Aside from the fact that I’m really not the type to wear a pink vagina hat and shout vulgarities while marching alongside women who feel their greatest “right” is to kill their unborn children, I’m not a big fan of modern-day feminism. Don’t get me wrong. I was a teenager in the 70s when the ERA movement was a big deal. I am 100% behind a woman making as much money as a man for doing the same job with the same skill, education, and level of experience. I’m all for equality of opportunity. I’m a big fan of women who excel in traditionally male-dominated professions and crack the proverbial glass ceiling.
I’ve never felt I was inferior to a man or that I had fewer rights simply because I was a woman. Except once. My husband and I were co-pastors in [name of state withheld] and were new to the district. When we arrived at a gathering of pastors at the district superintendent’s home/office, the D.S. met us at the door, told Dan to go down to the basement with the other pastors, and instructed me to go upstairs and help the women prepare and serve the coffee and snacks. I was just a bit taken aback. I spent a few minutes helping with the food and then joined my husband downstairs. I was a full-time ordained pastor, after all, and I was there to learn what all the other pastors were learning. That district superintendent turned out to be a great supporter, and I really doubt he had ever intended to offend me in the first place. He just wasn’t thinking at the moment!
Once when I was in college, a recruiter from Indiana Wesleyan University was talking to me at a summer camp in Michigan. And he mentioned that they needed more women speakers for some kind of conference. So he asked me if I would ever be interested in doing that. I told him that if I was ever good enough to be considered for a speaking spot, I wouldn’t want to just be the token female. If my message can’t compete with a man’s message, I don’t want to be on stage. And I meant it.
I always believed I was as competent as anyone else and that gender had nothing to do with success. I had decided early on in ministry that I was not going to be a “woman in ministry.” I was just going to be an “obedient Christian” in ministry. I was asked on several occasions to take part in “Women in Ministry” events, but I refused every time. And I always took that opportunity to remind the woman inviting me that if we are just “women” in ministry, then we have lost the battle. Until we’re seen simply as Christians who have been called into ministry, we haven’t achieved any type of real equality.
I guess that’s my standpoint on everything. It’s why I don’t believe in defining people by their race, the color of their skin, their gender, or even their sexual preferences. We are all just people. And we need to stop separating ourselves by some kind of irrelevant criteria. Especially Christians! “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-29). I realize I’m stretching these verses a bit, but I do think they have a broader application to how Christians view people in society.
So, while I’m a strong supporter of women’s rights, I am decidedly NOT a proponent of the modern feminist movement. Here’s the short list of why I can’t identify with today’s feminism.
I believe women are free to choose the life they want, even if that means they choose a traditional role.
If a woman wants to stay at home and have a dozen children, that’s up to her. If she enjoys cooking and sewing and cleaning the house and is content to complete those chores without any help from her husband, that’s up to her. She is not less of a woman because she views her husband as the head of her home. I personally prescribe to a more egalitarian view of marriage, and, while I loved my children and I loved being a mom (and still do), I didn’t see that as the ultimate purpose of my entire life. But that’s OK. Women don’t have to see the world exactly the same. However, many of today’s feminists bristle at the thought of women taking on traditional roles in the home. They say they believe a woman is free to choose her own lifestyle, but it is apparent from their words and demeanor that they hold such women in contempt, as if their choice is evidence of their lack of intelligence and cultural refinery. I don’t want to align myself with women who show such disdain for other women simply because they have different preferences about the life they want to live.
I believe women are free to vote for whomever they think will best run our country.
Over the past couple years, there has been a constant berating of women by other women because they didn’t vote in a particular way. More specifically, some left-leaning women have been incredulous that any woman could vote for Donald Trump, our current president. How could we not vote for a woman – Hillary Clinton? Politics is about policies, not personalities. And gender is irrelevant to most of us when it comes to the way we vote. We look at party platforms and whose policies will ultimately be best for our country. All the name-calling aside, we look for candidates who hold our same beliefs about policies and the role of government, even if they happen to disappoint us in their personal lives. I don’t feel I should be coerced into voting for someone just because she (or he) is a proponent of “women’s rights” (by which most liberals mean access to abortion on demand and free contraception – both at taxpayer’s expense). Today’s feminist movement is only welcoming of those who have left-leaning political views. At least, that’s how it seems to me.
I believe killing unborn babies is barbaric and is not a fundamental right of women.
The American Holocaust is the killing of millions of unborn babies since the early 1970s – 50-60 million! Innocent pre-born infants are ripped from their mother’s wombs, sometimes only days or weeks before their birth, without any anesthesia for the baby. Their skulls are crushed or their bodies are burned with saline. And women willingly succumb to this barbaric ritual, thinking it’s their “right” to do whatever they want with their own bodies. The only problem is that abortion goes beyond their own bodies and takes the life of another “body” – that of a precious unborn baby. What is wrong with us? I believe firmly that 100 years from now a generation of women will look back on this time in history with utter horror and disbelief, much as most of us look back on the prevalence of slavery in the South prior to the ending of the Civil War with sadness and incredulity. It disgusts us now to think of how people of color were treated by esteemed members of our society. Imagine the shame we will feel one day when our collective conscience recognizes the barbaric murders of our tiniest citizens at the will of their own mothers. And to think that we have women pastors who would march alongside women demanding their “rights” to abortion and male pastors applauding them… well, it sickens me. I can’t be a part of any movement as long as it deems helpless babies as dispensable, especially when no woman is forced to keep her baby or to raise it. I understand that there are special circumstances, but they are rare. For the most part, women today want sexual freedom without consequences. I think that’s childish and selfish. And I can’t align myself with people who think they have the right to murder someone (even female babies) without them having a say in whether they live or die.
I believe men and boys are God’s children too, and they are not the enemy.
Our society today has attempted to feminize young boys and to treat any normal male behavior as “bad” (e.g., “toxic masculinity”). Boys are less likely to be called on to answer a question by a teacher in elementary school. For the first time in history, fewer young men are attending college than women. The “white male” is the only group that it’s permissible to discriminate against when it comes to hiring practices in the workplace. Men today are being denied their constitutional rights to due process and having their careers destroyed by merely the accusation of sexual misconduct. Don’t get me wrong. If men behaved inappropriately, they should be held accountable for that behavior. But mere accusations don’t make a person guilty. If a woman dresses provocatively, wearing short, tight dresses and showing cleavage, she shouldn’t be crying that a man “leered” at her and made her feel uncomfortable. Generally, if you dress professionally, you’ll be treated professionally. Do men sometimes cross the line because they think you’re attractive and might be the woman of their dreams? Frankly, yes. But is that always reason to destroy their lives (and, incidentally, the lives of their wives and children) some 10, 20, 30 or 40 years later? The bottom line is that there seems to be an almost hatred of men today, and I can’t align myself with a group of women who look at all men with suspicion and treat them as if they are inferior to the “more evolved” sex. I don’t think it’s a biblical view of personhood.
I believe sexual deviancy is dehumanizing.
Many of today’s feminists harbor a hatred for heterosexuality, which they view as oppressive. Radical feminist Adrienne Rich went as far as to say that men force women into “compulsory heterosexuality.” I can’t in good conscience align myself with any group that applauds sexual deviancy and/or promiscuity. I just can’t. It goes against God’s Word and God’s design for humankind. In that sense, it is dehumanizing.
The very first women’s rights convention in the United States was held at a Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, so equality for women is part of our heritage as a Wesleyan movement. We have a long history of championing the rights of women, ordaining women into ministry, and standing against domestic violence. I realize there are many “feminists” within the Wesleyan/holiness movement who feel the same way I do about a lot of these issues. However, while not all feminists agree on the tenets of feminism, it is the radical feminists who are most vocal and who capture the attention of the mainstream media. So, even though I am a firm believer in equal opportunity for women, I can’t align myself with a radical group whose beliefs are antithetical to my own. I can’t in good conscience call myself a “feminist” if it means I’ll be misinterpreted by society as standing with the man-haters who believe their most liberating right is the right to kill their unborn offspring. It’s a shame that radicalism has hijacked a movement that had many good intentions when it began. And it’s a shame that I can’t affirm anything the movement stands for now because of its radical tendencies.
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