As a man who began his career as a “preacher’s wife” in a small, rural congregation in upstate NY, I can so related to this article.  While my wife and I were in seminary and engaged to be married, but before I realized I was called to pastoral ministry, I went to the seminary library to look up books on being a clergy spouse.  I found those books on the shelf, right between “Sexual Abuse” and “Burnout”, and they were all geared toward clergy wives.  There was NOTHING about being the husband of a pastor.  And, as far as I could tell, my job was just to be Donna Reed.

The low point came when one person learned that I was starting a street chaplaincy program in inner-city Utica.  That person’s comment: “Oh!  I thought you were just a house husband!“

Yup… nope.

Reblogged from Sojourners

By Christian Piatt

I get my share of “preacher’s wife” jokes, to which I have a handful of rote responses. No, I don’t knit or make casseroles. No, I don’t play in the bell choir. Generally, the jokes are pretty gentle, but they all point to the reality that few of us will actually talk about: We see the traditional roles of women as less important than those of their male counterparts. And so, to see a man who works from home most of the time and takes the kids to school while his wife has the “high power” job brings everything from the man’s masculinity to his ambition into question.

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