Abigail Adams was wife of the
3rd president of the United States.
She and John Adams fell deeply in love and were married in 1764. Their marriage was not just the union of a
husband and wife. They were close companions, the best of friends. They counseled
each other. They were lovers in the truest since of the word. Abigail was the daughter of a Congregational
minister and professed to be a Christ-follower in 1759. She was not so unusual except for one major thing;
she was a radical feminist in her time.
The wife of President Adams
was continually stepping out where few women were brave enough to tread. John was proud of the fact his wife could run
the farm more efficiently than he when he was off on a diplomatic mission. She openly questioned the southern patriots
who clamored for liberty when they so blatantly denied liberty to their fellow
man. Abigail endured great criticism
when she enrolled a black boy in a local evening school.
Abigail Adams fought for the
rights of women by declaring they should not simply be attractive ornaments
hanging on their husband’s arm. They
should be educated. They should be involved
in the education of others. She insisted
that women should have a voice in their government. She continually reminded her husband that
women deserved better, "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to
the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men,
emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over
wives.” (New Viewpoints in American
History, Arthur Meier Schlesinger, p.109)
John and Abigail were happily
married for 54 years. Abigail’s love for
her husband was never questioned. They
had many children together. One would
ascend to the Presidency of the United States as did his father. Abigail was ever conscience of the need in
the hearts of men for the grace of God.
She wrote of her assurance “that those who fear God and work righteousness
shall be accepted of him..."
(Dictionary of U & U Biography, Abigail Adams)
Now let us fast-forward 240
years and look at where feminism has come.
This is not your mother’s feminism.
It is not the feminism of Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is the
feminism of Gloria Steinem, Betty Freidan and Andrea Dworkin.
Does Sandra Fluke represent
the feminist movement in 2012? Ms. Fluke
recently testified before Congress demanding her ‘right’ to free birth control
from Catholic Georgetown Law School. (No
laughing please, I know she is coughing up $43,750 to pay tuition at Georgetown
University Law Center, top-law-schools.com.)
Ms. Fluke had no qualms about violating the
religious rights of those who oppose such a thing in order to selfishly protect
herself from the consequences of her own sexual immorality. (Assuming her
desire for free birth control is not for medical purposes.) Abigail Adams would have had a few words of
advice for a radical feminist who insisted that her birth control be subsidized
by those whose conscience it violated.
Does this mark the death of
feminism? Can anyone really take the
movement seriously? For hundreds of
years the movement was admired because they fought for things that were honorable;
education, women’s suffrage, equal rights and equal pay. Abigail Adams and her ilk fought to correct
injustices and eliminate atrocities aimed at women. Now, the radical feminists are fighting for
the right to have tax payers buy their contraceptives so they can participate
in illicit, promiscuous sex? Why are
these women not trying to emancipate sex slaves throughout the world? Why are they not trying to eliminate the
detrimental institution of polygamy? Why
are they not committed to the rescue of innocent female children who are being
sexually assaulted? Why are they not
fighting the spread of pornography and its destructive depiction of women as
simple sex objects created for the sexual pleasure of men? There are so many noble causes to rally
around but instead they choose to create a battle that involves forcing others
to pay for their sexual pleasures?
Abigail Adams was all about
how she and her husband could help each other.
She was not divisive, she was not hateful. She loved him deeply and patiently worked
with him to make him understand. She
embraced the Judeo-Christian concept taught in Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall
become one flesh.” The feminism of
Abigail Adams was about loving her man, not despising him.
Is this the death of
feminism? Can anyone really give credence
to a radical movement that is so hate-driven?
No one can take seriously the ideas of the Ku Klux Klan because they are
blinded by their hatred of blacks. Who
could give the Jew-hating Nazis any serious consideration? When Iranian leader Ahmadinejad spouts his
hatred for Israel at the U.N. few take him seriously. When radical feminism is no longer about
improving the lives of the oppressed, when it is only about hating men, who can
take them seriously?
It seems a good movement has
been hijacked by those consumed and blinded by their own misandry. Here are but a few examples of man-hatred:
·
“All sex, even
consensual sex between a married couple, is an act of violence perpetrated
against a women,” – Catherine MacKinnon, Professing
Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women’s Studies.
·
“Only when
manhood is dead--and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains
it--only then will we know what it is to be free.” Andrea Dworkin, Our Blood: Prophecies And Discourses On
Sexual Politics - The Root Cause.
·
“I feel that ‘man-hating’
is an honorable and viable political act, that the oppressed have a right to
class-hatred against the class that is oppressing them.” – Robin Morgan, editor
of MS magazine.
The radical feminist movement
has lost its way. They are eaten up with
hatred, not just hatred for men but also self-hatred. The movement desperately needs to be rescued
by women of integrity who know how to love instead of hate. It was a movement that fought for decency,
chastity and rightness. Has it now become a movement that is fighting for
indecency and immodesty? Sandra Fluke is
fighting for the right to have sex anytime, anywhere with anyone and insists
that others pay for it. Is this what the
feminist movement has come to, demanding the right to be mere sex-objects? Is the totality of a woman’s nobility now
simply to have earned the right to free birth control in order to fornicate
without consequences?
Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.
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