An interview with Letha Dawson Scanzoni/"godmother of the modern Christian feminism movement".

[mkgal1]

Link to interview: An Interview with Letha Dawson Scanzoni | Christian Feminism Today

Quote from LDS:I can’t remember not being a feminist. I think I was one from the very beginning. I didn’t know the word, but as a little kid I always said, “Girls can do anything boys can do!” And my parents let me think that way; they said you can do whatever you want—with regard to life choices in general. Now, remember, I was born in 1935 and that was not the climate of the times! I lived through the 1940s and 1950s when women were really restricted in our society. Somehow there was a spunkiness in me that didn’t want to accept those restrictions. Nobody discouraged me about any of that until I got into evangelical/fundamentalist circles in my late teens. Fundamentalist leaders would use scriptures that restricted women, saying that’s what God wanted, but I just kept thinking, “That’s not the God I know.” It just didn’t fit.​

 

[mkgal1]

Another great quote from this interview (I think) is this one:

LDS said: It costs women to question the status quo of male domination and to stand up and be strong and just and fair and to expect that kind of treatment from men in return. I think that’s the main reason. They’ve bought into the stereotypes that feminists hate marriage, that feminists hate men, and that feminists want to usurp power over men and take over. The idea that women want to take over is reversal. Anytime an oppressed group wants equality, there’s the fear among some people that, “They’re going to come after us and treat us like we treated them!” Women are not trying to be above or below; we are trying to be equal. I think that’s what God requires —women and men are created in the image of God, both women and men. Surely being in God’s image means both are equal. ~ An Interview with Letha Dawson Scanzoni | Christian Feminism Today​

 

[JackRT]

I agree with her completely. Patriarchy might just be the greatest evil that humanity has ever inflicted on itself.

 

[bekkilyn]

I can't remember not being a feminist either. Even as a very small child, I knew inequality was wrong deep in my heart, didn't understand why we needed to move away from our homes because a black family moved into the neighborhood, didn't comprehend what was wrong with girls that we were treated as inferiors and why it was even a thing to have to prove our worth when it ought to be assumed.

The God I know is not cruel and does not harm people by giving them a multitude of gifts and talents and then forbidding them to use them as if he was intentionally callous or made an error by giving a black person or a woman the wrong gift, or wanted to see how a black person or woman would react if he gave them the "wrong" calling and got enjoyment from the suffering he created in their lives by making it some sort of sin to obey.

 

[mkgal1]

I didn't know it was "feminism" to believe in equality - especially when we're speaking of the Gospel message. I just always believed that was the Gospel message - that Jesus came for those that were originally shut out.....looked down on.....cast aside.

Even in business situations, I was naive about hierarchies (I'm from the Silicon Valley area and started working around the boom of Apple and the whole computer/tech industry. Most work environments I had been in had "open door" policies of the presidents and management and a true sense of team work sans hierarchy). It honestly wasn't until I came to this forum (I think around 2008) that I started to hear/read about people that didn't believe in genuine equality (and that even started emerging in social media as well). It had me gobsmacked for quite some time that people that identify as "Christians" would believe in a hierarchy that was based on external qualifiers (like race or gender).

 

[bekkilyn]

I didn't know it was "feminism" to believe in equality - especially when we're speaking of the Gospel message. Even in business situations, I was naive about hierarchies (I'm from the Silicon Valley area and started working around the boom of Apple and the whole computer/tech industry and most work environments I had been in had "open door" policies of the presidents and management and a true sense of team work sans hierarchy). It honestly wasn't until I came to this forum (I think around 2008) that I started to hear/read about people that didn't believe in genuine equality (and that even started emerging in social media as well). It had me gobsmacked for quite some time that people that identify as "Christians" would believe in a hierarchy that was based on external qualifiers (like race or gender).

I grew up in the bible belt south and in a conservative Republican household. One would think that I would have inherited all those same views since there wasn't anyone in the family telling me otherwise, and I didn't even start going to school until I was 6 (no kindergarten), but long before school, I was disagreeing with my parents about practically everything...pollution and damage to the environment, racism, inequality, solar energy vs. oil, etc. I was constantly informed I was too sensitive and unrealistic, and if I would get to the point of crying over it, I was often teased or mocked and told to knock it off.