Loving the Feminine "jesus"

You've heard it, the yucky, "getting in touch with my feminine side" from the guy to whom no good woman would ever give the time of day. Last night I ran across a quote that is even more yuck-making:

Not only do I love the feminine in Jesus, but the more I know Jesus, the more I realize that Jesus loves the feminine in me . . . Society has brought me up to suppress the so-called feminine dimension of my humanness. But when Jesus makes me whole, both sides of who I am meant to be will be finally realized. Then and only then will I be fully able to love Jesus.

-- Tony Campolo, Carpe Diem, p. 87-88.


Oh. This sounds remarkably like some of the drivel that has come out of supposedly Evangelical feminists like Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Rosemary Radford Reuther. Funny, but no woman ever talks about getting in touch with her, "masculine side", does she? I've never heard it. They don't need to -- they've already done it.

It's no wonder, then, that "Christians" for Biblical Equality is accused of promoting Sophia worship, is it? With friends like Campolo, who needs enemies when you're trying to pretend to hold onto mere tatters of Christianity? Not that CBE is worried, with the Christianity Today empire carrying their water. If CT endorses your position, you're an Evangelical Christian without any worries about serious questions regarding your orthodoxy. Not only does CBE's president give workshops promoting the need to call God, "mother", but a past annual conference of CBE's hosted a workshop pretending to tell us what we can learn about "gender" from the intersexed. And here is Dr. Campolo teaching us all about our softer, gentler saviour, aka "Jesusette".

This is nothing new. The feminist project (whether it cloaks itself in Christianity or Marxism) has been all about re-making sex from the beginning. You can see it was there in the beginning if you check Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Bible" version. "Votes for Women, " may have been their slogan, but it was never going to end there. By the 1960's the mother of second wave feminism, Betty Friedan, was creating out of whole cloth a "problem with no name". In the 1970's, Erin Pizzey found out that no one was interested in wife on husband violence, they only admitted the existence of husband on wife violence and seeded our communities with consciousness-raising groups that set about creating false memories by the truck load. Third and fourth wave feminists took control of their sexual identities and not only put themselves on display like so many $20-an-hour hookers, but they trumpeted their competition with men for notches on bedposts (or lipstick cases, as may be).

Mary Daly told us that, "when god is male, the male is god" and the Evangelical church bought it hook, line and sinker. They didn't admit it. Not at first. Back in 1997, Zondervan executive Stan Gundry stood in front of a packed auditorium of CBE conventioneers promising that "gender-inclusive" language would never be applied to God while CBE's founding mother, Cathie Kroeger, looked on and nodded, echoing Gundry's promises. Never mind the future, we've got to be about the business making sure these, "I am Woman, hear me roar!" gals aren't offended by one too many "brothers" in the Bible.

So "Votes for women" became demands for equality of outcomes. A movement which said it was about promoting women, ends up denigrating everything women do best. It tells us women aren't valued unless they can "man-up" and take the pulpit by force, if need be. Women aren't worth a pot of black bean soup if they aren't allowed to order a man or two about, teach a bible study, pastor a church. Remember, it is not the patriarchalists devaluing women, it's the feminists. Some denominations and parachurch organizations are truly putting their leadership where their mouth is and writing into their constitutions an equality of outcome -- 50-50 parity on Elder boards and governing boards.

It's gone on too long not to recognize that something that looks and acts very much like a slippery slope is in operation here. It's not even about giftedness. Never was. Turns out, even the religious forms of feminism are steeped in Marxist-style liberation-speak. And here we return to Dr. Campolo and conclude with his endorsement of "Christians" for Biblical Equality:

Christians for Biblical Equality is evangelical and progressive. It is a scripturally based movement that understands that in Christ women have full rights for using their God-given gifts for service to the church and to the world. I'm grateful that this organization exists. Its work is needed.

One almost expects Campolo to end that endorsement with, "Workers of the World Unite!"

You laugh for the day. . .

Pork Rind Law Reform NOW!

Someone should have told me this stuff stains!

Genius at work in the kitchen again.

It started out as a simple head of cabbage, which I wanted to saute. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that bag of onions I bought last week. And the garlic I needed to use. And I am sure you can guess the rest of the story.

Curried Cabbage, Tomatoes and Chickpeas.

It's brilliant. Served with a dollop of Greek Yogurt because I used the Vindaloo curry powder, and it's one of the best things I've made in ages.

Saute two onions and several cloves of garlic until the onions begin to clear. Then add in the Curry powder of your choice (I added some powdered Ginger and Turmeric to the Vindaloo powder). Stir that thoroughly in to the onions and garlic. Then add a roughly chopped head of cabbage and about 8 roughly chopped Roma tomatoes. Simmer covered until the Tomatoes begin to breakdown. Then add 1 box Pomi strained tomatoes and one can of Chickpeas (rinsed) and heat through. Add more curry if needed. Serve with a garnish of Greek Yogurt.

A couple of notes: I use only fresh or boxed tomatoes because of the BPA problem with the lining of canned vege. The cabbage should be still a bit crunchy for best flavor, I think. And, if the cabbage is large, you may want to use two cans of Chickpeas.

And the staining? The Turmeric, of course!

On a related note . . .

Related to the post below this one, I found my friend Michael Liccione's FB status line intriguing:

"Missionary to the priests of one's own church is an embarrassing role; though I have a horrid feeling that if such mission work is not soon undertaken the future history of the Church of England is likely to be short."

-- from the prophetic pen of C.S. Lewis more than 50 years ago.

Of Leaven and Bedlam

In, The Groove Of Ashteroth, the inimitable Doug Wilson uses a new analogy to explain an old and tremendously frustrating problem:

Some create the leaven on purpose, others transmit it unknowingly, others yet are insufficiently on guard against it, some see a problem and raise a hue and cry against it in such a manner as to make themselves and all their friends ridiculous, and a mere handful see the problem, and fight it in all wisdom. . . .

It gets more difficult. As the leaven advances, this does create the hard evidence that has thus far been missing. But at the same time it simultaneously renders everyone incapable of seeing that evidence. . . .

Late in the process you are a voice crying in the asylum, where they locked you up for speaking the truth in irritating ways.

A Crime Against the Faith

The Telegraph's website is reporting that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), under new rules, considers attempts to ordain women a crime against the sacraments. As such, it is placed at the most serious level alongside pedophilia (though the latter is a crime against morals).

Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales is fretting over the Vatican's position on birth control and may not show up for so much as a handshake and official photo-op with the pontiff during BXVI's upcoming visit to the sceptered isle. Seems HRH thinks the world has too many brown babies as it is.

ht: Jim Kushiner

Chesterton (again)

I suspect that, as I embark on a Chesterton reading program this summer, I will be quoting Chesterton more and more often. This time, it will be a short post.

"When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws."

This truism seems to hold, well, true for the blogs of religious feminists. Folks who break the big laws regarding the order of the sexes seem to require an awful lot of little laws to protect their discussions, dialogues and general ravings in the blogosphere. One particular religious feminist has posted no less than four times since the beginning of the month with various rules and regulations and bannings. Another discussion board has at least six levels of hierarchy among their participants and leaders (and THESE are the "Egalitarians"?!?). Yet others are password protected and only approved people can sign up to post. And even more sites are so deeply hidden, they only seem to be available to the initiate (these don't turn up in public searches but the discussions on the public sites of these groups make it clear such places exist).

In contrast, I know of very few patriarchal sites which are not public and freely available to read and to post. Occasionally a feminist may be banned, but this is for behaviour on that site and not simply because they are a feminist.

Every once in a while such things make me wonder.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians?

One of the less convincing arguments of the religious feminists is that Jesus Christ could only have come as male because no one would listen to a woman in that culture.

Oh, really?

Artemis was one of the most widely worshipped goddesses in the ancient world, appearing under many names including Diana and Phoebe. Her temple at Ephesus, where she was called the Lady of Ephesus, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. There she was worshipped as a mother goddess, though she was widely known as the goddess of the hunt as well. In Sparta, sacrifices were made to her before a military campaign.

Every time I hear this complaint, I can't help hearing the words that chased Paul out of Ephesus echoing in my head:

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

As Tim Challies notes about this episode in biblical history:

". . . Acts 19 where Paul preached the Gospel at Ephesus. Fearing the success of the gospel would destroy the business of men who crafted images of Artemis, a man named Demetrius rallied the crowds and began a riot. For two hours they yelled "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" Stop and imagine that for a moment. For two hours they filled the city with senseless, stupid cries . . ."

It seems to me that if a city could be roused in defense of a goddess, some in the ancient world just might, perhaps, have listened to a goddess, a god appearing in female form.

But let's grant that they are right, that Jesussette wouldn't have been given the time of day. Such a true claim still wouldn't help their case. As Fr. Dwight Longenecker reminded us not so long ago, He came in the fullness of time. For, if Jesus Christ indeed came in the fullness of time and that time required his incarnation as a male . . .

Artemis may have been great, but only one column of her wondrous temple remains.

Enemy occupied territory

We forget sometimes (I forget too frequently to admit) that we are in enemy-occupied territory here.

Some places are more densely occupied than others. Don't go blundering into those places that you already know are protected with the enemy's heavy artillery just because you think you know what's going on. That's when things get dangerous. Really dangerous.

And it gets even worse when the one you encounter denies he is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Stand your ground, raise your shield and deflect his arrows.

Girls are just as good as boys, Phbbllttt!

That's about the level of argument on display by Doug and Rebecca Groothuis on Doug's blog in the post, "Ought Women Preach?".

The post is unbearably tendentious, and so was the comment thread until Mrs. Groothuis posted this in response to a commenter:

The outburst speaks volumes. You must truly believe that only a man should preach because only a man could have the fire and the unction and the power of the Holy Spirit to preach in a way that astonishes, convicts, delivers and saves. Sir, you are sadly mistaken. Women are human too-- fully human.

Of all the childish, foot-stomping, temper-tantrumish non sequiturs I have run across in all my born days, THIS one reminds me most of myself back when I was Doug's student and Rebecca was my mentor. Goodness, do I have a lot to apologize for. As for this current bit of childishness, I can only say it is the fruit I have come to expect from religious feminism.

Now, for a good and pointed response to Mrs. Groothuis' argument, I commend to you the new post by Steven Hutchens at MereComments:

Report from the Front: "Mere Functionalism"

note: I have removed the link to the post because Doug has removed the post from his blog.