Those wild and crazy fundamentalist Baptists are at it again. The preacher at the First Baptist Church, one Reverend Timothy LaBoeuf, of Watertown, N.Y., told Mary Lambert that she could no longer serve as a Sunday School teacher at the church.
The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.
The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
http://www.cnn.com/...
No, you didn't read that wrong. This didn't happen in Alabama or Mississippi. It happened in the state of New York--Hillary Clinton's home state. Surprising? Not to me. I went to grad school in Syracuse, and the upstate areas--any area outside the metropolitan area-is very conservative and rather redneck. Christian Fundamentalist lunatics know no ethnic nor geographic boundary--they are everywhere, and most of them are the Enemy women have to fight if they want equality.
Mary Lambert had taught there for 54 years, but the church has recently gone bat-shit crazy and adopted an extremely fundamentalist stance.
There's a further wrinkle. It seems the Reverend with the views that match St. Paul's is also a member of the city council, and his letter didn't please everyone. One of those not amused was Mayor Jeffrey Graham.
If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now
Kinda sums it up for me, actually.
Of course, the Revered attempted to talk his way out of the situation by saying women can do any job and fulfill any responsibility she wants to--outside of church. Way to go Rev. You're a real feminist.
And some Kossacks wonder why DKos feminists look upon American Christian fundamentalism with a great deal of concern and accuse its leaders of misogyny.
We aren't the only ones:
Women have become the centerpiece for the
right wing, which uses race and gender to
oppose civil rights, affirmative action,
reproductive and equal rights, and thus reduce
the "place" of women and minorities in American
culture. Anti-abortion politics mask an agenda of
religious oppression by defending the rights of
the fetus. Fundamentalist organizations oppose
the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, and most
vociferously, the 1972 Title IX which prohibits sex
discrimination in any education program or
activity receiving federal financial assistance.
.
That didn't come from a jaundiced, Christian-bashing radical feminist. It came from the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church's Committee on the Status of Women. The document is called Fundamentalism Challenged ECUSA ( it's on the net, but for some reason I can't copy the web addy). I don't think they hate Christians, somehow.
They also wrote:
Yet Christian fundamentalist
groups exhort women to forego
leadership roles and submit to
men as leaders in family, church
and society. They aim to limit
women's freedom, power,
authority and voice while
imposing their own cultural and
religious values. They press for a
renewal of biblical "orthodoxy" (as
they define it), and a more central
role for faith in society. They
capitalize on people's ignorance
of the Bible and the life of Jesus
to achieve their aims.
Conflicts over women's leadership,
homosexuality, the status of the Bible, interfaith
relations, and theological diversity severely
destabilized all the mainline churches in the
1990's" and continue "to slowly and subtly reshape
mainline positions on abortion and sexual
abstinence," claims Lewis C. Daly, Senior Program
Associate of the Institute for Democracy
Studies(IDS).
The Christian Women's Declaration, promulgated
by The Ecumenical Coalition on Women and
Society, seeks to "reverse detrimental cultural
trends"--- many instituted by Episcopal women,
beginning with Elizabeth Cady Stanton 150 years
ago. To deny women's rights for the sake
cultural preservation is a denial not only
women's humanity but also of the strength
American culture. Yet that is precisely
aim of an alliance of conservative groups,
headquartered in Washington, D.C.
thewitness.org/generalconvention03/fundamentalism.pdf
This is what we DKos feminists mean when we say that fundamentalists of a certain kind hate women, especially sexually active, independent, questioning women who don't submit to men and who aren't afraid to open their mouths. This is what we mean when we say that the anti-abortion movement has a strong element of misogyny to it, as does the pharmacist refusal to fill prescriptions for Plan B. They are merely the symptoms, not the disease itself.
The disease is a virulently anti-woman form of fundamentalist Christianity. I've heard horror tales of battered wives being told to stay with their abusers and be a symbol of Christ's suffering for them--they MAY be permitted to get a separation if the husband sexually abuses the children (physical abuse is okay because it's just a form of tough love and parents shouldn't spare the rod).
Here's what some fundamentalist leaders have to say about feminism and the role of women:
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.
-- Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992
N.O.W. is saying that in order to be a woman, you've got to be a lesbian.
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program,
December 3, 1997,
-- Pat Robertson, more convoluted logic placed into the mouths of Rev. Pat's adversaries, on The 700 Club television program, May 28, 1993
God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family... "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them."
-- Pat Robertson, reciting a passage from I Timothy in his book, Bring It On, quoted from Nicholas D. Kristof, "Peter, Paul, Mary ... and God" (The New York Times: February 28, 2004)
http://www.positiveatheism.org/...
I listen to feminists and all these radical gals... These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men; that's their problem."
Jerry Falwell
http://www.campusprogress.org/...
I hope people will see the feminist movement for what it is -- hurtful to women. Feminism's two focal points are its love affair with abortion and lesbianism. Many of the spokeswomen have never been married, never tried to balance family and a career. Many are lesbians. That doesn't represent the majority of American women, so how could they address what women today need?
Feminism discounts every bit of value the Lord has placed on living in relation to Him. It's a movement that negates the pattern of marriage and the importance of children and men. It says that women can determine their own futures; they're stronger, they're smarter, they're better than men. They should be able to kill their children; two women should be able to have a family, without male involvement. Everything that is ignoble is sanctioned
Diane Passno, an executive vice president at Focus on the Family
http://www.family.org/...
The radical feminists' agenda has revolutionary, not reformist, goals. This agenda demeans the role of women past and present and seeks to restructure society. Rather than liberating women by providing them equal opportunity to develop to the fullest their God-given talents, abilities and potential, this agenda, in fact, leads to women being demeaned, their lives destroyed and their spirits enslaved. Specifically, we reject the following aspects of radical feminism...
We are especially concerned about the effects on women of contemporary cultural trends. We decry the erroneous thinking about human nature, sin and utopian expectations of society that have produced a pervasive sense of emptiness. The notion of women's autonomy - including absolute control over our own bodies - leaves us with an unrealistic sense of human power and an exaggerated sense of independence from the consequences of our attitudes and actions. The denial of the transcendent God who orders the universe and directs our lives leaves us with societal chaos and the absence of any objective standard of meaning. Most especially, it is the authority of the one true God, in whose image male and female are made, that insures the dignity and equality of women and men.
We will counter the influence of extremists within the feminist movement. We will make clear the agendas and programs that harm efforts to enhance the equality, dignity and freedom for women. And, we will expose and counter extreme, radical initiatives that demean rather than liberate women, that destroy women's lives and enslave their spirits. Ecumenical Coalition on Women and Society posted on Concerned Women For America
http://www.cwfa.org/...
The most striking quality of the women of the left, though, is their intensity and their anger.
Leftist Women 3/3/2006
Janice Shaw Crouse, BeverleyLeHaye Institute, for Concerned Women for America
http://www.cwfa.org/...
When we read this horse hockey, we get angry. And when we get angry, someone inevitably tells us that we are bashing Christians or that we are radical feminists who hate men (shades of the Falwell quote). Apparently women aren't allowed to be angry when they are insulted, denigrated and told to sit down and shut up. We are supposed to accept it gracefully and politely and never, ever feel rage, or at least not express it verbally.
Kossacks, we have earned a right to be angry. Some of us, like me, have been in this fight since the 60s. We see small gains in earning power, educational and employment opportunities, prevention of domestic violence--and then we see a well-organized, fanatical group doing their damnedest to drag us back past where we started, into the 12th century. This is why many of us consider fundamentalist Christianity a greater threat to American women than Radical Islam or Islamic terrorists (or any other flavor of terrorist for that matter). They are HERE, and they have clout, and they ARE terrorists. Timothy Mc Veigh, Eric Rudolph, the ones who bombed abortion clinic and shot abortion doctors--all white, American men with a belief in fundamentalist Christianity. This form of Christianity has some good and decent members but the attitudes toward women it fosters are as toxic as those of Radical Islam, and just as dangerous.
So understand our anger is justified, and don't, like Rev. LeBoeuf, seek to assuage us with half-hearted support and mollify us with conciliatory words. Allow us to be angry, and join the fight.
P.S. After this, I am going back to my novel--but this story pissed me off royally, and I had to comment on it.