
Freedom Writer - March 1996

QUESTION OF THE MONTH
Why does the Religious Right hate women?

Obviously, women have their place among the leadership 
of the Radical Religious Right. Two examples immediately 
come to mind. Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum 
is the first. However, Schlafly, a Roman Catholic, 
came into the Religious Right as a sort of outsider 
when she led the fight against the Equal Rights Amendment. 
Nevertheless, she champions the agenda of the Radical 
Religious Right and is therefore useful to the male 
leadership.

The second example is Beverly LaHaye, founder of Concerned 
Women for America (CWA). CWA is practically an outgrowth 
of the Rev. Tim LaHaye's earlier American Coalition 
for Traditional Values (ACTV); CWA used to be referred 
to as a "sister-organization" of ACTV. During its heyday, 
the now-defunct ACTV was run entirely by men. At the 
time, Beverly needed something to do, so she started 
a small women's prayer group in her kitchen that really 
caught on. Now, she gets top billing over Tim, who 
has his office in the same building as CWA, and exerts 
considerable influence over the organization. Also, 
a man, the Rev. Jim Woodall is the number-twoerson 
at CWA.

Christian fundamentalists do think there is a place 
for women  and that is at home, at least until the 
children they're supposed to bear are grown. Because 
of their narrow interpretation of the Bible, many conservative 
male Christian leaders see women as "the weaker sex." 
This is because of the Adam and Eve story in the third 
chapter of Genesis. According to the story, Eve was 
made as a helper for Adam  for the man.

As the story goes, Eve displayed her weakness by eating 
the forbidden fruit, and then tempted Adam to eat it 
also. As the punishment for Eve, God prescribed pain 
in childbearing, and said that forevermore the husband 
shall rule over the wife.

Later, the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the 
Christians in Corinth (I Cor. 11:7-9), "For a man indeed 
ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the 
image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory 
of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the 
woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the 
woman; but the woman for the man."

In writing to his friend Titus (Titus 2:5), Paul said 
that women are "to be...keepers at home, good, obedient 
to their own husbands, that the word of God not be 
blasphemed."

So, it's not exactly as if male conservative Christian 
leaders hate women, but their adherence to Scripture 
makes them sexist and intolerant of women's equality. 
Many of the female Christian leaders have embraced 
the same Biblical teachings and join with the male 
Christian leaders against "militant feminists."

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Freedom Writer / ifas@berkshire.net

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