Feminism Part 3

Feminism I. For at least fifty years, there has been an increased emphasis on women’s rights and the terms women’s rights movement, feminist movement, women’s liberation, etc., have become part of our cultural jargon coincidental with an increased struggle between the sexes. A. What is a Christian approach to feminism? B. Does Scripture address the issue? C. This study seeks to sort out the good and bad of the feminist movement. II. Definitions. A. feminism: Advocacy of the rights of women (based on the theory of equality of the sexes). (O.E.D.) B. feminism: The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1974). C. feminism: A theory, cult, or movement on the part of those who assert and advocate what they consider the rights of women, and who favor doing away with all social, economic, and political restrictions on the sex. (Webster’s Universities Dictionary, 1940) D. equality: The condition of being equal in quantity, amount, value, intensity, etc. III. Let it be noted that Scripture recognizes the worth of women and their equality before God’s law and His grace. GAL 3:28. A. Husbands and wives are “...heirs together of the grace of life...” (1PE 3:7). B. Male and female saints alike are accountable to God’s law. 1CO 7:3-4. C. Male and female saints alike have a right to baptism, receiving instruction, the Lord’s Table, church votes, etc. D. “With great reason the apostle introduces this. Between the privileges of men and women there was a great disparity among the Jews. A man might shave his head, and rend his clothes in the time of mourning; a woman was not permitted to do so. A man might impose the vow of nasirate upon his son; a woman could not do this on her daughter. A man might be shorn on account of the nasirate of his father; a woman could not. A man might betroth his daughter; a woman had no such power. A man might sell his daughter; a woman could not. In many cases they were treated more like children than adults; and to this day are not permitted to assemble with the men in the synagogues, but are put up in galleries, where they can scarcely see, nor can they be seen. Under the blessed spirit of Christianity, they have equal rights, equal privileges, and equal blessings; and, let me add, they are equally useful.” (Adam Clarke Commentary on GAL 3:28) E. “There is no distinction into male and female. Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian privileges. But under the law the male sex had great privileges. Males alone had in their body circumcision, the sign of the covenant (contrast baptism applied to male and female alike); they alone were capable of being kings and priests, whereas all of either sex are now “kings and priests unto God” (Rev 1:6); they had prior right to inheritances. In the resurrection the relation of the sexes shall cease (Luk 20:35).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary on GAL 3:28) F. “One sex is not to be regarded as the special favorite of heaven, and the other to be excluded. Christianity thus elevates the female sex to an equality with the male, on the most important of all interests; and it has in this way made most important changes in the world wherever it has prevailed. Everywhere but in connection with the Christian religion, woman has been degraded. She has been kept in ignorance. She has been treated as an Feminism 10-7-17 Page 1 inferior in all respects. She has been doomed to unpitied drudgery, and ignorance, and toil. So she was among the ancient Greeks and Romans; so she is among the savages of America; so she is in China, and India, and in the islands of the sea; so she is regarded in the Koran, and in all Muslim countries. It is Christianity alone which has elevated her; and nowhere on earth does man regard the mother of his children as an intelligent companion and friend, except where the influence of the Christian religion has been felt. At the communion table, at the foot of the cross, and in the hopes of heaven, she is on a level with man; and this fact diffuses a mild, and purifying, and elevating influence over all the relations of life.” (Albert Barnes Commentary on GAL 3:28). G. The assumption, though, that such equality implies also that there are no distinctions in other areas of life for males and females, is contrary to Scripture and this is where the battle lines are drawn. 1. Wives are to be subordinate to husbands, their heads. EPH 5:22-24. 2. Ordination is restricted to qualified men. 1TI 2:12; 3:1-2, 12. 3. Women are to be silent in the church service. 1CO 14:34; 1TI 2:11. 4. Men bear the primary responsibility of breadwinning. 1TI 5:8. 5. Woman was created for the man. 1CO 11:9. 6. Woman’s primary concern is domestic. 1TI 5:14; TIT 2:5. 7. Woman is the weaker vessel. 1PE 3:7. 8. A society where women (or feminized men) rule is in trouble. ISA 3:12; NAH 3:13. 9. Scripture forbids blurring of lines between the sexes in appearance and manners. DEU 22:5; 1CO 6:9; 11:10-15. H. Scripture warns against fighting nature itself. 1CO 11:14; ROM 1:26. 1. The more radical forms of feminism essentially are trying to deny the obvious facts of life by insisting that women can and should do everything that a man can do. 2. The marketplace rightfully insists on hiring the right person for a job and sometimes the only right person is a man. The NFL doesn’t recruit from Victoria’s Secret. 3. Radical feminists hold a double-standard often in this area: demanding equal access to obviously male-oriented specialties while also demanding that the criteria for the specialty be modified to accommodate their inadequacy. In other words, equal but with special privileges that others are not given. 4. The folly of this is terribly obvious in military, law enforcement, or life-saving professions. 5. Equal opportunity is not the same as equal capability. 6. Equal opportunity does not guarantee equal results. IV. It would be incorrect to assume that all who subscribe to feminist ideals are of the same stripe. A. “First, we should define feminism, since the term can have different meanings for different people. Basically, feminism is a philosophy that advocates equal rights for women and men —socially, politically, economically, and in other ways. Early feminists fought for and won suffrage for women. Today’s feminism goes further than demanding equal treatment of men and women, however. Modern feminists fight for language equality (saying “chairperson” instead of “chairman,” even if the person in question is male) and gender equality (redefining femininity and masculinity). The more radical feminists actively seek to overthrow any vestige of male dominance in society, to the point of opposing the biblical roles of husbands and wives, defending abortion on demand, and promoting lesbianism. Feminism 10-7-17 Page 2 Radical feminists deny there is any difference between men and women, teaching that any perceived differences between the sexes are due solely to social conditioning.” (www.gotquestions.org) B. “A woman who claims to be a feminist could affiliate with one or more of the following camps: Liberal Feminism, Radical Feminism, Marxist and Socialist Feminism, Moderate Feminism, Postmodern Feminism, Separatist Feminism, Cultural Feminism, Eco- Feminism.” (www.girldefined.com) C. The more extreme forms of feminism go far beyond the simple struggle for political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Women’s suffrage is a tip of an iceberg for these. 1. “...Feminism has rejected God as the ultimate authority for life and instead placed herself on the throne. The god of feminism pridefully says, “I know better than God and will live out my womanhood how I think is best...In addition to not liking God’s design for gender, equality feminism stands for far more than it’s friendly name suggests. If you do a little homework you’ll quickly discover how many other “women’s rights” issues equality feminism promotes. Let’s dive beneath the surface to see how big and narley this iceberg really is. (www.girldefined.com) 2. “Right NOW (today) almost all feminist groups strongly stand for the following: a. A woman’s right to abort (murder) her unborn baby. b. Lesbianism and the right for women to marry women. c. Complete liberation from sexual boundaries and morals. d. Freedom from traditional gender roles in marriage. e. Rejection of God as the ultimate authority in life.” (www.girldefined.com) 3. “The direction of feminism took a turn in the early 1960s. Where the early feminists wanted biblical femininity celebrated, the ‘Second Wave’ wanted it ignored. Socially, politically, and economically, they wanted no distinction between men and women. Gradually, lies crept in that convinced women that they were both no different than men and that they would be better living independently from men.” (https://www.compellingtruth.org/feminism-Christian-feminist.html) 4. Their struggle is far more than one of empowering women: it is a power struggle to dethrone God, males and a perceived patriarchal bias, and gain political and legislative power for the furthering of antichrist agenda in the culture. V. Here is a list of feminism’s lies which are at war with Scripture, nature and experience: A. Women can have it all. (The “all” here usually means unrestrained and consequence-free sex, wantonness and respect, political and economic power, career and family, fullness without entanglement with men or children, etc.) B. Domestic life is shameful, imprisoning and an evidence of weakness. C. To be feminine is to be weak. D. Men and women are fundamentally the same. E. Men and women are the same sexually. F. Desirability is enhanced by achievement. G. The myth of one’s unrealized potential (which is stifled by domestic life and men). H. Men are sexual predators who objectify women (but women are not like this). I. Men who oppose the feminist agenda are part of the “rape culture.” J. The denial of maternity. K. Abortion is healthy and safer than childbirth. Feminism 10-7-17 Page 3 L. A woman’s body is her own. 1. This lie is a pillar of the abortion mentality. 2. The body of man and woman belong to God Whose law regulates it. 1CO 6:19-20. M. It takes a village (or the state) to raise a child. N. Doing is better than being. O. The myth of self-sufficiency. P. Women would enjoy the feminization of men. Q. The game is rigged everywhere in men’s favor. R. God and Christianity are women’s oppressors. VI. Not everyone who identifies as a feminist may hold to all of the above principles but the hard-core of the feminist agenda hold to all of these and more (with a vengeance). A. “Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women... We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men.” (The Declaration of Feminism, 1971) B. “All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women.” (Declaration of Feminism, 1971) C. “Feminism stresses the indistinguishability of prostitution, marriage, and sexual harassment.” (Feminist Law Professor Catharine Mackinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, p. 59) 1. Mackinnon also stated, “What in the liberal view looks like love and romance looks a lot like hatred and torture to the feminist.” (Ibid) 2. She frequently compares male sexual desire to rape, even in consensual acts. D. “Like prostitution, marriage is an institution that is extremely oppressive and dangerous for women.” (Radical feminist author Andrea Dworkin, 1983) E. “Until all women are lesbians, there will be no true political revolution.” (Feminist author and journalist, Jill Johnson) F. “[Housewives] are mindless and thing-hungry...not people. [Housework] is peculiarly suited to the capacities of feeble-minded girls. [It] arrests their development at an infantile level, short of personal identity with an inevitably weak core of self. ... [Housewives] are in as much danger as the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps. [The] conditions which destroyed the human identity of so many prisoners were not the torture and brutality, but conditions similar to those which destroy the identity of the American housewife.” (Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963) G. “Feminism is not just an issue or a group of issues...It is the cutting edge of a revolution in cultural and moral values....The objective of every feminist reform, from legal abortion...to child-care programs, is to undermine traditional family values.” (Feminist revolutionary Ellen Willis in the November 14, 1981 issue of The Nation) H. “We have to abolish and reform the institution of marriage....By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God....We must understand what we are attempting is a revolution, not a public relations movement.” (Gloria Steinem, quoted in Saturday Review of Education, March 1973) I. “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it. (Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race, p. 67) J. “No Socialist republic can operate successfully and maintain its ideals unless the practice of birth control is encouraged to a marked and efficient degree.” Feminism 10-7-17 Page 4 (Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race) K. “We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft.” (The Declaration of Feminism, 1971) 1. Feminism is not opposed to all religion but is vehemently opposed to the religion of the Holy Bible. 2. Witchcraft is as rebellion (1SAM 15:23): they are both illicit grasps at power. 3. Witchcraft is not only a dabbling in the occult but it has also historically used potions, herbs, etc. as abortifacents, psychoactive agents and poisons (some of which are difficult to detect). 4. Pretended intercourse with the spirit world for power’s sake sometimes takes a backseat to simple “pharmakeia” (SRN G5331), (witchcraft, GAL 5:20), a word which derives from “pharmakeus” (SRN G5332), which means “a drug, that is, spell giving potion; a druggist or poisoner.” 5. A female-empowering religion like witchcraft has an obvious appeal to feminism. L. An unbiased analyst could look at the tenets of hard-core feminism and conclude that its overall message is, “All men are to be hated. All men not under the control of women are to be especially hated.” VII. Scripture shows that wicked men with their own agenda stir up others to advance their agenda without fully disclosing the agenda to the others. 2SAM 15:1-6, 11-12; ACT 6:11-12; 17:13; 19:23-29. A. These “change agents” know that popular support is needed for their cause to prosper but that their cause, if fully disclosed, will not be well supported by the people. B. By preying on human emotion and sympathy for someone who claims a moral high ground against a perceived injustice, their supporters are steered like so many “useful idiots.” 1. One of their techniques is value-inversion and term-switching. By dressing up a negative proposition with euphemistic new terminology, the negative becomes a positive. Conversely, a positive proposition can be slandered with negative terminology. c/w ISA 5:20; 32:5; MAL 2:17; 3:15. 2. “ ‘Even in the early 1960’s,’ sum up social historians Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, ‘marriage and family ties were regarded by the human potential movement as potential threats to individual fulfillment as a man or a woman. The highest forms of human needs, contended proponents of the new psychologies, were autonomy, independence, growth, and creativity,’ which marriage often thwarted. The search for autonomy and independence as the highest human good blossomed with the women’s movement into a critique of marriage per se, which the more flamboyant feminists denounced as ‘slavery,’ ‘legalized rape,’ and worst of all, ‘tied up with a sense of dependency.’ ‘From this vantage point,’ Mintz and Kellogg note, ‘marriage increasingly came to be described as a trap, circumscribing a woman’s social and intellectual horizons and lowering her sense of self-esteem.’” (Waite and Gallagher, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially) C. The influence of Marxism behind modern feminism is undeniable. Marx hated Christianity and family, which he saw as the obstacles to socialist utopia. His philosophical heirs of the Frankfurt School of the 1920’s advocated a “slow march through the culture” to destroy Christian civilization from within using an alternative theology of social justice. It was called Cultural Marxism and its key was influencing women in any way possible to abandon historic roles where children were taught primarily by parents: the State had to Feminism 10-7-17 Page 5 become parent and teacher. Lenin said, “Unless millions of women are with us we cannot exercise the proletarian dictatorship...There can be no real mass movement without women.” (Clara Zetkin, Lenin on the Women’s Question; From My Memorandum Book) D. “Noting that top leaders in the feminist vanguard, including Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug, were trained in Marxism, Schlafly sums up Marx’s view of marriage: ‘Karl Marx urged ‘Abolition of the family!’ in his 1848 Communist Manifesto. He argued that the family is based on ‘capital’ and ‘private gain,’ which were dirty words in his lexicon. He particularly objected to parents being able to educate their children, and he called the ‘hallowed co-relation of parent and child...all the more disgusting.’” (David Kupelian, Snapping of the American Mind, p. 36) E. “It is significant to note that one of the first things V. I. Lenin did when he came to power in the Soviet Union, after the revolution in nineteen seventeen, was to have passed what amounts to our no-fault divorce statutes....This statute, along with the communist encouragement of sexual immorality during marriage, approval of abortion, and forcing women out of the home into the workforce, accomplished its purpose of destroying the Russian family.” (Mikhail Heller, Cogs in the Wheel, pp. 168-179) F. “Antonio Gramsci was a Frankfurt School colleague who explained this process in detail: ‘The civilized world has been saturated with Christianity for 2000 years,’ Gramsci wrote, reasoning that a culture rooted in Christian worldview and practices could only be captured from within. Gramsci’s recipe for total cultural domination was to ‘Marxise the inner man...to alter the Christian mind to turn it into its opposite in all details so that it would become not merely a non-Christian mind but an anti-Christian mind.’ He advocated a ‘slow march through the culture,’ a destroying of the civilization from within. ‘Everything must be done in the name of man’s dignity and rights, and in the name of autonomy and freedom from outside restraint. From the claims and constraints of Christianity above all,’ he wrote.” (Anna Sofia Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, So Much More, pp. 64-65) G. “Many Christian women haven’t been able to resist feminism. Some praise Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, as a great liberator of modern women. How many Christian women know that Friedan was a Stalinist-Marxist activist, a professional propagandist working for the Communists? Author David Horowitz points out that “...her interest in women’s liberation was just a subtext of her real desire to create a Soviet America.” (Anna Sofia Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, So Much More, pp. 65-66) H. In summary, Marxism/Socialism/Communism knew how important it was to manipulate women against their nature and God’s order so as to advance its political goals. 1. Feminism was a very important plank in their platform for a utopian superstate and centralized control. 2. “...the wreckage of the American family renders us incapable of having limited government because government must step in to perform tasks formerly done by the nuclear family.” (Phyllis Schafly, Who Killed the American Family?, xiii.) VIII. The radical feminists’ hatred of Christianity as being a perpetuation of an evil patriarchal cultural model of female oppression displays an ignorance (willing ignorance?) of history and reality. A. “Globally, conditions for women remain bleak. Consider this brief sampling of misogynist practices: In some Asian countries, women are bought and sold, and can be treated as domestic animals. In India, brides with insufficient dowries can be burned to death to free the husband to marry a more affluent wife. In many African countries, women suffer painful ritual genital mutilation. In various Muslim countries, women are denied education in order that they may be more easily exploited economically. Worldwide, women grow Feminism 10-7-17 Page 6 most of the food supply but have little say in how the food is distributed – and are themselves the last to be fed.” (https://www.cbeinternational.org/resources/article/priscilla-papers/biblical-feminism) B. “The feminist movement would have us believe that justice, equality and opportunity did not exist for women until the feminist movement created these things in the last few years. ¶ The truth is quite the opposite. The most liberating force in all of history is Christianity. It has emancipated women the world over and elevated them to the place of honor God created them to occupy. Christianity offers women purpose, dignity, worth and true power. As Christianity swept over the pagan world, women were liberated from slave-like or inhuman positions of gross inferiority....¶ In pagan cultures, women have been considered property, decorative objects, sexual objects, slaves, and/or the personification of evil. All of these things are wrong. But in preaching contempt for biblical womanhood, tearing down the institution of marriage, maligning the concept of godly submission, spitting on the office of motherhood, teaching women (and men) to despise the blessings of children, the feminist movement has only increased these problems in our generation.” (Anna Sofia Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, So Much More, pp. 66-67) C. There is a more fundamental reason that radical feminism hates Christianity: “God created woman to be more than an oppressed victim of feminism. He had an important purpose and a high calling for her as the other half of the reflection of His image and glory. The feminists have taken us far away from this image of womanhood, the image found in the Old and New Testaments. It is the only view that ever accurately depicted where women can find true fulfillment and strength and achieve their fullest potential. It’s also the only view that ever required women to be righteous and blameless in their hearts and obey God’s commands. This is why we believe the feminists hate biblical womanhood. Purity, holiness, and submission to God and His order are disgusting to them. Feminism is about ‘self’ and cannot abide the principle of ‘God first, others second, ourselves last.’ The leaders of the feminist movement hate the things of light and love the things of darkness, and they hate the blessings God bestows on those who are faithful and obedient to Him.” (Anna Sofia Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, So Much More, pp. 67-68) IX. Modern feminism tends to look at civilization (and especially Western civilization) as being the story of male dominance of women who are little more than the tools of male desire and patriarchy. NOTE: the following observations are not made in denial of genuine abuses of male power over women, nor to excuse such abuses, nor to ignore that there have been areas of improper inequality. A. An alternate view of Western history is that its culture was generally affected for the betterment of women by the model of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for the betterment of His beloved bride. EPH 5:25. 1. Where the gospel went, men were convicted by its message of self-sacrifice for the salvation of the powerless, stirred by its noble presentation of a Hero on a white horse coming to the rescue of a distressed maiden. REV 19:11-21. 2. Where the gospel went, men were brought under divine directives for hard work and providing for their wives and children. 2TH 3:10-13; 1TI 5:8. 3. Where the gospel went, EPH 5:25, GAL 3:28, 1PE 3:7, etc. went, elevating women to a place of honor and security. 4. Where the gospel went, the model of virtuous womanhood under authority went (PRO 31:10-31), provoking men to honor feminine ingenuity and strength, and showing that true power for women is not in voluptuous, virtue-deficient vanity. Feminism 10-7-17 Page 7 a. “The strength of purpose which the young wives of America display, in bending themselves at once and without repining to the austere duties of their new condition [marriage] is no less manifest in all the great trials of their lives. In no country in the world are private fortunes more precarious than in the United States. It is not uncommon for the same man, in the course of his life, to rise and sink again through all the grades which lead from opulence to poverty. American women support these vicissitudes with calm and unquenchable energy: it would seem that their desires contract as easily as they expand with their fortunes. ¶ I have often met, even on the verge of the wilderness, with young women who, after being brought up amidst all the comforts of the large towns of New England, had passed, almost without any intermediate stage, from the wealthy abode of their parents to a comfortless hovel in a forest. Fever, solitude, and a tedious life had not broken the springs of their courage....I do not doubt that these young American women had amassed, in the education of their early years, that inward strength which they displayed under these circumstances. ¶ ...Hence it is, that the women of America, who often exhibit a masculine strength of understanding and a manly energy, generally preserve great delicacy of personal appearance, and always retain the manners of women, although they sometimes show that they have the hearts and minds of men.” (Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America, pp. 237, 244) b. The virtuous woman of PRO 31 is not a mindless, powerless automaton with no prospect of personal value beyond that of drudge-work at a stove or sink. (1) She is strong in character and purpose without undermining her head or sacrificing her feminine virtue. (2) Jael was a strong godly woman who nailed it. JDG 4:21; 5:24. c. The man who thinks only of himself and not of her, he is a fool. The woman who thinks that the virtuous woman is a fool is no better. PRO 14:1. B. Is Western history simply the story of male dominance and suppression of women or has there been also a legacy of male sacrifice and hard work to provide for and to protect women and children? 1. Historically, most men in Western civilization were not wealthy, royal or elite and using that power to keep women suppressed. 2. Rather, most men until relatively recently were low-level laborers, coal-miners, farmers, etc. who risked their health and lives to provide for wives and children. 3. To this day, men perform almost all of the physically-demanding, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs from sewer-cleaning to steel erection to soldiering, and also bear a substantial amount of the emotional scars of a “male-responsibility” culture. a. Over 90% of workplace fatalities are men. b. Almost 80% of all suicides and homicides are men. c. Military war deaths since the Korean conflict are about 98% male. C. The feminist mantra is basically that our culture values male work more than female work. 1. There is an element of truth in this. However, a realistic analysis of so-called male- preference and wage disparity must take into consideration: a. Some jobs require the physical superiority of men and the reward-to- performance ratio should naturally reflect this. b. Women sometimes choose jobs with less work-hours per week to Feminism 10-7-17 Page 8 accommodate family responsibilities, etc., and exit the work-force earlier than men for child-bearing and child-rearing, etc. c. If full parity were mandated, no allowance should be made for women owing to female matters, pregnancy, child-care, etc. d. If it were true (as some affirm) that women earn 23% less than men for the very same work, then wouldn’t corporations only hire women? e. If women are performing the same work as men and producing the same benefit to an employer, then there should be equal pay. 2. Our culture also values female life more than male life. a. Historically, it is the males who have been drafted and/or sent into battle. b. An historic trend that all should hope would not change is that in rescue situations, it’s “Women and children first.” c. “Women and children first” in some societies has meant using them as shields against enemy fire or sending them on suicide missions. D. Western thought and judicial systems still reflect their ancient Christian underpinnings in their bias towards women, considering them to be cherished objects to be protected from various forms of victimization. 1. Courts tend to favor women over men in custodial disputes, alimony and child support. 2. The people, police and court system are still inclined to believe every cry of “Rape!” that a woman makes but contrarily tend to think that a male could never be raped by a woman. 3. Men receive 63% more prison time than women for identical crimes. 4. A woman can legally destroy the fruit of her womb without consent of the father and even against the will of the father. 5. “U.S. courts have uniformly affirmed that the state can lawfully force boys and men to make monthly payments to their rapists. The circumstances that produce this outcome are: woman rapes boy or man with a sex act of reproductive type, rapist gets pregnant from the rape, rapist gives birth to the baby rather than aborting it, rapist doesn’t get rid of the child under safe-haven infant abandonment laws, rapist doesn’t give the child up for adoption, The rapist can then legally receive a ‘child support’ order that requires the raped boy or man to make monthly payments to his rapist...” (www.avoiceformen.com) 6. Unprincipled women have learned how to game the system by getting pregnant deceptively against the will of a consensual partner and then obtaining court- ordered child support for a child to which the partner may not even have access. 7. Courts have even forced paternity upon someone who is known to not be the father of a child. 8. Mind that much of this is a result of the long history of Western civilization’s gospel underpinnings which sought to protect rather than victimize women. Contrast this with the indifference with which women in other cultures have been treated. E. As noted earlier, radical feminism’s real nemesis is Jesus Christ, Who, while taming men, equalizing law & God’s promises for men and women, terminating polygamy & easy divorce, and exalting woman to the highest level in human history, nevertheless left in place the pre-Fall order of male-female relationship: sexual connection is reserved for marriage, marriage is honorable in all, marriage is one man to one woman who is under his headship, women should be holy & domestically inclined, child-bearing is a blessing, and life begins at conception (which means abortion is murder). Feminism 10-7-17 Page 9 MAT 19:4-9; 1CO 11:7-9; HEB 13:4; 1TI 5:14; TIT 2:2-5; LUK 1:35, 40-44. X. Women can be cruel and sexually predatory when their nature is unleashed. A. Jezebel slew God’s prophets who resisted her idolatrous ways and she animated (manipulated) her wicked husband. 1KI 18:13; 21:25. B. Athaliah slew almost all the seed royal in a rage of power. 2KI 11:1. C. Herodias used her own daughter’s dancing ability to orchestrate the death of John the Baptist who had spoken against her adulterous marriage. MAR 6:17-27. D. Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of attempted rape when her adulterous enticements were rejected. GEN 39:7-20. E. God did not consider Thyatira’s Jezebel a sad victim of male predatory behavior. REV 2:20-23. F. “...and the adulteress will HUNT for the precious life” (PRO 6:26). That’s predation. G. Modern media has tended to emphasize male predatory behavior while glossing over the realities of female predatory behavior in the workplace and in school systems where statutory rape of juvenile males and females by female teachers is a real problem. 1. There is too often a virtual double-standard concerning claims of “sexual harassment” in the workplace. A male may find himself in trouble for a casual statement of interest in a female co-worker while more aggressive female speech and conduct towards a male co-worker may be overlooked, excused or even celebrated. 2. It seems inconsistent for women to deem all men sexual predators who cannot restrain themselves while the women also dress, talk and act in ways that facilitate and animate men’s sexually predatory natures. This makes about as much sense as coating oneself with blood before swimming in shark-infested waters and then being alarmed at a shark’s attack. a. Women! Scripture even recognizes that men are strongly driven by sight in the desire of a woman. DEU 21:11; 2SAM 11:2. b. Scripture particularly instructs women to dress modestly. 1TI 2:9 ct/w PRO 7:10. XI. “As Jennie Chancey points out in her article ‘You Don’t Know Feminism’: ‘Feminism has tried to plant territorial flags on ‘discoveries’ it did not make. Being opposed to spouse abuse did not start with the feminists. Being in favor of fair inheritance and property ownership laws for women did not start with the feminists. Being opposed to rape and incest did not start with the feminists. The Bible was already there.’” (Anna Sofia Botkin, Elizabeth Botkin, So Much More, p. 68) A. Scripture commands man to be sexually faithful to his wife. MAT 5:27-28; JOB 31:1. B. Scripture commands man to love, to nourish (nurture, promote the growth of) and cherish (hold dear, treat with tenderness and affection; to make much of) his wife. EPH 5:28-29. C. Scripture commands man to honour (highly respect, reverence) his wife. 1PE 3:7. D. Scripture forbids rape and incest. DEU 22:25; LEV 18:6-18. E. Scripture forbids easy divorce (and therefore counters abandonment without support). MAT 19:9. F. Scripture commands man to supply for wife and family. 1TI 5:8. G. Scripture forbids man to neglect or abandon wife and family. 1TI 5:8. H. Scripture upholds woman’s right to own real-estate and receive inheritance. NUM 27:1-8. I. Scripture upholds woman’s right to knowledge and to engage in business. Feminism 10-7-17 Page 10 DEU 31:12; LUK 10:39; PRO 31:13-18; ACT 18:2-3. J. Scripture upholds woman’s right to resist her husband upon godly principle. GEN 21:9-12. K. Jesus Christ and His gospel are not the enemies of woman but rather the answers for woman. L. “In the Christian religion ‘the human rights of woman are not crumbs from the Master's table, nor fortuitous 'chivalry,' but a universal moral commandment,’ said Prof. Ketter. He says: ‘Never did Jesus exclude women from His demands. Neither did He omit them from His promises. Men and women are both created by God for the same end. Therefore there lies for both but one way to the goal: To follow Christ, deny oneself and daily bear one's cross. What is sin for the man is sin also for the woman. All this means that Christ has placed the human personality of the woman on exactly the same level as that of the man. As moral personalities man and woman are not subordinated but co-ordinated. According to the teachings of Jesus the Soul of woman has exactly the same value in the eyes of God as the soul of man.’... So also today, said Prof. Ketter, the most necessary contribution one can make to the solution of the Woman's Question is to refer women to Christ, and to help them to a better understanding of His moral teachings.’” (John Lofton, Was Christ a Male Chauvinist?) M. The big problems (some of which are genuine) with which radical feminism purports to justify its agenda are not problems where the Law of Christ is believed, lived and enforced. XII. Men should think twice about blaming Feminism for all troubles in man-woman relationships when the real problem may be that: A. men assumed that loose sexual morals in general, and objectifying women primarily as sex objects were good bases for love and marriage. JAM 1:15. B. men considered themselves the center of the universe. ct/w 1CO 13:5. C. men never learned to properly relate to, please (1CO 7:33) and otherwise dwell with women according to knowledge, per 1PE 3:7. D. their own insecurities, fears and delusions have handicapped their ability to relate to women. Feminism 10-7-17 Page 11