotation from Luther\u2019s \u201cEstate of Marriage<\/a>\u201d (1522):<\/p>\n

Who knew that having a family was so difficult? Oh, all those women who were told they were oppressed by being homemakers and were promised liberation by feminists only to find out that they now have to work all the time, frequently with no spouse, and come home and take care of the kids? Yeah, those women and their daughters know that cooking is difficult. As do all the fathers who help share the burden of providing meals for a family to eat.<\/p>\n

But instead of looking at it as just a burden, we should look at is a holy blessing. It\u2019s funny to read Martin Luther on this topic because he sounds so modern. He notes that married men might complain, \u201cAlas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves?\u201d How to view this, he asks? He says to view it as a holy blessing. \u201cI am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

We should view the drudgeries of all life \u2014 drudgeries we all experience in one way or another \u2014 as holy blessings. We get to serve God by serving each other. So when we have to make the eleventy billionth meal in a row, we can either lament our sad condition or view it as an opportunity to do good for others.<\/p>\n

I know, not a typical feminist viewpoint and not a typical American viewpoint. But it\u2019s amazing how much more enjoyable the home-cooked meal (and home-changed diaper, and home-delivered kiss, and home-laundered clothing and home-swept floor and home-based cuddle) is when we consider how blessed we are to be doing what\u2019s right for our children and other family members.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \u201cthe tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\u201d \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it is for women to live up to the ideal of the whole family sitting down together for a home-cooked meal and concludes that cooking \u2013a task that falls disproportionally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCooking for your family as "tyranny" or as "vocation"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on "the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner." \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cooking for your family as "tyranny" or as "vocation"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on "the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner." \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-12T10:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-11T18:06:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/\",\"name\":\"Cooking for your family as \\\"tyranny\\\" or as \\\"vocation\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-12T10:00:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-11T18:06:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \\\"the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\\\" \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cooking for your family as “tyranny” or as “vocation”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cooking for your family as \"tyranny\" or as \"vocation\"","description":"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \"the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\" \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cooking for your family as \"tyranny\" or as \"vocation\"","og_description":"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \"the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\" \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2014-09-12T10:00:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-09-11T18:06:44+00:00","author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/","name":"Cooking for your family as \"tyranny\" or as \"vocation\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-12T10:00:41+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-11T18:06:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"Slate has published a column by Amanda Marcotte on \"the tyranny of the home-cooked family dinner.\" \u00a0She cites surveys that show how hard and stressful it","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/09\/cooking-for-your-family-as-tyranny-or-as-vocation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cooking for your family as “tyranny” or as “vocation”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}