{"id":6189,"date":"2018-09-19T21:25:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T01:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=6189"},"modified":"2018-10-08T21:35:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T01:35:18","slug":"6189","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2018\/09\/6189\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Dennis Prager, That’s Not Empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

My daughter, Rosie, used to love tearing up the National Review.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember who got us a subscription to the National Review<\/em>.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I ever got around to reading a single article before Rosie, who was a baby just taking her first steps, would find the magazine and have a good old time tearing it to shreds. I used to wonder what offended her so much about the publication. I couldn\u2019t guess, since I didn\u2019t get a chance to read it.<\/p>\n

Today, I completely understand.<\/p>\n

Today I read an extremely offensive article<\/a>\u00a0in the National Review<\/em> by one Dennis Prager. And I wish my printer was working, because this deserves to be printed off and given to a nine-month-old baby for shredding. The article is entitled \u201cThe Charges Against Brett Kavanaugh Should Be Ignored.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0 poorly written in the first place; its thesis is terrible and badly argued. His conception of morality as a kind of bank account where bad deeds are debts that can be canceled out by good deeds is as problematic as hell, and I do mean hell in the literal sense. But I\u2019d like to turn my attention to one particular anecdote which ought to have everyone tossing their copies of National Review<\/em> to a baby for disposal.<\/p>\n

Prager is attempting to suggest that women undergoing sexual battery from powerful men should not be traumatized, and that teaching women to speak out and seek recourse against their sexual abusers is \u201cthe weakening of the female.\u201d\u00a0 He gives the following anecdote: \u201cWhen my wife was a waitress in her mid teens, the manager of her restaurant grabbed her breasts and squeezed them on numerous occasions. She told him to buzz off, figured out how to avoid being in places where they were alone, and continued going about her job. That\u2019s empowerment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n