The mutual problem of
Christians and
feminists is this: Everyone judges them by their
fringe elements. For example, many
non-Christians think of
hatred of non-Christians as a hallmark of
Christianity. And many
men and
women think that
man-hating is pretty much all there is to
feminism.
Now, in both cases, there is some
truth to this. There are vehemently
intolerant, hateful Christians who won't miss any chance to tell you that
you're going to hell. And there are extremely
reactionary feminists who believe that
all men are evil and
all sex is rape.
But these are the EXTREMES. Most Christians would be distressed by the man who stands on a street corner on my campus and screams at passersby. They might even tell you he's not really
Christian by their own definition, which might include radical concepts such as
love thy neighbor. And most feminists are irritated by the ranting women who constantly vilify men for no reason.
Now, in both cases, it seems likely that a lot of these extremists are simply people with unbalanced personalities, who have chosen
religion or
women's issues as their outlet for their own problems. They are not
representatives of their
movements. Why does everyone think they are?
Because it's better
TV to talk about
Bob Jones University than the other end of the spectrum, a
Gnostic priest who believes in
God the Mother, and especially better than the middle of the spectrum: the woman next door who rescues
kittens and champions
free speech and goes to
church every Sunday. Who wants to hear about that? And we'd much rather hear about women who say
English is an
enslavement tool of verbal
rape-bound
men, than the woman who thinks
men and women should learn from each other, or the man who thinks women should get
equal pay. Yawn.
So you'll only see the
colorful, the
outrageous, the extreme; when there is really a huge
spectrum with most
feminists and
Christians (and
gay people,
Muslims,
black power advocates, on and on) falling in the MIDDLE.
The point of this is to remember that members of other
controversial groups don't want to be judged by their most extreme members any more than you do.