Response to "Warnings Against the Feminization of America."

        Here we go again...

People all over America will go to the polls soon and vote. I have heard women proclaim that people had to fight and die for women to have the right to vote as if this were a God-ordained right. This isn’t true. There was never any civil war over this issue nor is it a God-ordained right. Women “fought” (meaning they left their homes, raised their voices, and shouted for their “rights”) for the right to vote since they felt they knew better than men. They didn’t trust men to lead them in the right way. They wanted to be leaders and run things.

There's quite a lot in this paragraph. She's right, I'm not aware of anyone dying directly to give women the right to vote, and there was definitely no civil war. In a more indirect sense, however, there were many who died to give all of us the privilege of living in this great country, and one of the reasons America is so great is the right of self-government. She's correct that the right of women to vote is not a "God-ordained" right, but, notably, neither is the right for men to vote. And I'm sure Lori is patriotic enough (not being sarcastic, by the way) that she would very strongly defend men's voting rights. So what point is she trying to make by saying it's not a God-ordained right? Is she saying no one should have any rights except for those that are "God-ordained"? As I said, in that case, no one would have the right to vote. 

       As far as women wanting to vote because they "felt they knew better than men," this has nothing to do with men vs. women. Each woman is an individual just like each man is, and it is an American value that the individual have a say in his or her own governing. In a sense, we all feel we know better than anyone else how we ought to be governed, because in many cases we do. We broke away from England in order to preserve that right, and here is Lori insisting that women should go back to the way things were and allow someone else to decide how they should be governed. Which is it, Lori? Are we for American values, or not? 

      She writes for a while about a poster from the anti-suffrage movement, and then continues with her own commentary on what she considers to be the results of women gaining the right to vote: 

Ask yourself, have women stopped nagging and wanting their way since they achieved the right to vote? NO! In fact, I saw a poster recently that Iceland has complete gender equality but I am sure it hasn’t made women any happier and less complaining. Women are louder and more demanding (example: the Women’s March) than ever before even though they have more rights than ever. It’s a deep pit that is never satisfied.

Would Lori describe the men who led the American Revolution as "nagging" and "wanting their way"? How about "loud" and "demanding"? Hopefully not, and yet, if women protest against oppression, those are the words she chooses. It has nothing to do with the actual protest, or what is being protested. Lori is saying it is who is doing the protesting that makes it wrong. Men are allowed, even admired, for standing up for their rights, but women are expected to just sit down and take whatever is thrown at them. And her last sentence is completely irrelevant: at any moment in the history of our country, it has been true that women had more rights than ever before. But obviously this doesn't mean they should just stop and go away, happy with the bone they've been thrown. 

       I'll also note that Lori paints standing up for rights as if it's always selfish and about oneself, but this is simply untrue. Anytime we stand up for rights, we are also standing up for everyone else who ought to have those rights. This is why people often engage in protests for issues that don't even affect them directly. So to paint it this way is a straw man. 

       And then she mentions Iceland. I don't know enough about Iceland to comment on that, but I do notice she says "I am sure it hasn't made women any happier." She's making an unwarranted assumption based on her feelings...isn't that just the sort of thing that would cause Lori to criticize someone else for doing it? 

       She then makes an attempt to use the Bible to support her cultural, man-centered views: 

 Let’s look back at the beginning of time and see who God created to be the leaders. The first human begin He created was Adam, a man, and he was to be the leader. He named all of the animals. Then God created Eve to be Adam’s help meet to support Adam in his work, not to usurp it.

Then God chose men to be the leaders as priests, kings, prophets, patriarchs, apostles, elders, deacons, and husbands. It seems clear to me that God made men to be the leaders. Jesus could have easily chosen a female disciple but He did not.

I'll just address these briefly, because I want to get to the part where she talks about voting. Yes, the creation story shows Adam being created first, but no indication is given in the text that would mean that makes him the leader. In fact, throughout the Bible we see God turning the cultural idea of the rights of the first-born on its head; for example, God chose Jacob, not Esau, as the founder of the nation of Israel, and He chose David, the youngest of Jesse's sons, as king. So the fact that Adam was created first doesn't even come close to proving Lori's point. 

       The Hebrew word for "help-meet", ezer kenegdo, means something like "helper, corresponding to." Significantly, the word ezer is used most often in the Old Testament to refer to God helping the nation of Israel in a military sense, so obviously it doesn't imply subordination of any kind. Eve was to come alongside Adam as his equal, and they were to fill the earth and subdue it together. That command was given to both, not just Adam. Some, like Lori, try to twist the Bible to their own agenda and pretend it was Eve supporting Adam's work, but the Bible itself presents them as equals sharing in the same work. 

       Finally, we should not be surprised that most of the leaders, kings, etc., were men, since the world has been patriarchal for the vast majority of history. However, the Bible records many things it does not condone. Surely Lori doesn't think the Bible supports slavery or polygamy, but it records these in the same way. So Lori is being inconsistent in the evidence she'll accept that God supports something. Regarding Jesus' disciples, Jesus did have female disciples who helped support His ministry, they were simply part of the larger group of disciples that were not the 12 who were closest to Him. And the fact that the 12 were all men is not significant in the way Lori would like it to be, since it would have been scandalous at that time and place for Jesus to have close female followers. Remember, He was a rabbi. This says something about that culture, and that's all it says. If we make a big deal out of that, why not also insist that all leaders should be Jewish, since the 12 were all Jewish as well? Again, Lori is constantly inconsistent; she just pulls out whatever she needs to if it seems to support her point, without thinking through it very much. Suffice it to say none of this is remotely convincing that the Bible establishes men exclusively as leaders. 

       We now come to the part that made me decide to write a response to this one: 

What are my thoughts on women voting? I have been asked this frequently. I am not a fan at all. Women overwhelmingly vote Democrat. They vote for big government to take care of them which means higher taxes and more laws and regulations which means less freedoms. They vote for free health care and abortions. They vote for leftist policies which are highly destructive to the family and culture. Socialism hasn’t worked any where that it has been tried.

This is where we must ask: does Lori hate America, or does she just completely misunderstand what makes it great? We'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter. It is our freedoms and the right of self-government that set us apart! Yet, here is Lori, wishing that she could take away the right to vote from anyone who disagrees with her political views! It may come as a surprise to some of you that I actually lean fairly conservative in my political views. But I certainly don't think that gives me the right to take away anyone's right to vote, and I would never wish to do so. 

       Where does it end? Does Lori wish to remove the vote from colored people and minorities, who also tend to vote Democrat? This view, I'm sorry to say, is anti-American. And I would like to point out to Lori that if you give the government the ability to choose who is allowed to vote based on how they vote, there would be nothing preventing them from taking away the rights of Christians to vote. Would she be okay with that? 

       And yet, Lori herself votes!

Do I vote? Yes, I vote to support my husband’s vote and try to overturn a vote that is against all I believe in. I encourage conservative, Christian women to vote for life-affirming principles, smaller government, and more freedoms.

Some say she's a hypocrite for doing so. I suppose, though, that while she considers it the ideal that women wouldn't be allowed to vote, since they do, she probably figures it's better to continue voting to balance out all those who will vote differently from her. She does say that voting or not voting is not a sin, so at least she's not telling women that God commands them not to vote. On the other hand, if she truly believed in what she's saying, why not set an example and do what she believes is right? 

       In the end, I'm glad she votes, because there were strong, brave women who earned that right for her, and part of the greatness of America is that people like Lori can have a voice. Even if we don't like the message, we fight for the right of others to speak it. And that's why I'm so disturbed by her wish that those who vote differently from her not have the right to vote at all. I love America, and therefore I do not love what Lori is saying in this blog. 

Link to the original blog: https://thetransformedwife.com/warnings-against-the-feminization-of-america/?fbclid=IwAR2WjPM5EBXcvQ9SZL9hPL3W8qdCW2aQ2n3Qv4kGptcX0OKlERi5Zum9oWk