This week an interesting article came out suggesting that women are abandoning the church and turning to pagan practices, specifically Wicca.
Martin Beckford, a Religious Affairs Correspondent writes:
“The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.”
The report's author, Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church...Over the past decade, women have been leaving churches at twice the rate of men. In addition, the census is said to show that teenage boys now outnumber girls in the pews for the first time.”
However, on notconformedthoughts.com Matthew Cochrane wrote back in Feburary
“The need for the church to reengage men has never been more apparent. The recent decline of male participation in church has been well-documented and is now much more than a demographic aberraion. Evangelical churches, once almost evenly split along gender lines, now consist of 60% female membership and, as one west coast pastor would say, the other 40% are “chickified church boys.”
Whether its the men or women leaving the church, one thing seems certain, overall church attendance is declining. I don't believe Wicca is the culprit, yet. But I think I agree with Dr. Aune on one thing.
“She believes many women have been put off going to church in recent years because of the influence of feminism, which challenged the traditional Christian view of women's roles and raised their aspirations.”
Yes I believe feminism is yet again to blame. And guess what feminism leads to...paganism. Feminism and the New Age culture go hand in hand.
4 comments:
"Whether its the men or women leaving the church, one thing seems certain, overall church attendance is declining. "
It's entirely possible that both reports can be accurate since they re written about different churches and from differing points of view. Martin Beckford's article is quite interesting and is seems written primarily from the point of view of the English church. The article in notconformedthoughts.com is written primarily with a view of the American church. Can they both be right? Quite likely they can and they both can have the same root cause: feminism.
But here's a question I would pose to you. Do you think feminism is a root cause of rebellion in the church? And, do you think that this feminist rebellion is the cause for a declining participation of women within the church? Or, on the other hand, do you think it's possible that this feminism is a reaction to a leadership vacuum caused by men who are increasingly reluctant to fulfill their God-ordained roles within the church?
In many churches and denominations over the past few decades it has become fashionable to portray Jesus as this all-loving almost feminine person wandering around spouting sweet platitudes. This Jesus seems completely unable to lead a battle against principalities and powers and, in the lives of many people, this Jesus would, of course, seem irrelevant as well.
Thankfully, this is changing more and more. But sometimes I have to wonder if men haven't helped create this feminism in the church by the abdication of their own roles. I would be curious to hear what you think about this.
I think its very complicated. First of all, I don't think I would organize the events in the way you described.
For instance, men allowing women to take bigger roles in church wasn't the beginning of the problem, rather it was more of a side-effect. I believe some men in general were not fulfilling their roles as fathers, husbands..etc in and out of the church. But here is where it gets sticky. It seems to me that the dysfunctional nature of women trying to fulfill men's roles in society was then fueled by a rebellious “anti-men” mentality.
See this is where it gets occultic as well. The initial feminists, women such as Madame Blavatsky, were also very tied to the occult. These women not only wanted equality, they wanted people to worship womanhood. (I will be posting more on this in the next few parts).
So no, I don't believe feminism is the root cause of rebellion in the church. But I think it has a lot to do with the women of today who are trying so desperately to balance the feminist propaganda they have been fed since they were born with Christian principles. They just don't belong together.
The root of the problem is liberal theology or, put another way, the questioning of Biblical authority. As soon as a denomination allows that the Bible is not inerrant or authoritative it allows for all kinds of theological confusion. It might take the form of homosexual or women clergy/pastors or the allowance that there are other ways to salvation beside Jesus but, as soon as Biblical authority is questioned, it leads to all sorts of problems. Including the problems described in this post.
Wish it was that easy, Matthew. Unfortunately, feminism transcends the lines of those who believe in Biblical authority and those who don't. Many who call themselves feminists do hold fervently to Biblical inerrancy. That is not where the root of the problem lies. The root of the problem lies in feminism itself. I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not making one party more guilty than the other. Both men and women are really the victims here. What are they the victim of? Feminism. It's feminist ideology that is to blame. It is not only what tears down Biblical authority and inerrancy in some places, it is what twists Biblical doctrine in others.
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