It’s time to stop talking about “Christian feminism.”
Most orthodox believers would never refer to themselves as “Christian Muslims” or “Christian Marxists.” Why? Because these ideologies are antithetical to the truths of Scripture. They are false teachings that lead many astray and stand openly opposed to the Church.
So why do many Christians call themselves “Christian feminists?”
Feminism is just as anti-Christian as any other false religion or ideology. While certain aspects may align with Scripture, feminism taken as a whole destroys God’s plan for the family and for women. The Bible defines the roles of men and women in a way that creates maximum human flourishing, and to forsake this glorious design for a feeble, earthly attempt to redesign God’s created order is foolish, rebellious, and ultimately self-destructive.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).”
The grand narrative of Scripture begins with the creation story, which ends with the creation of humanity and that radical declaration. The Hebrew word for man, adam, can be translated either as referring to a single individual (when paired with the definite article) or the human race as a whole (without the article). In this case, it refers to humankind. Humankind, male and female alike, is created in God’s image.
Both men and women reflect specific aspects of God’s nature and character. Both are created with inherent worth and dignity. Both possess equal spiritual standing before God. And both are uniquely equipped to fulfill different roles in God’s created order. Feminism rejects this disparity and seeks to level the playing field by removing all meaningful differences between male and female.
Mary Wollstonecraft, a British Enlightenment-era intellectual, authored A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which was widely considered the first manifesto of modern feminism. Wollstonecraft’s defense of women’s equality was paired with a personal rejection of traditional sexual norms. Ironically, she married fellow radical William Godwin after she became pregnant to prevent their child from being illegitimate. Wollstonecraft died after giving birth to this child, a daughter, in 1797. The first-wave feminist movement had begun.
First-wave feminism in America was initially a much tamer creature than its continental cousin. Female reformers Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton began as members of the fledgling abolitionist movement. Eventually growing tired of attempts by male abolitionists to silence women at meetings, they split off to hold the famed Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. Early American feminism was concerned with two issues: abolitionism and temperance, but it soon took a darker and more perverse turn.
Margaret Sanger, born in 1879, was another member of the first-wave feminist movement. Sanger was a vocal advocate for birth control, arguing that if women were to have true equality with men, they must be freed from the burden of biology. Women, like men, must be free to have sex without facing the consequence of pregnancy. Sanger quickly took her philosophy to its logical conclusion. If women were to be truly liberated, they must be free not only to prevent conception in the first place, but to dispose of their babies. Her first abortion clinic, a forerunner of what would eventually become Planned Parenthood, opened in 1916 — four years before women won the right to vote. The satanic sacrament of abortion was entwined with the feminist movement almost from its genesis.
The second-wave feminism of the 1960s and 1970s continued in the same vein. Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique suggested that if women were to find fulfillment and happiness, they must be freed from domesticity and motherhood to pursue careers outside the home. If women were to become fully human, they must leave their femininity behind. Gloria Steinem, a pivotal figure in the second-wave feminist movement, pioneered the euphemism “reproductive freedom.” She’s been outspoken about her desire for abortion to be accepted and celebrated for well over five decades.
But what about the principles that feminism gets right? Surely, it’s not wrong to advocate for girls to receive a rational education, as Mary Wollstonecraft did, or to oppose pornography and female genital mutilation, as Gloria Steinem does.
The truth is that Christianity has already accounted for these ideas. The issues that feminism gets right are really drawn, whether the feminists like to admit it or not, from the teachings and traditions of Christendom.
Christians have fallen for the lie that if they are really to be pro-woman and promote human flourishing, they must embrace “Christianity and feminism.”
It sounds remarkably similar to what C.S. Lewis’ fictional demon states on its desire to take down Christianity in The Screwtape Letters:
“What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And.’ If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing.”
The term “feminism” has been linked since the beginning with ideas that contradict the truth of God’s Word. When we capitulate to the world by adopting the shibboleths of those who walk in darkness, we fail to maintain our witness as Christ followers. We show that Christ is not enough for us. We lose our saltiness and become fit only to be thrown out and trampled.
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,” Paul commanded the Corinthian church. “For what fellowship has light with darkness? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?”
Feminism is one of the most powerful idols before which our culture has prostrated itself. What fellowship can we have with it?
When we describe ourselves as Christian feminists, the truth is that we are not really adding anything to Christianity. Instead, we are detracting from it. The Gospel brings the ultimate liberation to men and women alike.
In Christ, we have the freedom to live as God intended us to live. Accordingly, to pair the Gospel of Christ with feminism is to diminish the glory and power of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
