Confessions of a Conservative Seminarian

Francis Beckwith

Since everyone else is talking about Francis Beckwith, I guess I might as well, too :)

Being a far right-wing Protestant, you might expect me to howl about what a great travesty this is. But, in fact, I actually share quite a bit of Beckwith's sentiment towards the Catholic church.

There is a lot that I like in Catholicism. There are a huge number of wonderful theologians, missionaries, and thinkers that have come from the Catholic church. It is a reversal of the endless church-splitting that occurs in the Protestant arena. The theology in the Catholic church is surprisingly diverse, and most Protestant theology exists somewhere in the Catholic church.


But ultimately what leads me away from the Catholic church is historical -- the Catholic church has had some hideous leadership in the past, and there is no reason to believe it won't happen again. Now, that's true of every organization, but not every organization makes the same claims about their leader that the Catholic church does.

And then there are a number of other doctrines that I stumble on (and I don't know how many of these are essential to being Catholic, but I stumble on them anyway), like the immaculate conception of Mary and other Mary-stuff. Likewise, the over-use of icons.

Perhaps what I really am is Orthodox. I don't know, but right now I'm looking to Evangelical Covenant.

If this entry makes little sense it's because I've had little sleep.

posted @ 5/23/2007 11:31:00 PM 3 comments

Feminism and Socialism

I used to be very confused on the relationship between feminism and socialism. On the one hand, I observed that most hardcore feminists are socialists, but I never understood why. However, I have now read a book that makes that connection much more clear.

The book is Sexism and God-Talk.

This is an excellent book, not because I agree with its contents, but rather because it makes so many things in current society so much clearer.

If you wanted to pick on chapter to read, I would read "The New Earth". There Ruether paints a picture of possible solutions to the patriarchal society. The "problem" in Ruether's view is not only unequal pay for equal work, but also the expectations that women should do housework and raise children. So what is the solution for societal expectations? Socialism! If "women's work" (housekeeping, raising children, etc.) is socialized, that means that the government can hire men and women equally, and relieve women of their burdens. By socializing everything, they can force the share of work to be equal, and force equal participation in the roles which they wish to modify.

Anyway, this might be obvious for some people, but it was quite a revelation for me.

posted @ 5/15/2007 11:37:00 PM 0 comments