Monday, February 20, 2012

"Feminism" Response

Since God’s creation of the Universe, men and women have been the two building blocks of the family, and, by extension, society. As such, both men and women reflect God’s image, although in different ways. For example, while God grants men a natural sense of emotional calm and “distance” that enables them to act quickly in decisions requiring rapid action, He gave women a nurturing side that enables them to bond with their children and “think out” more complex social dilemmas. Especially in the Genesis account, it is shown that God created men and women to complete each other. Therefore, the Christian view on the question of gender importance respects both men and women equally before God, whose image both sexes bear equally. 
            There are two alternatives to the aforementioned equality of men and women, both of which are polar opposites of the other. The first view upholds males over females. Such thinking prevailed in the days before women were allowed to vote or even own private property. A religious example this kind of sexism is Islam. Within this system, Muslim women are only good for bearing male children, and satisfying the sexual appetites of their husbands. Apart from these jobs, females have essentially no value in Muslim culture. The other extreme is known as Feminism, a movement that ostensibly exists to “empower” the common woman. Feminism has “positive” roots, such as the desire for women’s suffrage. However, as the movement gained momentum, Feminism also gained new (and evil) motives. The main three goals of contemporary Feminism, then, are the destruction of the traditional family, as well as eliminating homemaking as a viable career choice. Rather, feminists encourage women to pursue a life that revolves around a career dedicated to market production—without the burden of a husband and children. By aggressively pressuring women to join the world of market production, as opposed to granting them the right to choose between a domestic or corporate lifestyle, Feminism defeats its own purpose of empowering women to make their own choices.
A famous example of Feminism in practice is the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA. The ERA has one main idea: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” At first glance, the ERA sounds perfectly reasonable. To cite an earlier example, initiatives such as the ERA guarantee basic human rights to each gender—for example, women’s suffrage. However, upon closer inspection of the ERA, E. Carolyn Graglia notes in her essay, “Domestic Tranquility,” that the “equal rights amendment…was intended…to promote the feminist goal of an androgynous society.” For example, “It would…require drafting of women for military service, including combat.”  History and Biblical records show that combat is not an area God set aside for the typical nurturing woman. Rather, the battlefield is where men are meant to serve. For example, the kings of Bible times were known for fighting alongside their armies on the battlefield—queens remained in the palace). Disrupting this natural order only leads to emotional trauma and feelings of purposelessness for the female soldier—not utopian androgyny or sexual equality, as feminists hope. Measures like the ERA are meant to subvert the traditional family and force women to “abandon their traditional roles and refashion themselves after the feminist role models who promoted [the ERA]” (Graglia).  The ERA is the most aggressive, blatant attempt by Feminism to rip women away from the traditional family setting. By placing females at the forefront of a literal “fend-for-yourself” career and lifestyle, contemporary feminists fail to protect the value of women. Rather, they substitute the delicacy and elegance that should be highlighted in women with the bloody traditions brought upon the world by the Fall of Man.
Christians should view Feminism as a threat to the traditional family, and, by extension, the church and state—proper institutions that Christianity has fought to establish and preserve under God’s holiness throughout its lifetime as a worldview. By taking an active position in society and voicing support for the traditional family so reviled by Feminism, Christians can still save a form of sociology ordained by God. Verses such as I Corinthians 11:3 and 11:7-10 set a clear Biblical standard against Feminist principles:
“Now…the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God…A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.”
Feminists call for the overthrow of any kind of "sign of authority" over women; however, the removal of such a sign will lead to familial, and therefore societal, instability. In closing, Christians have a sociological and a Biblical duty to rescue the dignity of the traditional family, as well as the dignity of women who find homemaking more spiritually and emotionally fulfilling than market production.  

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