Zatera Ul

I’ve come across some reviews of a book called The Feminist Mistake, by Mary Kassian. Looks like it might be worth reading. According to the reviews, part of the book explains how feminists end up redefining God. I ran across some of that recently when I was reading Gloria Steinem’s Revolution from Within; she threw out all the “patriarchal” religions (because that whole concept of sin is just a tool of the patriarchy to demonize and oppress women, dontcha know), and pushed a “universal spirituality” where everyone can “see God in themselves.” She quoted the Jesus of the Gnostic gospels, only a teacher, rather than the Jesus of the New Testament, the Son of God. Because, heaven forbid that God should be a man, or even the least bit masculine! Heresy against feminist doctrine! (It’s ironic that she denies sin, while holding so much anger about the sins that men have committed against women. Looking at it as a Christian, women will never be truly liberated until we learn to forgive; the only way we can forgive is to receive forgiveness from God, this is why women need the Son of God–only Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient to pay for all our sin.)

Another place I saw this was in a feminist Bible commentary in my college library, years ago. It was pretty clear that the writers were more committed to feminism than to Christianity. In particular, I remember a passage where God condemns Israel for unfaithfulness to him, and compares the nation to an adulteress. The feminist commentary was all about how unjustly women caught in adultery were treated in Israel. There was nothing about the God-Israel relationship. My take on it was that God was using the penalty for adultery, just or not, as an example to show the male leaders (the patriarchy!) how serious an offense it was to stray from God. If you want to be feminist about it, you could say that their unjust treatment of adulterous women was reflected back onto them when God found them unfaithful. I think the feminists just can’t stand it that God’s agenda doesn’t have women’s rights as the Very First Thing. Too bad, the reality is that God gets to be the God.

As for me, to paraphrase Psalm 84, I would rather be scrubbing God’s floors in heaven than be the queen of any place on earth. Because it’s better. Those feminists really don’t know what they’re missing.