ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 117, FEBRUARY 2005

 

 

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THE BLIND FAITH OF FEMINISM

AUGUSTO ZIMMERMAN

It is important  for us to  remember  that Jesus Christ had several women as friends, followers, and supporters. He saved a woman from being stoned to death, and appeared for the first time after His resurrection to women. In Christ, all barriers of prejudice are broken, including xenophobic nationalism (Greek or Jew), religious intolerance (circumcised or uncircumcised), racism (barbaric or civilized), social discrimination (slave or free), and, last but not least, sexual discrimination (men or women). According to the statement of freedom given by Christianity: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). 

In the first days of Christianity, women were involved in leadership functions. For instance, a woman called Phoebe was a deacon to the church in  Cenchrae (Rom 16:1-2). The Apostle Paul names Prisca before her husband at Romans 16:3. What is more, Paul lived at Prisca's household in Corinth. In the first letter to the Corinthians, he writes about the right of women to prophesy, and also states that women are as essential as men in Christ's fellowship, for it is through women that man comes to be, and God is the source of all (1 Cor: 11:11-12). 

Despite all this evidence, feminists like to say that Christianity is a 'male' religion. Hostility to Christianity is a basic characteristic of modern feminism. Ultra-sexist documents like the 1968 SCUM Manifesto declared male 'uselessness' and urged for the end of marriage and family. According to Simone De Beauvoir, a notorious French feminist, the meaning of love is only found in adultery. She also wrote that prostitution arose as the result of monogamy. For Helen Gurley Brown, the founder of Cosmopolitan magazine, a housewife is "a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger, and a bum". For Brown, housewives are nothing but traitors to their sex. In 1970, Gloria Steinem had the petulance to write on Time magazine that 'traditional women' are "inferiors and dependent creatures who are still children". 

In practice, the illusion of empowerment brought by such feminists has led to woman's unhappiness. Dr. Judith Herman, an associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, noted in her seminal book, Trauma and Recovery, that feminists usually are bitter creatures who need psychological help. As Dr. Herman suggests, they should be focusing on individual change rather than social change.  Marilyn French, a well-known feminist, once confessed: "I don't expect very much from my life, and I always expected everything and wanted everything and I wanted it all at once. That's not very realistic and it tends to make for unhappiness". 

Everyone knows that 'sexual liberation` as advocated by feminism has turned out to be extremely detrimental to women. The feminist fight for 'sexual liberation' has come to mean 'freedom' of women to be used as sex objects. As Irving Kristol notes, "easy, available sex is pleasing to men and deeply debasing to women, who are used and abused in the process. Nevertheless, the agenda of a candid, casual attitude toward sex, was vigorously sponsored by feminists who mistakenly perceived it as a step toward 'equality'. But true equality between men and women can only be achieved by a moral code that offers women some protection against male predators". 

During the 1970s, feminism began to support policies of multiculturalism. For Tamara Fausten, a more 'feminist-friendly world' is what awaits women outside Western cultural borders.  Her opinion ignores all statistical measures about the situation of women in non-Western societies. In reality, the non-Western world of 'sexual equality' exists only in her mind. If multiculturalism were seriously applied, it would be impossible to intervene in heinous 'cultural' practices such as the Hindu custom of bride burning and 'devasi' (a practice in which Indian families give their first daughter to become sexual slave for priests). 

The Western culture of Christianity is the only one in the world where women have tasted equality. Feminists who support Islam in the West should be more informed about this religion. In the Islamic world, calling women second-class citizens would elevate their social status. For instance, the right of men to marry several spouses is legally authorized in twenty-five countries.  

'Honour killings', the killing of a woman who has shamed her family, is a common practice in the Middle East. Rules from the Koran dictate that female heirs will get only half of the inheritance given to men. Islamic courts weigh the testimony of women as worth half that of a man's. In Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a woman needs permission from men to go outside her home. In Iran, the law allows families to marry off girls as young as nine years old. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, it is legal for the police to beat a woman who removes her veil. Ironically, this symbol of oppression is highly appreciated by feminists who like to dress it in pro-Islam events and others to celebrate our 'diversity' in the West. 

The 'religion' of feminism demands that its followers 'faithfully' believe in every fabricated interpretation of history given by Marxism. As Roger Scruton noted, feminism "seeks to replace or rearrange the core experience of social membership and therefore has the ambitions of a  monotheistic faith, offering feminist answer to every moral and social question, a feminist account of the world, a feminist theory of the universe, and even a feminist reading of the goddess. It drives the heretics and half-believers from its ranks with a zeal that is the other side of the inclusive warmth with which it welcomes the submissive and the orthodox". 

The issue of abortion brings the best evidence that feminism is not based on reason, but ideological fanaticism. One does not need to be a Christian to know that the killing of babies is a heinous crime. Science has more than proved that the foetus ('young one' in Latin) is indeed an innocent child. If feminists keep on saying that abortion is about 'freedom of choice', then, it is because they are fanatically committed to their faith in feminism. After all, the only choice mothers really have with abortion is the choice of killing their own children.   In this matter of abortion, feminism reminds me of  those old religions that demanded prostitution and the sacrifice of children. 

Faith in feminism does not allow its believers to understand that if it were not for male inventiveness, and spirit of tolerance in the West, they would not have the chance to engage themselves in 'consciousness-raising' against men.  According to Tammy Bruce, "it would be worthwhile for the women to realise that it is the actions and choices of men during the past forty years that have helped women succeed in [their] fight for equity. Certainly, activism on the part of the unenfranchised can influence those in power. But without those in power choosing to make a difference, nothing would ever happen. Men voted to give women the vote. Men acted to change the world, so women could act with them". 

To make people believe that Western societies are 'oppressive`, feminists have to ignore that it was due in great part to action of men that they have the freedom they fully enjoy today, but only in the West. Blind faith in feminism cannot see that, and will not bring personal fulfilment for the woman who follows its closed set of dogmas. In many cases, feminism goes on to promote her bitterness and social injustice, instead of equality and partnership between men and women. In reality, the feminist emphasis on personal autonomy is not libertarian but egoistic and self-destructive. As Kirsten Birkett has concluded, modern feminism is nothing but a distorted "morality that sacrifices the weak in the interests of the strong, and propagates falsehoods to shore up its irrational position". 

 

 

 

 

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