Radical feminism's anti-Christian roots

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
 – Galatians 3:28

Soviet anti-Christian propaganda

Here is the opening statement in an article titled "The Founding of NOW" from the website of the National Organization for Women:

In 1880, Mrs. H. Griswold wrote in a letter to Susan B. Anthony: "Words fail to convey the bitter hatred I have for the foul demagogues who would take from me the freedom they claim for themselves." In 1909, Emma Goldman wrote "A New Declaration of Independence," in which she declared the self-evident truth that all human beings "irrespective of race, color, or sex" are born with equal rights. About a decade later, Margaret Sanger explained the "morality of birth control" in a speech so titled.

There is a lot that could be said about Emma Goldman (1869-1940). I am going to focus on an article which she wrote in 1913 titled "The Failure of Christianity". And I am going to compare Goldman's statements with the anti-Christian actions taken by the communist Soviet Union. I do this so we can see what happens when Goldman's atheistic philosophies are actually put into practice.

GOLDMAN: Whoever sincerely aims at a radical change in society, whoever strives to free humanity from the scourge of dependence and misery, must turn his back on Christianity, on the old as well as the present form of the same.

The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. It is estimated that 21 million Russian Orthodox Christians were martyred in the gulags by the Soviet government, not including torture or other Christian denominations killed.

GOLDMAN: Meekness has been the whip, which capitalism and governments have used to force man into dependency, into his slave position. The most faithful servants of the State, of wealth, of special privilege, could not preach a more convenient gospel than did Christ, the "redeemer" of the people.

Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers along with execution included torture being sent to prison camps, labour camps or mental hospitals. The result of this militant atheism was to transform the Church into a persecuted and martyred Church. In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.

GOLDMAN: The worker who knows the cause of his misery, who understands the make-up of our iniquitous social and industrial system can do more for himself and his kind than Christ and the followers of Christ have ever done for humanity; certainly more than meek patience, ignorance, and submission have done.

The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. A very large segment of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500. Between 1917 and 1940, 130,000 Orthodox priests were arrested.

GOLDMAN: Much as I am opposed to every religion, much as I think them an imposition upon, and crime against, reason and progress, I yet feel that no other religion had done so much harm or has helped so much in the enslavement of man as the religion of Christ.

When church leaders demanded freedom of religion under the constitution, the Communists responded with terror. They murdered the metropolitan of Kiev and executed twenty-eight bishops and 6,775 priests. Despite mass demonstrations in support of the church, repression cowed most ecclesiastical leaders into submission.

Emma Goldman wrote of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that it represented "the most fundamental, far-reaching and all-embracing principles of human freedom and of economic well-being".

That was before she visited Russia in 1921 where she met with Vladimir Lenin, who assured her that government suppression of press liberties was justified. He told her: "There can be no free speech in a revolutionary period."

She later wrote of her "disillusionment with Russia". She never mentions any "disillusionment" with the brutal murder of thousands of Christians in Russia. She only laments that Communism has become "the State religion".

Similarly, today's radical feminists have no regrets over the millions of children who have died in order to meet their ideological goal of "free choice" for women. Like the Christ in the Soviet propaganda at the top of this page, the bodies of the dead children are simply tossed in the trash and forgotten.

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