{"id":3415,"date":"2010-08-09T09:31:26","date_gmt":"2010-08-09T15:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/?p=3415"},"modified":"2011-05-03T16:23:34","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T16:23:34","slug":"guest-post-my-life-as-a-whitewashed-feminist-by-elizabeth-esther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2010\/08\/guest-post-my-life-as-a-whitewashed-feminist-by-elizabeth-esther.html","title":{"rendered":"My Life as a Whitewashed Feminist by Elizabeth Esther"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My son Jude is seven and enjoys photography and playing with his little sisters. He could care less about playing war games with the other boys in the neighborhood. Sometimes he\u2019d just rather come home and help me cook dinner. Or handcraft a card for a friend. I\u2019m glad Jude was born a month after we left fundamentalism. Had we stayed, he would have struggled to find his place in an environment that ascribed to rigid beliefs about gender-appropriate activities. Which is to say, in fundamentalism, boys don\u2019t cook. Or make pretty cards for their friends.<\/p>\n

In fundamentalist practice, boys are expected to provide and protect. Girls are expected to serve and submit. And even if your average fundie might occasionally offer a broader interpretation, this is how \u201cBiblical\u201d male and female \u201croles\u201d are defined. It\u2019s all so simple because, fundamentalists explain, this is how God made us. So, if a boy enjoys painting and a girl pines to be a doctor, well, that\u2019s seeking a life outside God\u2019s prescribed blueprint for life. What this means is, boys who deviate from the fundamentalist norm are called wimps and girls who deviate are called feminists. Which translated from the Greek means: homosexuals and Jezebels.<\/p>\n

I realize that some might suggest I\u2019m casting an unfair generalization across the whole of Christian fundamentalism. But sometimes generalizations are helpful insofar as they address what is generally practiced within a group. And the thing is, this isn\u2019t just some nebulous theory. This is precisely how fundamentalists operate. Sure, maybe they won\u2019t go so far as to say every woman working outside the home blasphemes God\u2019s Word, but they\u2019ll definitively assert that any married woman working outside the home is not following God\u2019s plan for Biblical manhood and Biblical womanhood.<\/p>\n

In other words, a woman is a \u201cwhitewashed feminist\u201d if she \u201copenly promotes an egalitarian position that is opposite to complementarian orthopraxy.<\/a>\u201d At least, so says Stacy McDonald, one of the co-authors of the popular book\u00a0Passionate Housewives Desperate for God.<\/em> In defending her use of the \u201cwhitewashed feminist\u201d label,\u00a0McDonald writes that she\u2019s never labeled any individual that way. True. She\u2019s only labeled an entire group of (working) women that way. I guess name-calling is acceptable so long as you say, \u201cYou\u2019re all losers\u201d and not \u201cYou\u2019re a loser.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the kind of circuitous logic that plagues fundamentalism. I call it crazy-making. What happens is this: fundamentalists set out The Biblical Way Of Life. But then when real life intervenes, well, they blame it on the world\u2019s values infiltrating the church. Or maybe they blame it on sin, humanism, paganism. Or Obama. What you come to find out in fundamentalism is that the Bible\/their rules are never wrong. Somehow they forget to tell you that when they say the Bible what they really mean is their interpretation of the Bible. But praise the Lord for the sufficiency of Scripture, amen?<\/p>\n

A funny thing happens when women like myself speak out against these abuses of so-called \u201cBiblical authority.\u201d We\u2019re called gossipers, slanderers, sowers of strife among brethren. I\u2019ve gotten emails from people telling me that I\u2019m hypocritical, small-minded and blasphemous. \u00a0And what happens if I speak against certain teachings of, say, Vision Forum? Am I going to get sued, too? If what they are preaching is The Truth, why are they so afraid of a few questions from a stay-at-home-mother-of-five like myself? I know why they see me as dangerous: because I grew up living their lifestyle. I\u2019m a fundamentalist insider. Or am I a traitor? I\u2019ve seen firsthand how their theology plays out in the lives of women and children. I have family members who bear physical scars as a result of their kind of theology.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have all the answers, but I do know that if speaking out means that my son can make pretty cards without being harassed and my daughters can become lawyers if that\u2019s where God leads them, then being called a \u201cwhitewashed feminist\u201d is a price I\u2019m willing to pay.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Follow Elizabeth on Twitter<\/a>. Or check out Elizabeth’s blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son Jude is seven and enjoys photography and playing with his little sisters. He could care less about playing war games with the other boys in the neighborhood. Sometimes he\u2019d just rather come home and help me cook dinner. Or handcraft a card for a friend. 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