“Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord…Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church…” (Ephesians 5:21-24)
It is no good for pro-lifers to run with the hounds in pursuit of radical change in the current society. Our July editorial noted that the anti-life frame of mind cannot be changed piecemeal and the August editorial that there is hope for change because of the still widespread acceptance of Christian values. But we cannot advance by adopting the terms of those whom we oppose. Women’s equality has to be defined according to Christian principles, not according to the values of feminists who have turned it into a war between the sexes.
The latter was the case again with the report of five Members of Parliament last spring entitled The war against women. It almost certainly will be the outcome of a new federal Commission of enquiry on violence against women, with its panel of nine feminists.
The success of feminists in setting the terms of the debate is astonishing. Others go along so as not to appear indifferent. Among them are United and Anglican taskforces and the Social Affairs committee of the Quebec bishops. Sadly, the Canadian Catholic Bishops joined in recently with their letter on violence against women To live without fear. (June 13, 1991).
“Violence against women.” The bishops state truly enough, “is indeed a sin, a crime and a serious moral problem.” But, instead of facing the real reasons for this violence, they focus entirely on one, minute, detail – and that of omission, not commission – namely the reluctance of parish priests in helping battered wives to escape their unhappy situation. As a reward for their effort they are insulted by the flagrant lies of church feminists such as the editors of the Catholic Prairie Messenger who wrote: “It is no secret that the male-dominated church has done much to suppress the aspirations of women over the ages.” (July 15, 1991).
The real cause of the current state of violence is the destruction of the Christian family ethic over the last 30 years. For this the feminists themselves are more to blame than anyone else.
As noted six years ago:
Radical feminism is anti-family and not only anti-man, but anti-woman. Its philosophy is secular in the full sense of that word, that is, opposed root and branch to the Christian concepts of male and female, their eternal destiny, their personal dignity and their equality. It harks back to the materialist philosophy of the 19th century which proposed the emancipation of women through the destruction of marriage as an anachronistic institution, the promotion of free love, and the removal of all sexual restraints.” [“Feminism’s basic values,” The Interim, November 1985].
As promoters of the ‘right to choose’ ideology, feminists have contributed greatly to the current moral cesspool of easy availability of pornography, easy divorce, common law marriages and the sterilizing, contracepting, childlessness-by-choice mentality which mocks womanhood. The whole is crowned by the claimed ‘right’ to abort pre-born babies, a claim which threatens the dignity of all human life.
As noted, it is no good for the hunted to run with the hounds. There is still something called the Good News. It is this we should offer and defend.
