SMM: Daughters, Fathers, and Their Enemies: Who would turn you against your father

Last updated on: February 4, 2014 at 1:03 am by Libby Anne

SMM: Daughters, Fathers, and Their Enemies: Who would turn you against your father 2014-02-04T01:03:34-04:00 Libby Anne

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A Guest Post by Kate

Originally posted on Time to Live, Friend

And it just gets weirder and weirder.

Do you really have enemies? You do according to the Botkins. “Your father is being insulted, mocked, and guilt-manipulated by the media simply for being a man and a father” (63).

And how is your father being attacked? Who are these enemies? “*There is one enemy in particular who will come up several times in this book….his name is Karl Marx. ….He was a Satanist…” (*64).

I tried looking up their sources for these claims, but they don’t really have any. On the next page, however, they say, “Many of these worldview issues were explained to us by our father, who was a Marxist before he became a Christian, and he understands the Marxist mindset very thoroughly” (65).

In other words, they’ve probably never read Marx themselves, but that’s okay because their daddy told them all about Marx. Now look, I’ve never actually read Marx either, so even though I seriously doubt that the Botkins are giving a balanced and accurate view of him, I haven’t spent the time to read up on Marx in order to analyze their interpretation of Marxism. However, even though I haven’t read anything by Marx or much about him, at least I can admit that and not pretend that I’m presenting “facts” when all I have is a second-hand source to go off (My daddy told me this is what Marx believed so it must be true!).

The discussion of Marxism leads into the evils of feminism. The Botkins claim to be well-educated and well-read. And at least they say they see the importance of “examining all sides of the issue” even though they don’t seem to be doing a very good job at that. Trying to find the sources for their claims, I was surprised to find that they have several quotes from Margaret Sanger and other feminists in Appendix B “the Nature of Militant Feminism.”

Could the Botkins have actually read the original articles these quotes come from? Did they actually do their research?

I was willing to give the Botkins the benefit of the doubt on this—thinking maybe they really had read and examined the other side.

However, I then saw this footnote at the end of the collection of quotes: “The above quotes collected and posted by Bill Wood, www.fathersforlife.org, used by permission.” Wait, what? [Don’t go to the website if you’re sick enough of things the Botkins are saying].

The Botkins never even saw these quotes in their original context if they just took them from this website. Rather than reading these quotes in context, they took all of their information from a second hand source. That, my friend, is not what an educated person does. That is what a person does when they are afraid too much exposure to the other side will cause them start abandoning their own beliefs. Furthermore, it’s just plain sloppy.

I mean, how can you accurately present the feminist movement if you’ve never actually read anything by the feminists? How can you accurately say you understand what feminism is all about when you’re only source of knowledge is things your dad has told you?

The quotes the Botkins use in Appendix B include phrases about destroying marriage, family, and belief in God. I can understand why the Botkins and other fundamentalists see this and say “See! Feminism is evil!” The truth is, however, most feminists today would disagree with these quotes as well. I think they would say that “destroying marriage and family” is not the purpose of feminism and never has been. These things were said in the 1970s when feminism was needed so badly in society, some people started to become very extreme about it. And there are outliers in any movement. It’s like saying the entire Civil Rights movement was bad because a small minority of supporters promoted violence.

In addition to this, the Botkins keep referencing the “official declaration of feminism,” but the only place they get this information from is off of Bill Wood’s website www.fathersforlife.org. There is nothing written by feminists about this “declaration” although there is a lot written by *anti-*feminists about it. The Botkins make a huge stink about this “declaration” in this chapter, but it’s clear that the only people who give a crap what it says are themselves! If it was actually important (and might I add, if it was actually an “official” document), there would be a lot more information and discussion about it by feminists.

The Botkins have a very narrow and shallow understanding of feminism. I think I’ve established that the Botkins have probably never read “the other side,” so with that in mind, I’ll continue with their discussion of Marxism and feminism next week.

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