Renoir, Young Mother with Child

THE feminist mother loves her children always. The Christian mother loves her children too. But the feminist and Christian represent two different cultural institutions. Their approaches to motherhood, their forms of love, are very different. They cannot be reconciled.

The feminist mother always has good qualities, traits perhaps superior to individual Christians. But essential differences exist between her and her Christian counterpart.

Here is an incomplete list:

The feminist mother has children because they make her happy. The Christian mother has children to please God.

The feminist mother believes the happiness and success of her children are supreme. The Christian mother believes the happiness and success of her children are important, but not paramount.

The feminist mother seeks first for her children contentment in this world. The Christian mother seeks contentment in the next world first.

The feminist mother does not believe in the indissolubility of marriage. The Christian mother does.

The feminist mother believes modesty is laughable and inhibits her freedom. The Christian mother believes immodesty interferes with her essential dignity, inhibits her inner peace and alienates her from God.

The feminist mother believes employment away from the home is essential for her own personal development and for her children’s welfare. She believes she is not a full person without a career. The Christian mother believes employment away from the home while her children are dependent is at best a necessary evil. She is a full person even without a career.

The feminist mother talks about her career. The Christian mother finds her domestic universe more interesting.

The feminist mother believes men and women are not by nature different beings. The Christian mother believes they are.

The feminist believes in domestic equality. The Christian believes men should be the head of the home and women the heart. Men and women have different spheres and each has plenty to do.

The feminist mother is politically religious and prone to fanaticism. The Christian mother is spiritually religious and, if well instructed, protected from fanaticism.

The feminist mother is singularly intolerant of viewpoints different from her own. The Christian mother, living in a profoundly anti-Christian atmosphere, has frequent, civil relations with non-Christians.

The feminist mother believes women are morally infallible. The Christian mother believes in Original Sin.

The feminist mother believes government is fundamentally good. The Christian mother believes any government that proclaims neutrality on religious matters is not fundamentally good.

The feminist mother believes human beings control their destiny. The Christian believes existence is suffused with the supernatural and God directs everything.

The feminist mother believes her good qualities come from herself or natural good luck. The Christian mother, to the extent that she has talents or attractive qualities, believes they are gifts from a loving Creator.

The feminist mother teachers her children of political utopia. The Christian mother teaches her children to pray.

— Comments —

Grace writes:

I really appreciated your post on motherhood. I found the statements on modesty, domestic equality, and government to be particularly interesting and enlightening. Thanks for your work in encouraging us Christian mothers in our very good work.

Laura writes:

Thank you for your encouragement!

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