Book Club: Chapter 6 - Mommy Wars
April 14th, 2009 Kristen
This is a continuing book club on the book written by Carolyn McCulley entitled, “Radical Womanhood”. You are invited to read along with the book, the comments and post your own comments.
Mommy Wars - This chapter deals with how our society degrades motherhood. She said in the new economy (during the Industrial Revolution), work solely mattered if you could put a price on it. Around 1900, the census began to officially classify wives/mothers and daughters without paying jobs as “dependents”. Women were previously noted as families engaged in a particular enterprise. Interesting, huh? If you aren’t bringing home the bacon, then you have no real worth. Now, what is truly interesting to me about this, is this is not the CHURCH saying women do not have worth…but our “liberated culture”. To me, if I was FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS, I would be FOR anything women want to do with their lives. They are free to make their own choices. But, no, they aren’t for what YOU want…they are for what THEY want for your life. Got it? :) Really, what the feminist agenda is going after is an anti-God society.
We believe all children are a gift from God. Feminists want to destroy these gifts in a variety of ways that are discussed within this chapter.
BIRTH CONTROL - limiting the number of children / also, allowing sex among those who are not ready to have/bear children (condoms passed out in schools)
ABORTION - I hate to even go into this discussion, because how can you do it justice in a couple paragraphs? Having two precious children of my own, I cannot imagine the thoughts of mutilating a precious child, a gift from God, while still in the womb. Abortion is directly targeted at female fetus’ in countries such as China and India. According to a 2007 report by a British medical journal there are 100 million missing girls worldwide (due to abortion of female fetus’). It is now termed a “genocide”, with China losing 1 million girls a year due to abortion. Are we past being shocked about abortion rates and statistics? I hope not.
I would also like to point out, in the Roe vs. Wade decision (1973), Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, “We need not resolve the difficult decision on when life begins…” When the ultra-sound machine was released in 1976, that argument was no longer feasible. But, that argument is still very prevalent among pro-choice advocates, such as President Obama, who stated in a pre-election interview that the determination when life begins is “above his pay grade”.
The double standard is almost laughable, when a pregnant woman is killed, two persons are deemed to have lost their lives. But, a woman that ends her own pregnancy isn’t committing murder, but a choice.
PUTTING OFF MOTHERHOOD PAST FERTILITY - many women have inadvertently missed he opportunity to bear children by trying to imitate the life cycles of men. Fertility is a limited opportunity for women and it should be cherished. (American Science of Reproductive Medicine ran ads regarding age being a risk factor in conception and the feminists were outraged)
ADJUSTING OF “FAMILY” DEFINITIONS - the battle wages over the legal definitions of family and marriage.
FLEXIBLE DEFINITIONS of PARENTHOOD (without regard for the child- but serving adults) - sperm donor, egg donor, surrogate mothers, frozen embryos, as technology increases, it tests our morality and our view of human life. I believe all life is sacred. We are made in the image of God and are therefore PRECIOUS.
One more thing that was so interesting to me was learning about the “spiritism” movement from the 1860’s. It is so true that there is nothing new under the sun…but to the believers in relativism and our post-modern “question authority”, self-centered, self-decided truth and morality…they think this is all new. It’s probably been going around since the beginning of time, but for the sake of this writing, let’s begin in the 1860’s. This movement peaked around 1860, anticipating the free love movement of the late 1960’s. Based on the belief that the living can and do communicate with the spirits of the departed through seances and mediums, question authority, rejected the conventions of the day, including moogamy and motherhood. If you are familiar at all with the New Spirituality movement, you will see some very familiar themes, including openness to spirits, communicating with the dead, no-authority over the “all important me” (god). (For more about this topic, read Oprah, Miracles and the New Earth - A critique by Irwin Lutzer. EXCELLENT!)
Have a wonderful Easter. I know this chapter was not in the least bit “easter-y, but what can you do?? :) Lots of love to you all!
Tags: abortion, birth control, definitions of parenthood, fertility, new family definitions, new spirituality, spiritism, women's rights