Sara at Diotima, who says I’m her favorite lefty blogger (aw, shucks!), has a good point about the Wendy McElroy FoxNews column I blogged about yesterday.
The McElroy column, as you may recall, is premised on the idea that Christian feminism is widely rejected by mainstream feminism (or is about to be – McElroy vacillates on if Christian feminism is a new thing or not). Of course, Christian feminism – like Jewish feminism – has been broadly accepted within feminism for decades. I thought this was a rather staggering error from someone who writes about feminism for a living. But Sara points out that McElroy’s argument actually makes sense, if we assume that by “Christian” McElroy meant “conservative evangelicals”:
Sara’s reading is probably correct – but if so, it’s rather ironic. McElroy, who constantly chastises feminists for our allegedly narrow conception of “feminism,” seems – at least in this column – to have an incredibly narrow conception of who can be called a “Christian.”.
thanks for giving me a laugh this morning. all this talk about anti-feminism, anti-masturbation, and “men’s rights” rhetoric was quite depressing.
I am not sure I know which Christian group(s) exactly is (are) encompassed by the expression “conservative evangelicals“.
In her column, McElroy links (under the words “the Christian religion”) to Women for Faith & Family, a strictly “orthodox (sic) Catholic” organisation, quite conservative indeed. After flipping quickly through their website, I see it mostly as a so-called “pro-life” organisation that does not particularly claim the feminist label:
“We stand with the Catholic Church in affirming the intrinsic value of every human being (CCC §1928-1938). If ‘feminism’ merely meant upholding and defending the worth and dignity of women — and the fundamental human rights of all people — nearly every Christian would be a feminist.
Contemporary feminism, however, is a political ideology which claims that all female human beings have been oppressed throughout history by all male human beings; that women have been systematically excluded from influencing society and culture controlled by the ‘patriarchy’.
(…) We affirm that men and women are equal, both sexes created by God in His image, each having distinct but complementary gifts and attributes. We affirm the teachings of Pope John Paul II that the social and ecclesial roles of women and men must conform to the natural law and the Divine Plan for mankind.
Accordingly, as our Statement on Feminism, Language and Liturgy states we reject ‘ideological feminism, which denies the fundamental psychic and spiritual distinctiveness of the sexes and which devalues motherhood and the nurturing role of women in the family and in society,… often misrepresented as expressing the collective belief of women. As women, we are particularly concerned about the pervasive influence and the destructive effects on the Church, on families and on society of this feminism.’“
Talk about “a narrow conception.”
[sorry about the two non-italicized (italized?) lines in the quotation].
Which I could understand if this so-called “ideological feminism” actually did those things. But-surprise, surprise-it doesn’t.
…both sexes created by God in His image
Hey, where’s my penis?
Unfortunately, it seems like many people think that Conservative Christians are the only Christians. Or perhaps the only “real” Christians. News coverage regularly seems to bias against the seriousness of Liberal Christians and moderate Christians. While the news certainly slams conservative christians for their stances, it usually implies that they truly believe what they say and have built it legitimately on scripture. The same media often seems to suggest that Liberal Christians are essentially just coopting the imagery of Christianity, but do not actually take the religion very seriously.
What do you expect? That’s the way the media treats liberals in general. But I will say, in all fairness, that the biggest local push where I live for forgiveness of third world debt came straight out of the Catholic Church, so who knows? Certainly has nothing to do with feminism, but it’s still pretty cool…