Women’s Space

In a review of attack on Kathryn Joyce’s excellent book, Quiverfull, Doug Phillips of Vision Forum, ever fond of denouncing women who resist patriarchal edicts (especially his) writes:

The first mission of the book is to warn the radical left about America’s real threat — pregnant mothers who quote Psalm 127 and submit to their husbands. The second mission is to paint certain ministries and Christian parents as intolerant racists with a penchant for spousal abuse, and other even more unconscionable crimes (Message to Barack Hussein Obama: “Fearless Leader — forget, the fundamentalists in Iraq; these prolific Christians are the real bad guys!”) The idea here is to throw blood into the water and whoop the press sharks into a feeding frenzy.

Joyce aims her arrows at individuals ranging from John MacArthur and James Dobson to Michael and Vicki Farris, but her principle darts are for yours truly and Vision Forum. Her un-footnoted work draws from the bizarre and inflammatory testimonies of a former homeschool mom turned lesbian-feminist activist; from a disgruntled excommunicant with an exposure “ministry” whose personal behavior led her to be criminally cited, cuffed by police, and ultimately lose custody of her children; to pseudononymous individuals operating anti-pastor hate sites. These “reliable” sources help Joyce to present a case that some “quiverfull” families are made up of fathers who abuse their wives, enslave their daughters, or worse. (Frankly, some of the other charges and insinuations are too repulsive to mention.)

The line that is vintage Doug Phillips here is the one about the “disgruntled excommunicant.” Phillips is probably talking about Jen Epstein, whose heartbreaking story can be found here (as well as in Kathryn’s book, though it is so painfully hard to read, neither I nor Jeyoani has been able to read it in full as of yet). What might any woman excommunicant’s “personal behavior” leading her to be “criminally cited” and “cuffed by police” have to do with anything (besides Phillips’ penchant for cruelty)? All sorts of good and amazing women have been and are “criminally cited” every single day, they also get roughed up by police, not for having done anything wrong, but because they dared to cross the wrong men– men with money, men with power, men of the correct racial and ethnic background, professional men, policemen, good upstanding Christian leaders and pastors everyone thinks are the cream of the patriarchal crop (until they’ve committed genocide, say, or murdered their wives and families, or, as it turns out, they’ve been terrorizing their wives since forever and every Sunday getting on up to the podium and preaching a sermon, or they’re doing this, or this, or something like this.) Or, they cross men like their husbands. Phillips gloats that this “excommunicant” “lost her children.” So what if she did? If she lost them, it was undoubtedly because she dared to cross some patriarch or other. These guys stand ready and willing to destroy the lives of women who get in their way, who challenge their misogynist ideologies and intentions. The “anti-pastor hate site” he is talking about is undoubtedly this one, a Christian site that regularly publishes the latest on the antics of the patriarchs.

I, of course, am the “former homeschool mom turned lesbian-feminist activist.” In a footnote he writes:

Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, former editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, now actively promotes Dyke marches, tree worship, and praises lesbian spirit guides on her website: womensspace.org. In a recent blog post , she featured an image of one of a number of pagan altars that she worships in her home, stating: “This is one of my altars. Everything on it has deep meaning to me — the shells, storyteller dolls, my grandmother’s teacup, nesting dolls, images of the Goddess.”

Seelhoff also hosts “The Carnival of Radical Feminists” online each month during full moon. An official statement connected with her Radical Feminist Carnival noted in part: “we oppose … the institution of marriage and the traditional family…; We affirm lesbianism and lesbian separatism as revolutionary paths for all women who choose them; …We understand gender as a structure and system of subordination, and as such, we seek its eradication.”

The horror! Call 911, Heart has her grandmother’s teacup, shells and her nesting dolls on her altar!

Dear goddess on high, it is, in a certain way, hilariously funny.

Or, it would be, were men like Doug Phillips not deadly earnest in their fear of women like me, if they did not stand willing to silence any of us, discredit us, harm us should they find opportunity. Make no mistake, these are not random anonymous idiots on the internet spouting off before they take off for their day jobs or turn in for the night. These are men with money and influence in the thrall of a powerful and compelling religious ideology, hoping the day will come when the Christian Bible becomes the law of the land, women and girls assume their proper place as chattel, property of husbands, fathers or elders, and the world is at last fully the oyster of heterosexual, married, family men, who will be the only ones who have the vote or who are viewed as qualified for participation in civil government or work in the public sphere. How incredibly disingenuous Phillips is to invoke “fundamentalists in Iraq” as the bogeyman. Then again, he probably sincerely believes his own views are nothing like theirs. After all, they are Muslim theonomists and Iraqi and he is a Christian theonomist and American, we all know there has to be a huge difference there.

Well, I’m glad and proud that I filed my lawsuit against some of Doug Phillips’ colleagues and allies, I’m glad I won, and I’m glad everything in my lawsuit is a matter of public record now. Kathryn Joyce’s book may be “unfootnoted” and what I say may be “inflammatory” to people who think like Doug Phillips does, but what happened to me is duly documented and a matter of history now. Nothing Phillips or his buddies do or say will ever change that.

Heart
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