The Rise Of Radical Feminism In Mainline Churches A History 3

Early Cultural Feminist ConceptsEarly cultural feminist' religious ideas can be seen in the work of such women as Matilda Joslyn Gage. In 1893 she wrote, "Woman Church & State: A Historical Account of the Status of Women Through the Christian Ages: With Reminiscences of the Matriarchate".4 Gage's book not only attempted to show how badly men had treated women but how badly Christianity had treated women. Gage offered her readers a religious alternative based on the nature of women. Gage believed in a natural goodness in women and that woman's goodness would be the salvation of humanity. While rejecting the authority of the Church, she wrote:It is through a recognition of the divine element of motherhood as not alone inhering in the great primal source of life but as extending throughout all creation, that it will become possible for the world, so buried in darkness, folly and superstition, to practice justice toward woman."5 Another cultural feminist, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in 1923, wrote "His Religion and Hers: A Study of the Faith of Our Fathers and the Work of Our Mothers."6 Gilman was a social darwinist with a twist. She lived during a time when many in the United States were enthralled with the idea of eugenics, that is, the idea that only those people who were fit should be allowed to have children. Many people are unaware that there was a time in the United States when thousands of people were sterilized because they had various disabilities or records of criminals in their families. Gilman, like her contemporary, Margaret Sanger, did not agree with abortion but advocated sterilization. Gilman believed women possessed the correct characteristics for shaping humanity and that it was the responsibility of women to choose their mates for the sake of the proper development of humanity. Her theology was founded on her understanding of social darwinism. The virtues of her religion included "social development," which meant that adherents must see woman as "the race type and her natural impulses" as "more in accordance with the laws of growth than those of the male."7 Elizabeth Cady Stanton tends to fit in both the cultural feminist and Enlightenment categories. She grew to hate Christianity and flirted with some very bizarre ideas including free love and racism.Some common themes among early cultural feminists were the goodness of human nature as seen in women's nature, the oppression of women by most world religions especially Christianity, an ancient golden age when a matriarchal society existed and a time in the middle ages when male Christian leaders had burned millions of witches mainly because they were women who possessed some form of power. Matilda Joslyn Gage, who detested the Christian Church, is the person who was to give to contemporary radical feminism the understanding that nine million witches had been burned during the Middle Ages. She stated that number in her book "Woman Church ">4 Matilda Joslyn Gage, "Woman Church & State: A Historical Account of the Status of Women Through the Christian Ages: With Reminiscences of the Matriarchate", (New York: The Truth Seeker, 1893). In a reprint with a forward by Mary Daly the book name has been changed to, "Woman, Church 5 Gage, "Woman, Church, State", 48.6 Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "A Study of the Faith of Our Fathers and the Work of Our Mothers". (New York: The Century Co. 1923).7 Gilman," Faith of Our Fathers and the Work of Our Mothers", 275. In Viola Larson, "An Exploration: Feminist Ethics and the Principles of Orthodox Christianity", thesis, 1994, California State University, Sacramento, 18.8 Ronald Hutton, "The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft", (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1999)141. Hutton is referring to Gage, Woman, Church, State, 106-07.9 See Mary Daly, "Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation", (Boston: Beacon Press 1973) 63; and Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, reprint (Boston: Beacon Press 1990), 183.10 Hutton, Moon, 379.11 Moshe Sluhovsky "Witchcraft," in "Dictionary of Feminist Theologies", Letty M. Russell & J. Shannon Clarkson (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press 1996), 315, 16. It could be pointed out that Sluhovsky's last reason for women accusing women, "women's prominent roll as healers," is also an idea which was found in Matilda Joslyn Gage's book "Woman Church ">12 Elizabeth A. Johnson, "She Who is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse", New York: Crossroad 1993), 43.