Women's 'Liberation' Through Submission: An Evangelical Anti-Feminism Is Born

[Hazumu]

  By Kathryn Joyce, Religion Dispatches. Posted January 22, 2009.

A disturbing number of Christian women are throwing their support behind the "patriarchy movement."

The "countercultural" attitudes that signers support include the idea that women are called to affirm and encourage godly masculinity, and honor the God-ordained male headship of their husbands and pastors; that wifely submission to male leadership in the home and church reflects Christ's submission to God, His Father; that "selfish insistence on personal rights is contrary to the spirit of Christ"; and, in a pronatalist turn of phrase that recalls the rhetoric of the Quiverfull conviction, their willingness to "receive children as a blessing from the Lord."

Finally, in a reference to the importance of woman-to-woman mentoring within the conservative church, they affirmed that "mature Christian women" are obliged to disciple the next generation of Christian wives, training them in matters of submission and headship, in order to provide a legacy of "fruitful femininity."

[mina.magpie]

Wow. They really do want to roll us back to the Stone Age. Oh hang on, not that far back, since paleolithic cultures were actually totally egalitarian before they settled down to farm and build cities. Patriarchy is at its heart a movement of ownership as opposed to liberty. I'm quite sure they'd try to roll back anti-slavery laws too if they thought they could get away with it.

Mina.

[NicholeW.]

OK, let 'em have it their way. Good enough for them. Just please stay the freak away from me with your shrift. Thank you.

Nichole

[Hypatia]

Finally, in a reference to the importance of woman-to-woman mentoring within the conservative church, they affirmed that "mature Christian women" are obliged to disciple the next generation of Christian wives, training them in matters of submission and headship, in order to provide a legacy of "fruitful femininity."

This precisely describes the Aunties from The Handmaid's Tale.

[mina.magpie]

This precisely describes the Aunties from The Handmaid's Tale.

Shiver. 

Mina.

[whatsername]

And how, exactly, is this "counter cultural"? 

Good gods...

[Cindy]

Errr
This means people still belive in gods?

[mina.magpie]

Oh wow ...

"A woman on her knees sways more in this nation than a thousand three-piece suited Wall Street jerks. There is massive power in this room, so I do not take lightly this moment."

I wonder if that is where he expects women to be too? 

Mina.