Feminism is not a movement well-regarded by many evangelical Christians today. Most feminist writers today portray religion in general and Christianity in particular as inherently patriarchal and unfair to women. Often Christianity is cast in the role of serving in the past and the present as a tool for the subjugation of women. This is, in my view, a great and grave misinterpretation of Christian teaching and thought.
The early pioneers to advocate for equal rights for women were nearly all Christian women (or men), in recent centuries often influenced by Quakerism. They sought political equality for women to vote and hold public office, the right for women to own property, and for the end of “chattel marriage” – all on Christian grounds. In the late 19th and 20th century, most were also ardent prohibitionists who saw alcohol abuse as a great social evil that primarily served to undermine the responsibility of men toward their families. They did not advocate for some of the issues associated with feminism today. Susan B. Anthony for example, an early feminist Christian, even referred to abortion as “child murder” and as a “noxious weed.”
John G. Stackhouse, Jr., a Christian writer and professor of theology formerly at Regent College and now at Crandall University, defines himself as a feminist today. Of course, he has his own definition of “feminist” that he uses to clarify what he means by the label. His definition of a feminist is this: Someone who champions the dignity, rights, responsibilities, and glories of women as equal to in importance to those of men and who therefore refuses discrimination against women.
Of course, we are still strapped with the baggage of meaning attached to the word “feminism” by the wider society. Whether or not it is helpful for a Christian to refer to himself or herself as a feminist will have to remain a discussion for another day. However, giving Stackhouse a chance to explain his perspective is useful:
Yes, women and men are biologically different, and so some sex-specific zones are real and therefore not arbitrary. I expect that the folk wisdom is true that men and women differ also in other essential ways, although there is currently nothing approaching a cultural consensus as to what those ways are. Feminists, therefore, do not have to be blind to real differences and their implications. In fact, many feminists emphasize that women and men are indeed different and that a large part of the feminist concern is that those differences be acknowledged and incorporated into our life together. Feminists of the sort I represent are those who resist what they judge to be arbitrary, ungrounded distinctions between men and women and the discrimination that attends such distinctions.
Interestingly, given Stackhouse’s definition and perspective, many Christians might consider themselves feminists, even (with qualification) some complementarians! I expect many egalitarians agree with his perspective, if not Stackhouse’s terminology.
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