Militant Feminism

by Dr. Phil Stringer (Florida)

"The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." (Titus 2:3-5)

* * *

"Freedom for women cannot be without the abolition of marriage," wrote Sheila Craven, feminist author.

This incredible statement was made by the National Organization for Women in 1988: "The simple fact is, every woman must be willing to be recognized as a lesbian to be fully feminine.

The following is a quote form the Document: A Declaration of Feminism:

All of history must be rewritten in terms of the oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions (like witchcraft) ... Marriage has existed for the benefit of men and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women ... 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 ... Now we know it is the institution that has failed us and we must work to destroy it ... With the destruction of nuclear family must come a new way of looking at children. They must be seen as the responsibility of an entire society rather than individual parents ....

The militant feminist movement is at war with the Christian concept of family and the distinction in roles between men and women. The modern militant feminist movement should not be confused with the women’s suffrage movement of the last century (which focused on the right of women to vote) or even the women’s rights movement of the 1970's (which focused on equal pay for equal work and changes in inheritance laws). The militant feminist movement demands the right to remake society. Encyclopedia Britannica defines the women’s liberation movement this way:

One aim of the movement’s activities has been to demonstrate to women that they need not be satisfied with their traditional maternal and housekeeping functions and that they can participate equally with men in every sphere of life.

In his book The Way Things Ought To Be, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh describes feminism this way:

Unfortunately, feminism is another of those vehicles which attempt [sic] to transport unpopular liberalism into mainstream society. Leftist extremists have finally recognized the fact that they are unable to sell their inimical ideas to society as a whole. Cleverly, they have decided to repackage those ideas in more politically palatable gift wrapping, and feminism is one of those packages. After all, who can be opposed to equality for women, which is the way the feminist leadership chooses to phrase the question. Admittedly, the phenomenon of the feminist movement is far too complex to describe it simply as a group of liberal women who have donned a disguise for the purpose of attacking American values, capitalism, and our form of government -- although that is certainly part of it. The movement is also driven by women who are angry -- very angry, for a number of reasons -- with their particular lot in life. Many of the women who have risen to leadership ranks in the movement are man-haters. They are not seeking equal pay for equal work on behalf of their so-called women constituency. They are on a mission to change the fundamental relationship between the sexes. They are at war with traditional American values and fundamental institutions such as marriage and the American family.

In order to portray women as victims, some feminists have resorted to myths. In Revolution from Within, the famous feminist leader, Gloria Steinem, reported that 150,000 females were dying in America each year from anorexia. (This was the fault of men; they were to blamed for preferring slimmer females.) In reality the National Center for Health Statistics reported 101 deaths from anorexia in 1983 and 67 in 1988.

Many feminists try to portray violence against women as the norm in traditional homes. Gloria Steinem wrote:

Patriarchy requires violence of the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself ... The most dangerous situation for a woman is not an unknown man in the street, or even the enemy in wartime, but a husband or lover in the isolation of their own home.

Throughout 1991, -92, and -93, numerous references were made to a March of Dimes report showing that domestic violence was responsible for more birth defects than all other causes. But the March of Dimes says that there is no such report. Other feminists have reported that "Super Bowl Sunday" is the worst day for domestic violence. Supposedly, football brings out the beast in men! However, there are absolutely no increases reported anywhere to back up this claim. Much of the militant feminist movement depends upon "vain deceit."

In 1987, the "Danvers Statement" was designed to summarize the Bible’s teaching on the roles of men and women and to provide a Biblical perspective on the militant feminist movement. It reads as follows:

1. Both Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood.

2. Distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order, and should find an echo in every human heart.

3. Adam’s leadership in marriage was established by God before the Fall, and was not a result of sin.

4. The Fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women.

• In the home, the husband’s loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity; the wife’s intelligent, willing submission tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility.

5. The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, manifests the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women. Both Old and New Testaments also affirm the principle of male headship in the family and in the covenant community.

6. Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse.

• In the family, husbands should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives; wives should forsake resistance to their husbands’ authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands’ leadership.
• In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessings of salvation; nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men.

7 In all of life Christ is the supreme authority and guide for men and women, so that no earthly submission -- domestic, religious, or civil -- ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin.

8. In both men and women a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never to used to set aside Biblical criteria for particular ministries. Rather, Biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God’s will.

9. With half the World’s population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism; with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel; with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion for God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world.

10. We are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large.

Titus 2:3-6 demonstrates the special role that God has designed for women to play:

3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

4 That they may tach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

It is amazing that some who claim to speak for women feel that femininity is inferior and that they must be masculine to be equal to men. Historic Christianity exalts the God-given role for women!

In the 1830's, during the height of America’s Christian culture, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America:

In no country has such constant care been taken as in America to trace two clearly distinct lines of action for the two sexes, and to make them keep pace one with the other, but in two pathways which are always different. American women never manage to the outward concerns of the family, or conduct a business, or take a part in political life; nor are they, on the other hand, ever compelled to perform the rough labor of the fields, or to make any of those laborious exertions which demand the exertion of physical strength.

No families are so poor as to form an exception to this rule. If, on the one hand, an American woman cannot escape from the quiet circle of domestic employments, she is never forced, on the other, to go beyond it. 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.

Nor have the Americans ever supposed that one consequence of democratic principles is the subversion of marital power, or the confusion of the natural authorities in families. They hold that every association must have a head in order to accomplish its object, and that the natural head of the conjugal association is man. They do not therefore deny him the right of directing this partner; and they maintain that, in the smaller association of husband and wife, as well as in the great social community, the object of democracy is to regulate and legalize the powers which are necessary, and not to subvert all power.

This opinion is not peculiar to one sex, and contested by the other I never observed that the women of America consider conjugal authority as a fortunate usurpation of their rights, nor that they thought themselves degraded by submitting to it. It appeared to me, on the contrary, that they attach a sort of pride to the voluntary surrender of their own will, and make it their boast to bend themselves to the yoke -- not to shake it off.

Dr. Phil Stringer is Executive Vice President at Landmark Baptist College, Haines City, Florida.