Feminism and Christianity

I can already hear the challenges coming my way – “Here we go again. The VOW network is just a bunch of rigid, frigid, fundamentalist women. And, once again, they’ve found another fundamentalist woman to endorse their narrow, bigoted viewpoint.”

If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re wrong. Daphne Hampson is an ex-Anglican who has walked away from the Christian faith. Why? Because she is a woman of intellectual integrity who understands that Christianity and feminism cannot be homogenized, harmonized, or otherwise made to correspond.

Why aren’t feminism and Christianity compatible? Because they contradict each other. Anyone familiar with the rudiments of logic knows that both sides of a contradiction may be false, but they cannot both be true.

Here is a short list of contradictions.

Christianity Feminism

God has revealed himself and his will in the person of Jesus Christ, and in the pages of the Bible. Christianity is a myth created by a patriarchal society.

Sin is disobedience to God. We are guilty, and incapable of doing anything about it ourselves. Sin is not disobedience, but the bad things that happen to women in patriarchal societies. Women can solve the problem of sin by joining together to defeat patriarchy, and to create a fair and just community.

Reconciliation to God comes only through Jesus Christ – his life, death, resurrection, session in glory, and eventual return Women do not need a savior. A woman is her own savior. The thought of a sacrificial death is repugnant.

Jesus Christ is Lord – God in human flesh. He is our Supreme authority. A woman is her own supreme authority – she must not pay homage to anyone.

As disciples, we are called to “take up our cross,” and to follow our Lord in humble obedience – submitting our will to his will Submission to anyone greater than herself is out of the question.

Here are two contradictory and distinct belief systems. Both may be wrong, but both cannot be right. And since their tenets are fundamentally contrary to one another, they cannot be blended, either – at least not without destroying the integrity of both.

That is not to say that what some people think of as feminism – equal pay for equal work, women’s ordination, etc. – is incompatible with Christianity. It is not. After all, Christ made us one in himself. But, the full-blown feminist ideology that is passing these days for theology is incompatible with the Christian faith.

Dr. Hampson has done all of us a favor, therefore, by pointing out that in order to hold to the tenets of full-scale feminism, one must “discard Christianity.” And, vice versa.

If Dr. Hamson is correct – and I believe that she is – there is a question that begs for an answer: which one of these two understandings of the truth is the institutional Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) obligated to defend?

Even as I write, feminist ideology is being taught in our Presbyterian seminaries as a legitimate alternative to historic Christianity. At the same time, undesignated mission money is being invested in campus ministries that teach feminist philosophy as a viable substitute to the faith “once for all delivered to the saints.” And, all the while, programs and resources are being produced by the Women’s Ministry Program Area and Presbyterian Women that teach that Christianity and feminism are not only similar, they are essentially the same thing.

My conclusion is that to do nothing and to say nothing is to commit intellectual suicide. There are boundaries beyond which the siren song of “unity within diversity” becomes nonsense. In the attempted confluence of feminism with historical Christianity we have crossed one of those boundaries, and the choice before us is clear. Either we do the unpleasant thing, and demand that our church return to its theological heritage, or we choose amiably to sit by while it succumbs to a terrible disease – and that not with a bang but a whimper.

What do you think?

* Theology and Feminism ( Basil Blackwell, l990).