[Editor's Note: Carolyn McCulley was kind enough to do an interview with Gender Blog contributor Courtney Reissig. Carolyn blogs at Radical Womanhood , which you should check out if you don't already!]
Where are you from and what is your current vocation?
I grew up in the Washington, DC, area as a military brat. I studied broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland and I am fortunate to still be working in media years later. I also received a certification in women’s studies from the University of Maryland, which was part of the reason I eventually wrote Radical Womanhood .
What is the premise of your book, Radical Womanhood?
The subtitle is “Feminine Faith in a Feminist World.” It’s the book I wish I had received as a new believer. I didn’t become a Christian until I was 30, though my mother did raise me in the church. I went to mass, but I didn’t have ears for the gospel until the Lord sovereignly regenerated me as an adult. Until that time, I lived like a Cosmopolitan feminist – not too politically active, but absorbing all the feminist messages of women’s media. So when I became a Christian and was added to a Bible-believing, biblical-manhood-and-womanhood-preaching church, you can bet I was confused! I wanted someone to explain to me the feminist assumptions I had, where they came from, and why they contrasted with Scripture. Though I found many useful books along the way, I never found one just like this one – a mixture of history, Bible teaching, and narrative stories of women who found God to be faithful to His Word, presented in a non-academic, accessible language.
The premise, therefore, is that if women understand the profound change in our culture that can be traced back to the founding of our nation, they will be better equipped to understand the purposes of God’s design. To be a truly biblical woman in a modern world is the radical act, in my opinion.
What is the biggest impact of feminism that you have seen in the church?
There are so many effects that it would be hard to narrow it to just one. Radical Womanhood examines the impact on relationships between men and women, on motherhood, on female sexuality, on the home, and more. But I would say the most serious impact has been the undermining of Scriptural authority. The very first document issued by self-identified feminists in the U.S. was the Declaration of Sentiments, issued in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention. In it, these women (and a few men) named a number of offensive elements of current society, among them the church. It stated:
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. … He allows her in Church as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that the final resolution of this declaration included a demand for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit. The majority of feminist leaders since then, including one of the founders of the Seneca Falls Convention, have gutted Scriptural authority or rejected it all together in pursuit of more pagan beliefs.