Recently, at a luxury hotel cocooning immense wealth, surrounded by a city enveloping immense poverty, I had a private debate with a feminist. The feminist, herself a product of immense wealth and privilege (annual salary $93,000 a year before fringe benefits like pensions) was adamant that the family is political. This is a lie. Objective political reality proves this.

Political Reality is Objective

Feminism is a theory. Political reality is objective – it is as plain as the summer sun. The essence of politics is the forming of the friend/enemy disjunction (Schmitt, 2007). A political ideology defines the enemy and enforces the definition. A true political disjunction has the power to foment a civil war in a society (Schmitt, 2007). A political ideology is decisive. Like the Supreme Court, it is the ultimate decider in matters of values. An ideology or worldview is sovereign when it dominates other worldviews in a society. It is ultimate (Schmitt, 2006). This is clearly seen in the case of the Bolshevik Revolution, when the Bolshevik state took dominion over the Orthodox Church in society. The Bolshevik party defrocked priests and elevated others. Indeed, the representatives of the Bolshevik party put the representatives of the Orthodox Church on trial, confiscated Orthodox money, and delineated what the Church could or could not preach (Gabel, 2005). Since the family is limited to a small number of individuals, it does not have the power to form an actual civil war – an existential threat to the society as a whole. While it is true a family could become a terrorist threat – denying the legitimacy of the state and engaging in terrorism – the family would not have the manpower to create an actual civil war. They would be a matter for the police – not the military.

What is Feminism?

Feminism is a critical project about equality for women (Scholz, 2010). “Feminism looks at all elements of life to identify those aspects that might be oppressive and suggests alternatives” (Scholz, 2010, p. 1).  By suggesting and using the state to enforce alternatives, feminism actually forms a friend/enemy disjunction. Far from freeing individuals, it acts as a tool of oppression, like all decisive worldviews do (Rawls, 2005). For feminism, the experience of the individual woman is decisive. It is the individual woman who feminists seek to make equal to men. In this process, feminists advocate for positions that are harmful to children because it is well-known that a two-parent household produces the best outcomes for children (Clarke-Stewart & Dunn, 2006). Feminists, by viewing the world through the lens of the individual woman, ignores the needs of children and husbands. At the same time, feminists commit idolatry by imposing their worldview on religions – thus ensuring prolonged and protracted conflict in all societies where feminism takes root.

Feminist Theory seeks to be Decisive

Feminists acknowledge the family is not decisive and is shaped by larger forces. For example, Bonnie Fox writes, “the more powerful factors shaping families and personal life today are global capitalism and neoliberalism” (2015). Feminists seek to define the status of homosexuals in a society – clearly competing with religions in forming a friend/enemy disjunction regarding sexual relations in societies (Fox, 2015). Feminism seeks to act as God and define sexual relations.  Feminists aim to penetrate the state into family life – calling for universal childcare at public expense (Fox, 2015). It is evident feminist seek to make their sectarian ideology decisive.

The Family is not Decisive; Worldviews are

Now it is true that large groupings of families, acting in concert with a worldview, could become political. In that case, the family is not political – the controlling worldview is. For example, if a large number of families raised their children to be devout fundamentalist Christians, the family would be a tool, like an educational institution, for increasing the power of the worldview. The worldview would be decisive, not the family.  Indeed, this is a major driving force for the Christian homeschool movement. According to the Bible, Christians are commanded to educate their children in the Christian worldview: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 11).

Accordingly, the family is not political and never will be. Political ideologies have the capacity to produce civil war. An individual family could never foment a civil war.  Therefore, families are not political. Worldviews are. The family is an educational tool for worldviews.  The truth is man will never be free. The terrible truth is there will always be an ultimate decider – a decisive worldview that defines the friend and the enemy. Feminism may liberate some people – at the same time it will become the oppressor of others. At bottom, feminism is another tool of oppression. You may disagree with this assessment but it is objective fact. The over 60,000,000 aborted children who paid with their lives since 1973 for the liberation of women know this truth, even if you don’t.

References

Clarke-Stewart, Alison & Dunn, Judy. Families Count: Effects on Child and Adolescent Development. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Fox, B. (2015). Feminism on family sociology: Interpreting trends in family life. Canadian Review Of Sociology, 52(2), 204-211

Gabel, Paul. And God Created Lenin: Marxism vs Religion in Russia, 1917-1929. University of California Press, 2005.

Rawls, John. Political Liberalism. Columbia University Press, 2005.

Schmitt, Carl. The Concept of the Political. University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Schmitt, Carl. Political Theology. University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Scholz, Sally. Feminism: A Beginners Guide. Oneworld Publications, 2010.