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Faith of the Feminine [Updated]

Last month the Vatican hosted a conference for women from all corners of the world to discuss themes in John Paul II's Letter to Women published 20 years ago.

Many feminists consider the Church to be an enemy of women's liberation, but when it comes down to it, nothing could be further from the truth. Feminism is more than just trying to be like men. In fact, trying to be like men is the antithesis of true feminism. It says that being a woman is not good enough, instead women need to turn into men to be accepted as equal. The focus on contraceptive and abortive "rights" shows just how far off the track many feminists in today's world have gone. Far from liberating women, this focus enslaves women to be sexual playthings rather than human beings worthy of respect for their innate gift of life that science spends billions trying to emulate.

So how did feminists get it so wrong? Maybe it's because we've let the radicals define feminism for us and they have their own reasons for hating and fearing Christianity.
Radical feminists often reserve their fiercest hostility for Christianity. So it was particularly refreshing to hear erudite German philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz challenge the modern conventional wisdom that Christianity is to blame for women’s oppression. As Gerl-Falkovitz noted, the ancient belief systems for which today’s feminist neo-pagans pine did little to elevate women’s status. In those systems, as in much of the Islamic world today, women were regarded as the objects, not subjects, of rights. Women in the ancient world were identified with beauty and breeding, but their common humanity largely was overlooked.

Judaism’s view of women departed sharply from that ancient model. The practice of “holy prostitution” so common in the ancient world was renounced, as was the image of the pagan goddess as sexual ideal. The Hebrew Scriptures revealed a personal God who had created men and women in his image. Women now were connected to the realm of the spirit, not just the flesh, and motherhood was seen as a personal event in the life of the mother and a blessing from God, not merely a woman’s duty-bound contribution to the increase of the tribe.

The Gospels continued on this trajectory. They depicted God taking flesh in the womb of a woman, a woman who was free to accept or reject her role as the mother of Jesus. Gospel accounts find Jesus entrusting women with profound theological insights, performing miracles at their request, and finding solace in their support during his Passion, after most of his male followers had fled. Although Christians themselves often have failed to live up to Jesus’ example regarding women, Gerl-Falkovitz said, feminism is an outgrowth of Christian ideas about women’s equal dignity: “Only in Judeo-Christian culture sprang up this humanization of women.”

Related Link: Faith of the Feminine ~ National Review Online
Vatican conference on women highlights the Judeo-Christian tradition’s liberating power.

Comments

  1. Phyllis Schlafly Was Right
    By Marie T. Sullivan

    Following the 1997 re-make of the movie Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, an amusing T-shirt began showing up about town. “THE SHIP SANK,” it read. “GET OVER IT.”

    One could say the same for the feminist movement.

    http://cdobs.com/archive/our-columns/phyllis-schlafly-was-right855/

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  2. Interesting post Lucyna.

    I think you are between a rock and a hard place, because most of the conservatives who you seem to relate to are keen to keep women in the kitchen.

    Take that dreadful Fairfacts at No Minister who said women who breastfeed should not be in the workplace.

    I mean this is what you have to deal.

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  3. "Radical feminists often reserve their fiercest hostility for Christianity. So it was particularly refreshing to hear erudite German philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz challenge the modern conventional wisdom that Christianity is to blame for women’s oppression. As Gerl-Falkovitz noted, the ancient belief systems for which today’s feminist neo-pagans pine did little to elevate women’s status."

    Not to mention a fair percentage of those Priestesses, servants and prostitutes of those Pagan Goddess cults those radical feminists pine for. Weren't really women but castrated men living as women so the jokes on them!

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  4. I guess Ruth you want to go back to the good old days.

    When women worked naked in the coal mines.

    Its you that are caught between a rock and a hard place.

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  5. What lines did you read between Andrei? I don't get the connection between Ruth's comment and yours.

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  6. Lucyna,
    Nice post. Jesus actually rescued women from the sexist punishment by stoning (about to be dished out to a woman rather than the men). He also associated with women that men weren't supposed to pass the time of day with.
    If you look at the Christianized cultures of the world, these are the ones who (at the peak of their Christianization) treated their women the best out of all the cultures of the world. Of course, as women degenerate into nothing more than sex toys, you'll see the rise of rape and all kinds of other side effects.

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  7. Aurora, JC, timely comments. Ask (warn) and you shall receive: Naked News

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  8. Ruth, I wouldn't class FFM as conservative. He's more right-wing liberal.

    Aurora, thanks!

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  9. Speaking as a man, I must say that I've come to the conclusion, after thirty-odd years of adult relationships with women, that even conventional and mainstream feminism seems to have done women a great dis-service.

    The sexual revolution of the 60's, instead of liberating women, has merely helped them become the sexual playthings of men. Contraception liberated men more than women.

    And the availability of abortion on demand? I'm only guessing but I suspect there is more permanent and severe grief caused by this than by, say, having a baby adopted into a loving family.

    Now we have naked news on the telly. Who exactly benefits from this? I can think of no women who might consider this a sign of liberation. Quite the opposite I would have thought.

    We need to restore respect and value to the role of women in our families and in society. The Catholic Church, as far as I can tell, is one of the few (perhaps the only) leading international institution which has consistently called for genuine respect for women in contemporary society.

    The Church is 'accused' of conservatism yet the modern and post-modern woman is a sad mess. She is a monumental tragedy.

    kiwitoffee

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  10. The way i see it the women today wanting to bust balls and be equal at everything are usually the ones who are stressed, angry and also lonely. If that's equality, then i'd say, keep it, but i'm not a woman, so maybe they don't mind or something.

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