The women…had neither adopted nor rejected feminism. Rather, it had seeped into their minds like intravenous saline into the arm of an unconscious patient. They were feminists without knowing it.[i] (Danielle Crittendon)
The word that encapsulates the identity of feminism and that estranges this movement form the gospel is independence. The implications are simple yet dangerous. While most relate feminism with the rejection of men’s authority, few are aware of its even more dangerous quest, that of separation of woman from God’s Word. Feminism proposes that “women find their happiness and meaning through the pursuit of personal authority, autonomy and freedom.”[ii] In other words, feminism claims that women are better off independent, successful rulers of their own world.
On a quest to find out why feminism seems to have lost its appeal to women under thirty at the end of the 20th century, writer Danielle Crittendon reaches some staggering conclusions. According to her research, the feminist movement “appears to be in decline only because it has been so thoroughly integrated in our cultural mind-set.”[iii] In other words, feminism as we know it, is so alive and well that it is basically the make-up of an entire culture. In the identity of an American, here lies that of a feminist as well. It has been so well ingrained that leading feminist Judy Rebick admits that “today’s young women are feminists whether they call themselves feminists or not.”[iv]
And this statement alone shakes me up. As a young Christian woman of the 21st century, I am told that, though unaware, I have been infected with feminism early on. The culture, the academia, the media, and all, fed it to me. This chameleonic parasite, though it is hard to detect, creeps in and lives off of our identities.
Feminism didn’t start, really, in the 1960s. It started in a garden, with the first woman, and the first act of independence. Eve’s first act of feminism wasn’t domineering her husband, (though certainly it is one of them), but rather her shunning away the Word of God. Her choice of doubting God feigned her self-autonomy and authority. When Eve was prompted to choose between eating and not eating, distinguishing between obeying God or Satan, she instituted herself as a god. As Russ Moore also comments, “the serpent walked the woman [Eve] along to where she could see herself as if she were the ultimate judge, free from the scrutiny of her Creator’s holiness.”[v]
Independence among Christian women today is just as dangerous. The same serpent who hissed Eve into self-autonomy is today the lionesque, wild, animalistic figure who is prowling and roaring us into the same temptations of self-idolatry (1 Peter 5:8). We might not be walking around an edenic garden, having a face-to-face conversation with the crawling “beast of the field.” But from our houses, we are walking into fields of deceitfulness, as our minds are being assaulted and prepared to be devoured. The enemy seduced Eve away from God with spoken words, he seduces us with silent, poisonous thoughts. If he showed Eve the fruit, much “appealing to the eye”, he is creating its image in our minds, just as appealing as if we were right there in the garden, alongside Eve (Gen. 3:6).
Separating Christian mothers from God’s Word is, no doubt, on the feminist agenda, fueled by the cunning serpent. In the midst of a franticly busy day, this separation creeps in as I observed myself putting off the reading and the meditating on God’s Word. The mindset in conquering the day hasn’t been “panting for God, thirsting for Him” (Ps. 42:1). Instead, I count my successes by how much I achieve in one day. I like to tell myself that as soon as I feed the kids, get the dishwasher started, clean a bit around the house, throw a load in the laundry machine, then I will sit and read and pray. Most times than not, I never get to sit and read and pray. The day slips away. And by now, I might even get frustrated, upset, sad, defeated, or miserable!
Starting the day without the Word of God may seem insignificant to most women. But, the power of the scriptured mind defeats the anti-gospel ideologies of the present age. For it is in women’s minds that unbiblical thoughts wage war. The everyday battle of the mind is spiritual warfare for women. “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). Women, our sincere and pure devotion to Christ is the devil’s first target. And if he can’t succeed through blunt ideologies, he will through cunning ones.
“Spiritual battles are won or lost in the day-to-day thoughts we harbor. Ideas matter[vi]." If by mid-day, I am already defeated and overwhelmed it is mostly because I chose early in the morning to do it on my own, advocating independence from the Word of God. The battles are won when I take captive every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10:4-5). It is only through Christ and His Word that the head of the serpent is crushed, and the roarings of the enemy are but squeals of defeat in the face of the bloody cross.
[i] Crittendon, Danielle, qtd. in Mary Kassian, The Feminist Mistake, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2005, p. 279.
[ii] Kassian, Mary. The Feminist Mistake, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2005, p. 7.
[iii] Ibid., p. 280.
[iv] Ibid., p. 280.
[v] Moore, Russell. Tempted and Tried, Wheaton: Crossway, 2011, p. 29.
[vi] Köstenberger, qtd. in McCulley, Carolyn. Radical Womanhood. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008, p. 59.
