A Feminized Faith

Feminism is essentially a false religion warring against historical Christianity. By a feminized faith, however, I refer not merely to the organized goddess religion of allegedly Protestant churches: this expression of feminist religion is obvious. I refer mainly to the feminized religion practiced by sissy evangelicals, curling-iron conservatives, and the blandly (but not truly) Reformed, among many others. These suffer from syncretism; they attempt to reconcile Biblical Christianity with an alien faith. There are several indelible marks of this feminized faith.

Relational Rather Than Theological
First, feminized faith stresses the relational rather than the theological. The very essence of womanhood is relationalism. God's great design in creating a woman was to relate her to man (Gen. 2:18 f.). While this creation ordinance dictates subordination of woman to man in relationship, it in no way implies subordination in personhood (1 Cor. 11:3). In theological terms, woman is economically, but not ontologically, subordinate to man. She finds her life's joy and satisfaction in assisting man in his life's work — and principally her husband.

The Christian Faith is anchored in particular historical events which constitute particular revelation, including the inspired and infallible revelation of the Bible. God created man and all things out of nothing in the space of six days. God called out a particular family and nation as his covenant people. God incarnated his eternal Son, Jesus Christ, who willingly offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross of Calvary in time and history and rose again from the dead bodily three days later. The covenant people of God constitute an actual, discrete work of God in time and history. It is imperative to recognize that these elemental facts of Christianity are objective truth whose validity does not rest on human perceptions, intuition, or reason.

A feminized faith substitutes man's relationship with man not merely for man's relationship to God, but also for the very objectivity of the Faith. What becomes important in the church, therefore, is not its fidelity to the teachings of Scripture (which, to be sure, includes the proper relationship between our brethren), but the camaraderie among the members. In its most grievous case, doctrine is virtually set aside, and one's relationship to another — in particular, to an authoritarian minister — is made the criterion of genuine Christianity. One minister was scandalized that I criticized another minister who held clearly heretical beliefs. For the first minister who was scandalized, the important thing was "getting on" with our brothers, despite the fact that there was every indication the second minister in question was no brother. For a feminized faith, it is camaraderie and friendship, and not theological fidelity, that anchors the church.

Domestic Rather Than Dominant
Second, feminized faith stresses the domestic rather than the dominant. The woman's principal calling is her home — and any other calling must be subordinate to that calling (Tit. 2:5). But man's calling is primarily external to the home — active dominion (and, of course, woman assists the man in his dominion task by exerting dominion in the domestic realm). Because of this calling, man is inherently conquest-oriented while woman is inherently nurture-oriented. This is an aspect of the creation order that all of the finely spun theories of frenzied feminism cannot obliterate. It is imperative to recognize that the religion of feminism works not merely to transform woman to the image of man, but to transform man into the image of woman. Feminism is therefore a religious perversion. Its goal is not "equality" with men, but the transformation of Biblical manhood and womanhood. It strikes at the heart of God's creation order. It seeks therefore to masculinize women and feminize (or at least emasculate) men.

A feminized faith is therefore a domesticated faith. It is not interested in a world-conquering vision in the name of King Jesus, but in a severe navel contemplation within the four walls of the institutional church. If evangelical, it frames "seeker-sensitive" churches; glib and emotional "praise" music; and tepid, baby-sitting pastors. If it is Reformed, Lutheran, or Presbyterian, it obsesses itself with the procedures of the church, synods and general assemblies, and neglects the virile dominionist task of taking back from Satan the territory he has expropriated from Christ and his church. Feminized religion is always ecclesiocentric religion, perceiving the church as suffering for the nations, "and bearing in its body the marks" of a masochistic, introspective organism, operating under the guise of "deep devotion and spirituality."

The true church of Jesus Christ, by contrast, is more interested in advancing the kingdom of God in the earth, recognizing that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and that the task of man in the earth is to exercise godly dominion in the name of the King, first in the individual life, second in the family, third in the church, and fourth in the wider society, including the state. In contrast, a feminized faith stresses hot-flash counseling sessions, conferences on getting in touch with one's "inner child," and huge men's meetings at which the participants can laugh and cry and share gossip — a real stadium-glutting Tupperware party.

Subordination Rather Than Leadership
Third, feminized religion stresses passive subordination rather than active leadership. Man is called to lead; woman is called to follow man (Eph. 5:22 f.). Female ministers and women's leadership of men in the church is not merely a mistaken interpretation of the Bible; it is an affront to the explicit revelation of a sovereign God and attempt to replace Biblical religion with the new feminist goddess religion. A leading Reformed denomination announced a couple of years ago that it would permit churches and classes to decide whether to permit women in leadership roles. In some quarters, this was hailed as progressiveness. We quite agree — progression to apostasy, damnation, and hell.

While feminists aspire to the leadership limited Biblically to men, the leadership they envision is the leadership of the transformed woman — but since no man or woman can abandon the created order entirely, masculinized woman necessarily retains many characteristics of her divinely ingrained womanhood (just as the feminized man retains some characteristics of his divinely ingrained manhood); therefore, the woman who aspires to leadership manifests a sort of schizophrenia. And when this schizophrenia becomes pervasive in the church, we detect a church rudderless in its relation to the surrounding culture. The church, like the family and the state, depends on strong, unwavering male leadership. The feminized faith renders the church subordinate to society rather than a leader of society. Within the church, there is no firm decisive leadership since the pastor (of either sex) works for servitude, camaraderie, and consensus rather than bold, daring, advancing objectives. This generally reduces to the proposition of making the congregation happy at all costs.

The feminized faith in its broader implications stifles any impetus to cultural leadership. The Christians and church are no longer a city set on a hill, a beacon of righteousness in the community, but rather a little po' folk toddle-along nursery conforming to the cultural mores, and slapping on a Christian label for good measure. We thus suffer from "Christian" psychology, and "Christian" divorce recovery, "Christian" feminists, "Christian" support groups and other nonsensical drivel.

A genuine, that is, a masculine church intrepidly challenges the reigning cultural mores and works relentlessly to supplant them with Biblical Faith. In the modern culture, this means vibrant, vocal opposition to feminism, abortion, homosexuality, Hollywood, pornography, apostasy, modernism, neo-orthodoxy, neo-evangelicalism, socialism, libertarianism, wife- and child-beating, secularism, political correctness, affirmative action, and any of a host of other rival religions warring against the Biblical Faith. For feminist faith, the quiet little church on the quiet little corner with the quiet little sermonette every quiet little Sunday suffices; for the genuine church, nothing suffices until every last enemy at war with Christ is subordinated to him and his infallible law-word.

For this reason, the church must decimate root and branch the feminized faith that presently characterizes her.

And men — not women — must take the lead in this venture.