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GODSTUFF: Bachmann is a Christian feminist? Yes, and I’m Galadriel, Queen of the Elves.

GODSTUFF: Bachmann is a Christian feminist? Yes, and I’m Galadriel, Queen of the Elves.

Last updated on: March 10, 2015 at 10:03 am by Cathleen Falsani

GODSTUFF: Bachmann is a Christian feminist? Yes, and I’m Galadriel, Queen of the Elves. 2015-03-10T10:03:19-07:00 Cathleen Falsani

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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

Gov. Sarah Palin.

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.

TGFHQ

Rosemary Radford Ruether

Sarah Palin

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