Controlling Wives & Churches

"Then he said to the woman, 'I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy and in pain you will give birth.  And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you.'"  Genesis 3:16 (NLT)

I had a thought the other morning.  I wonder if The Church is suffering from the same dysfunction as wives?  Or is it...wives are suffering from the same dysfunction as The Church?

Let me explain what I mean.  When Adam & Eve chose to sin, God removed them from the garden with these curses:  men would work by the sweat of their brow and women would have pain in child birth and want to control their husbands.  Jesus came to break those curses at the cross.  (Galatians 3:13)  But...we have to appropriate that work in our lives.  It's one thing to know the curse has been broken, but we have to choose to live in freedom and grace.

So...a dysfunction would be for a woman to still control her husband.  She's been set free from that curse.  But she has to appropriate it.  (FYI: Personally, I believe a woman controls her husband when she doesn't feel loved by him.  And a man resists a controlling wife.  So they can get caught up in a vicious cycle until someone steps up to redeem the relationship with love and respect.)

My question...is The Church walking in that same dysfunction?  Is she walking under the curse and trying to CONTROL?  After all, The Church is the bride of Christ.  And since the pastor is the manager of God's household (the steward left to oversee in Christ's absence), is he loving The Church?  Or...does The Church really know Christ's love?  Have they received the love He has for them?  

Who will break the cycle of dysfunction and redeem?  Are wives only mimicking what they see happening in The Church?

"For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything."  Ephesians 5:22-24

If The Church isn't submitting to Christ, we have no example for marriages.