Feminism: Destroyer of Worlds - Part 1

In June of this year, I began working on this article comparing feminism with that of Oppenheimer’s infamous weapon. Little did I know that after writing nearly half of this article, that in July a movie would release about Oppenheimer, and on that same weekend a different movie about Barbie would release that is reportedly a feminist bully pulpit. I haven’t seen either of them.

However, following those releases, numerous writers have made the parallel I was presciently trying to make. I haven’t been this miffed since I invented Squagels (square bagels) in my head and weeks later spotted a new test product of the same design. I’m looking at you, Lenders.

We Christians are opposed to modern day feminism, right?

Well, before you "Haymen" too loud and burst a spleen, there's a pretty good chance you are guilty of promoting modern feminism in the church. That's right. Feminism has become so pervasive, that many of us are contributing to it unwittingly, both male and female.

When J. Robert Oppenheimer witnessed his work in the first atomic bomb test, it is said that he quoted a portion of Hindu writings, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." (source) Atomic bombs have slain their thousands, and feminism is slaying its ten thousands (read: billions). And by slaying, I mean bringing about the decline of the west. Before we can see the nexus of these two destructive forces, we need some background.

Feminism today is not the same as early feminism. Most of us I'm sure would support some of the goals of early feminism. Feminism has been described in waves since the 1960s when it became apparent that not every generation of feminism was the same going all the way back to the Seneca Falls Convention when it was simply "women’s rights". Understand though that just because one wave of feminism is historically subsumed by another, does not mean that you can’t have all different types of feminists in the present. We do.

The first wave came on the heals of the 15th Amendment in which voting rights were granted to black American men, but women of any color could still not vote because they were women. In 1920 and then 1965, we would have the 19th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act respectively. Be advised that this is a hurried oversimplification of a complex history. These advancements were political in nature and feminism had not yet fully set its sights on the role of women in the home. It was still more focused on women in the voting booth.

It wasn’t until well into the 1960s that in the name of “women’s liberation” traditional biblical roles of women in the home came fully under attack. This was the second wave. What J. Robert Oppenheimer was to the world of nuclear warfare, Betty Friedan was to the role of women at home. With her book Feminine Mystique, the lofty and prestigious God-given roles of women became viewed as oppressive and menacing. This may have been the second biggest misdirection in America alongside the Southern Switch in which the democrat party tried to retell history to hide that they were the party of the KKK. The second wave of feminism was also completely intertwined with with the free love revolution of the late 1960s and 70s, and thus prepped the soil for wave number three.

The original, egalitarian goal of equal voting rights in the first wave is a far cry from the feminism of subsequent waves. And it only got worse. The 1980s and primarily the 1990s, the decades of my youth, gave rise to the third wave. A major change took place in this wave, one that I noticed even in my youth, and it had to do with how culture began to speak about men. Men became dumb, nearly brain dead pigs (source). I remember them being portrayed on television as utterly helpless apart from women and bereft of all strength and wisdom. And these portrayals have only gotten worse.

This time period was confusing. While third wave feminism broadly encouraged women to embrace their sexuality, at the same time, sexual harassment suits were quickly embraced as a political tool. It’s hard to see how embracing sexuality does not incite the harassment in a sinful world, but I digress. These political cudgels led to the "Year of the Woman" in 1992 (source). Abortions were still somewhat passé but lawmakers were beginning to make more provisions for them. Free love often results in more babies after all. But one aspect of feminism we can agree with, is that men should not be making sexual advances, touching, gesturing, or making innuendos. Men should be gentlemen. If that was all feminism purported then we could all get on board with that. However, later in this wave would come the work of a theorist named Kimberlé Crenshaw. And she would introduce a concept that would radicalize everything - intersectionality.

The radical fourth wave of feminism is basically where we are today. Based on one’s female sex alone it is to be assumed there is a level of societal oppression, even if there was no evidence for it. Things are now called sexist that are just normal assertive traits of men. Bad research is used to create the myth of the gender wage gap. Abortion is now considered a badge of feminist honor. The solution to any real or perceived oppression of women is now to oppress men, even if they have done no wrong. We now live in a day of diversity hires, reverse sexism, false accusations, and endless sermonizing against masculinity. The natural strengths of boys and men are called toxic. Not a very encouraging time to be a man. Add additional fuels to this dumpster fire like pornography, screen addiction, and the government dole, and you have a recipe for men to become more hopeless, demoralized, and without dignity than ever before (source). Men now account for the majority of suicides which are now at an all time high.

Now, here’s the rub. You may know all of this about feminism already. You may feel like I’m preaching to the choir. But what you may not know is that the destructive power of feminism is in the choir. It’s in the pews. And most disturbingly, it’s even in the pulpit in Baptist churches. Add to this the problems of porn and screen addiction among Baptist men, and the trouble becomes obvious.

In part two, I will show you a number of things Baptists say and do that prove that feminisms’ atomic bomb has gone off in the church. And many Baptists are caught with their hands on the detonator.

Part Two

Part Three