Popes and Feminists

I just finished reading, Popes and Feminists: How the Reformation Frees Women from Feminism, by Elise Crapuchettes. The author compares the Roman Catholicism of the Middle Ages with modern feminism, and argues that both distort what it means for women to live truly biblical lives pleasing to God. The former ascribed meaningful lives only to those spent in isolated service to God in convents, while the latter claims that women can only have meaningful lives if they pursue a career outside the home. Neither positions are biblical and the author spends the entire book providing examples of women during the Reformation who experienced lives that truly honored God.

In the last chapter, the author provides a thoughtful critique of the effect that feminism has had on our culture, both outside and within the church:

Many women are unaware of the impact feminism has made on the question of vocation, as I was. Feminism has
influenced our culture, and that trickles down to young women in the form of career pressure, and the American church at large has not handled this particularly well. The church seems to have unintentionally adopted the feminist principle that the only truly important work earns a salary outside the home.

Feminist culture can and has trickled down even to many Christian stay-at-home moms, who can be just as tempted by promises of self-fulfillment and living out their dreams. If they are staying at home with the kids as a means to that end, it’s still an idolatry of the self. As long as the ultimate goal is finding ourselves or feeling fulfilled, it doesn’t matter how we pursue it: we will always be disobeying God.

The other idol of our culture a study of feminism and the Reformation exposes is the idol of making a difference. Christians and unbelievers alike aspire to this, although they don’t have the same definitions of that goal. At first glance, how could this be an idol? The Bible encourages us to make a difference: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19–20). This passage makes sense to good Christians: We are supposed to lead people to Christ. The hard part is how and whom. As P.J. O’Rourke so aptly said, “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.” It’s fun to imagine leading some heretofore unknown people group to Christ, but it’s a lot more work to train up children in the way they should go all day every day. Humbling ourselves is hard work.

Just about everyone in our age wants to live a life worthy of future biographies (or, more likely, a video of our amazing
exploits gone viral), but the truth is, most of us just need to do the next thing, the one right in front of us. God sees our faithfulness, and that has to be enough for us. The best part is that God then takes our faithfulness in the small things, and uses it, as He did with the Christians at the time of the Reformation, to make everything new. The women in this book were only representative. Eighteen women did not change western civilization. There were thousands of people who turned to Christ, and God used all of them whether or not we know their names five hundred years later.

While some Christian women describe themselves as "Christian feminists" the term is an oxymoron. Feminism, at its core, claims that women must have full autonomy over their lives in order to be free and happy. No one has autonomy over his or her life - male or female. Scripturally, wives are subject to their husbands, and husbands are subject to the leadership of their church. And all of us are subject to God whether we acknowledge that or not. You can evaluate any "-ism" by taking it to its logical end. For feminism, it must lead to a woman's complete control over her body, which, to its logical end, means that she has the right to kill her unborn child. Therefore, feminism does not ultimately embrace a fulfilled life and freedom, but death and enslavement to sin.

Taken to its logical conclusion, Christianity leads finally to love.

Women do not need feminism to experience the life they ought to live. Biblical Christianity is sufficient for that purpose. It was enough in the Middle Ages, it was enough during the Reformation, and its enough today. Our wives, daughters, sisters, brothers, sons, and everyone else we care about in this life need to understand this:

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." - Col. 2-8