The Dude Abides
When a friend sent me a link to an article titled, “Michele
Bachmann, evangelical feminist?” I figured it would lead to a satirical piece from “The Onion.”
But the link took me to a serious article on a reputable news site.
Reading the headline again, I answered its question aloud: “Not even close.”
Bachmann, the GOP congresswoman from Minnesota and Tea Party darling
who wants to be our next president, does not remind me of any Christian
feminist I have ever known. Neither, for that matter, does former Alaska
In recent weeks, various commentators have suggested that both
Bachmann and Palin represent a new breed of evangelical — meaning
“Christian” — feminism.
Horse feathers.
Nearly 20 years ago, my first job out of college was as an assistant
editor for “Daughters of Sarah,” the groundbreaking (at the time)
Christian feminist journal that published from 1975 to 1994.
For several years before grad school, I was steeped in Christian
feminist community, tradition and history. As a seminary student, I
studied with vanguard Christian feminists such as Rosemary Radford
Ruether, Toinette M. Eugene and the late Rosemary Skinner Keller.
I know a Christian feminist when I see her.
And if Bachmann and Palin represent a new breed of Christian
feminism, then “The Hangover Part II” and “Bad Teacher” represent a new
golden age of American cinema.
Feminism is often misunderstood as women’s desire to be “the same”
as men. Rather, feminism asserts that women should not be limited,
marginalized, oppressed, discounted, or dismissed solely because of
their gender.
Christian feminists believe women should have rights, opportunities
and choices equal to men in all areas of life — including the life of
the church.
One of the central concerns of contemporary Christian feminism has
been the ordination of women. While great strides have been made in
Anglican and mainline Protestant traditions, women continue to be barred
from ordained ministry and leadership in more conservative evangelical
churches.
The term “Christian feminism” may be a modern convention, but its
ideals most certainly are not. Some theologians trace its origins to
Jesus himself, who espoused a radical egalitarianism where “there is
neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female,” as St. Paul
said in his letter to the Galatians. Jesus came to set us free from
oppression, both spiritual and temporal.
Christian feminism seeks to empower women, but that doesn’t mean
it’s a power grab, or that women themselves should become oppressors of
another group or people.
It’s in this last regard that I and many others find a profound
dissonance in applying the “Christian feminist” label to Palin and
Bachmann. While women should rightly seek leadership roles in society,
including the presidency, running for president as a woman in and of
itself does not a feminist make.
“Just calling yourself a Christian feminist doesn’t make you one,
and if other people are calling (Palin and Bachmann) that, they don’t
know what it means,” feminist theologian Rita Nakashima Brock told me
this week.
The noted evangelical author and speaker Phyllis Tickle, a
self-described Christian feminist, also resents that label being used to
describe Bachmann and Palin.
“I remember feeling more anguish and more distress 15 or 20 years
ago (about) the usurpation of the `Christian’ label for political
purposes by some male politicians and female, too,” Tickle said. “I
remember thinking, `No, damn it. You have no right to take my ecclesial
label, my theological label and apply it to the political realm.
“I feel a rancor, not in equal proportion and certainly from a
different perspective, about the use of `feminist.”‘
To my ear, invoking the term “Christian feminist” as some radical
new idea sounds anachronistic. For many people of my generation (I’m
40), gender equality, in theory if not in practice, is simply a given.
Even 20 years ago at Daughters of Sarah, contemporary Christian feminism
was at least a 20-year-old phenomenon.
Tickle agreed.
“I think that label had a noble position a quarter century ago,” she
said. “I don’t think it’s a clarion call to anyone right now and I don’t
think it will be again. It came to do what it needed to do and it did.”
Resurrecting the Christian feminist label and applying it to
arch-conservative politicians who, perhaps, only recently learned the
term themselves, is “hiding behind the skirt of something that has
popular cache and very little relevance,” Tickle said.
Several Christian feminist theologians and clergy believe it is
Palin and Bachmann’s ideology — not their theology — that disqualifies
them from bearing the feminist badge.
“As far as Christianity is concerned, feminism is a theology of
liberation,” said Michelle Scott-Huffman, pastor of Table of Grace
church in Jefferson City, Mo. “If, then, us getting ourselves into the
places where our voices are heard doesn’t lead to other … oppressed
and marginalized voices to also be heard, I don’t think we can claim
that title for ourselves.”
Bachmann and Palin have not yet embraced the “Christian feminist”
label as a cultural imprimatur. But if they do, without a sea change in
their worldviews, it would be as ridiculous as pinning a PETA button on
a fox stole.
UPDATE: So here’s the thing…
Lots of comments. Ninety-nine percent of them from men.
Ninety-five percent of those from Tea Party enthusiasts, bless their hearts.
Comments are now closed.
Not cuz we can’t take it, just cuz we frankly can’t be bothered to keep moderating comments that express the same point repeatedly and with increasing levels of spleen.
So our suggestion to you, dear readers, if you’d like to make a comment, is to take it over to where the column is posted at HuffingtonPost’s Religion section and comment there to your heart’s delight.
Someone might respond to you.
You might even make some new friends.
It could be fun. An adventure. Like a field trip without the sack lunch.
Alternately, you can try this venue, in case it may better suit your needs.
Have a grace-filled day.
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