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TOTAL WOMAN
Virginia Mollenkott is a feminist theologian who writes books against patriarchy. In Women, Men and the Bible she writes, "Marabel Morgan wrote The Total Woman because she was desperate about her husband's bossiness and was aware of the miserable quality of many other modern marriages. Unfortunately, her suggestion for curing modern woman's cheated feelings is to deepen her sense of submission and self-sacrifice. For the moment, her solution seemed to work for many upper-middle-class women, because at least she made them feel better about sex. She made them feel that going all out to be desirable and going all out in the enjoyment of sexual experience is all right for the Christian wife -- and that's a vast improvement over the Victorian prudery which formerly governed the attitudes of many Christians. But what is to become of unattractive women or poor women?" Well, Virginia, being a traditional wife is great for everyone.
DOMINATE
Mollenkott falsely teaches that submission is anti-God: "... what Marabel Morgan taught is nothing short of idolatry, the worship of the husband. She wrote, 'It is only when a woman surrenders her life to her husband, reveres and worships him, and is willing to serve him, that she becomes really beautiful to him.' Clearly this is religious language. It is to God alone that we are to surrender our lives. God alone should be revered and worshiped." This is just a rationalization for not following a husband. It is typical of feminists to misunderstand the meaning of words. The Bible says we are "dominate" the creation. This means we are to dominate with love. You can read dominate as good or bad. God wants it to mean good. Mollenkott says patriarchy means "dominance and submission." It is not a sadist/masochist relationship. Just because some people misuse "dominance" doesn't mean we have to go against the Bible and invent something new.
She says "Although some Christian Churches shy away from Fascinating Womanhood because of Andelin's Mormon background, there is an unacknowledged spin-off from the book, a course entitled 'The Philosophy of Christian Womanhood,' which has found acceptance in many churches.
"Another very popular book that teaches the dominance-submission model is Larry Christensons's The Christian Family. ... Many of the books urging female submission to male headship are written by people whose common sense tells then that human beings who love each other ought to relate as friends and equals. Yet they feel torn because they think the Bible insists on a hierarchy in which the male is closer to God than the female and therefore, must rule the relationship." Where does she get that these authors are "torn?" They, unlike Mollenkott, have happy families.
She praises some feminist men who see "the danger female subservience poses to their own spiritual growth and family happiness. ... Glenn Peterson recently expressed his disgust at the dehumanizing disrespect hidden beneath Marabel Morgan's flattering and manipulative techniques. He concluded: 'The Morgans may have a happy marriage. I believe, however, that any marriage based on the principles espoused in The Total Woman is a fundamentally unhealthy relationship and is, finally, mutually destructive.'" I have disgust at the dehumanizing disrespect for the manipulative techniques of feminists. There is a deep division here. Take your pick. Take a look at the statement above. He believes the Morgans have a happy marriage but everyone else who lives like them does not. There is no logic here.
She continues, "In a recent article, Barbara G. Harrison points out that female obsequiousness is based on contempt for men and ambivalence and confusion confusion concerning them. She concludes, 'Both Mrs. Andelin and Mrs. Morgan are happiness merchants who teach us not to confront our human pain and suffer directly, but to learn, through self-deception, to rejoice in our bonds and fetters, and thus to escape the travail and confusion that are an inescapable part of the human condition.' It is tragic that manipulation and self-deceit are being presented to the world as biblical. One of the destructive results of these books will be reinforcement of the wide-spread image of the Bible as a repressive book which leads itself to support of social injustice." The opposite is the truth. Andelin and Morgan are not deceiving or manipulating anyone. Confusion is part of the feminist world. They seem to not want to be happy. Life must be always be a struggle to them. They make the Bible look like a book that has no absolute values and therefore offers no hope for social justice and leads to a repressive world.
"Perhaps the cruelest blow of all is the denial of full humanity to Christian women." Andelin and Morgan look fully human to me. "For instance, Christian wives are counseled that they should 'give him his freedom and accept him the way he is,' even if the husband 'stays out all night and gives ... no reason.'" What is wrong with this? It is reality. If women do not do as Andelin and Morgan teach they will pay a terrible price because they are fighting reality. "Repeatedly, married women are told that they do not relate to God directly but rather through the authority of their husbands and that the wife's personal development is properly secondary to the husband's." This is false. Andelin, Morgan and countless other women who live by correct principles feel they have personally developed and they are not second class citizens. They don't feel they have lived "through" their husbands but feel great pride and satisfaction for the work they did in the home.
The arguments against Andelin and those who write of the traditional family makes no sense. We can look at privates saluting a sergeant who in turn spends his day saluting a lieutenant who in turn has to salute every single colonel he sees as a bunch of pathetic losers who sadly live through others. They look like they have no freedom and could never be happy even though they say they are. It is not demeaning to follow. Feminists follow people all the time. They just don't want a wife following a husband. A family is an organization like any other that can only run smoothly if there is a hierarchy. When a feminist goes to work there is a hierarchy. When theY call the police for help they are calling an organization that has a precise hierarchy. When they go shopping in a store it is a place that is organized as a hierarchy. Being subservient means to be respectful. Feminists are rebels who have no alternative more successful than the one they hate. And they haven't got a clue to what the Bible means.
JESUS -- A FEMINIST?
In Sensuous Spirituality: Out from Fundamentalism Mollenkott says we live in a "dominator" society where men hold "imperial power." Her vision -- the vision of feminism -- shows us "another organizational principle that was lived in several prehistoric societies and later was taught and also modeled by Jesus and the discipleship of equals who traveled with him." People are to relate in a "partnership." This is intellectual garbage. What prehistoric societies? Jesus was not a patriarch but an equalitarian? Remember how he told them to follow him and that he is the way and the life? Are the disciples the way and the life too? Of course not. Feminists invent Jesus to be a person who loves their alternative lifestyles. Jerry Falwell says Jesus hates homosexuality and Ellen DeGeneres, the famous lesbian actress, says that Jesus loves every body and would approve her lifestyle. Someone is wrong. Who do you think it is?
