Catholic Candle note: The article below pertains to fighting feminism because it is the program of Our Lord’s enemies (who are our enemies too). Previously, we saw how the program of the feminists is the same program as Satan and the Marxists. https://catholiccandle.org/2022/08/26/the-feminist-program-is-the-same-as-that-of-satan-and-marx-part-vii/
How to Fight Feminism – Part 1
Feminism is a tool of Satan and the Marxists. Previously, we saw that feminism was merely an application to specific circumstances (i.e., with women as a subject rather than blacks or persons living lives of unnatural impurity) of the more general program which Satan and the Marxists use to wage war upon Western Civilization (the remnants of Christendom).
These are the circumstances in which we live. So, what should be do? Of course, the answer is that we should fight back! We are soldiers of Christ! The truth matters! The coward’s life is a failure and is contemptible! A coward dies a thousand deaths but a brave man only one![1] When a man discovers that criminals have broken into his home, he sets to work opposing them!
Just as the Council of Trent was part of a counterattack against the Protestant revolution, likewise, in our current times, where there is an on-going Marxist revolution, we must counterattack! We must counter the enemies of Christ (who are also our own enemies). So, e.g., when we see the enemy attacking our right flank, we must martial troops to meet them and push them back.
To effectively oppose these enemies, we must do what a wise military strategist does: we must study the enemies’ tactics and their methods of fighting to learn how to best defeat them. Thus, to some extent, we must study what the enemy does and fight it by doing the opposite.
The Satanic/Marxist/feminist attack on society can be framed in a variety of different ways which really “boil down” to the same eight-point Satanic/Marxist program we have already seen that they use.[2] Below is one way this attack is sometimes framed.
In 1969, the groundbreaking radical feminist leader, Kate Millett, would hold meetings with eleven of her friends in New York City during which they recited a type of litany, a feminist manifesto of sorts, or a plan of attack, that has proven to be remarkably effective. Here is an eyewitness account of one of these meetings. It opened with the chairwoman asking:
“Why are we here today?”
“To make revolution,” they answered.
“What kind of revolution?”
“The Cultural Revolution.”
“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?”
“By destroying the American family!”
“How do we destroy the family?”
“By destroying the American Patriarch.”
“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?”
“By taking away his power!”
“How do we do that?”
“By destroying monogamy!”
“How can we destroy monogamy?”
“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, abortion, and homosexuality!”[3]
So, let’s take these elements of their very effective feminist plan of attack and examine them, one-by-one. This will help us to see how we can best defeat these enemies of Christ by fighting against their plan through our initiatives in exactly the opposite direction.
We must Fight The Feminists’ Cultural Revolution
In the first element of their chant, these feminist leaders say they are going to “make revolution”. It was in this time period that Kate Millett wrote from New York to her sister:
“Come to New York. We’re making revolution! Some of us are starting the National Organization of Women [N.O.W.] and you can be part of it.”[4]
So, these feminist leaders declare they are waging a war – a revolution – against us, against society, etc. We must oppose them! They are attacking us and seek to destroy us! We must fight them, counter-attacking and opposing them with all of our strength!
This feminist goal is the same as Marxist Goal #31 (of 45 total goals) as read into the U.S. Congressional Record in 1963:
31. Belittle all forms of American culture …[5]
Just as a political revolution seeks to overthrow the government of a country, so a “cultural revolution” seeks to overthrow the culture of a country. Our culture was formed and established by the Catholic Church, as She converted the heathen tribes of Europe, although it is true that this culture has been adulterated with Protestantism, which was the beginning of a descent into the so-called “Enlightenment” and further corruptions which increasingly distanced (former) Christendom from Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nonetheless, just as the high Catholic culture of Christendom was not “built in a day”, likewise, it is not destroyed in a day either. There were the remnants of much good culture in the Western World that still remained, especially before Vatican II and before the 1960s. It has taken hundreds of years for the enemies of Christendom to degrade society to what it was in the 1960s, at the beginning of the Marxist and feminist revolution. (Of course, it has gotten much worse since then.)
So, as we see the Marxists and feminists (and Satan’s other minions) focus on promoting cultural revolution, we must fight back by focusing on promoting cultural tradition, i.e., preserving our cultural heritage. This work is the opposite of the revolution to overthrow our culture.
There are many aspects of our fight to preserve our culture. For example, we must fight to preserve good and beautiful music, e.g., Gregorian Chant and the music of Mozart. We must seek to suppress the music of the rebellion and of the cultural revolution, e.g., rock and roll, rap, etc.
Likewise, we must fight to preserve beautiful painting and other fine arts, against the attack of the cultural revolutionaries, who attack the uplifting beauty of good art. This feminist attack on beauty is the same as Marxist Goal #22 and #23 (of 45 total goals) as read into the U.S. Congressional Record in 1963:
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”.[6]
Part of the culture of each nation is to know well its past and history. This is natural and reasonable. A family has a history and should know this history well. A nation is, as it were, a family “writ large”. Thus, the feminists’ cultural revolution includes an attack on our nation’s history, as also reflected in Marxist Goal #31 (of 45 total goals) as read into the U.S. Congressional Record in 1963:
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.[7]
We see that American history is not only de-emphasized and dumbed-down but is also greatly falsified, e.g., in the leftists’ 1619 Project, falsely asserting that America was founded for the purpose to promoting slavery. The same is occurring in all of the rest of former Christendom.
The feminists and other Marxists attack good literature and replace it with debased stories and meaningless poetry.
We see many attacks on our culture’s customs, rules of etiquette, and all manner of propriety. For example, beginning in the 1960s the cultural revolutionaries promoted wearing blue jeans virtually everywhere. Although blue jeans were not invented in the 1960s, the cultural revolutionaries promoted wearing them everywhere in order to degrade our culture and destroy the idea that what we wear should be appropriate for the particular occasion. That is why, even back in the 1970s, one of the Catholic Candle Team members (who is a lifelong Traditional Catholic), did not allow his children to wear blue jeans out to parties or other events and occasions. That principle still applies today. Again, the feminists’ cultural revolution was (and is) destroying former Christendom’s customs, etiquette and propriety.
Of course, the cultural revolutionaries viciously attack virtue, especially modesty and purity. The enemies of our culture attacked true manliness and true womanliness (true femininity), along with attacking true virtue.
Against this feminist and Marxist cultural revolution, we must tirelessly promote what is traditional, godly, and according to the Natural Law, as well as according to the Catholic Faith.
We Must Fight the Feminists’ Attack On The Family
As we saw above, Kate Millett and the other founders of the National Organization of Women (N.O.W.) chanted (at their meetings) how they intend to wage their cultural revolution:
“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?”
“By destroying the American family!”
Kate Millett and her co-conspirators correctly saw how essential it is to destroy the family in order for their revolution to succeed. Satan, the Marxists, and feminists know that a revolution in the state will not succeed without destroying the family because the family is civil society’s first institution. The state is built upon families (not upon individuals) as its primary building blocks.
Thus, with satanic astuteness, the feminists promote the same evil goal (viz., destroying the family) as the Marxists do. The Marxists’ revolutionary goals #40-41 (of 45 total goals) are listed as follows, as these goals were read into the U.S. Congressional Record in 1963:
40. Discredit the family as an institution. …
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of
parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to
suppressive influence of parents.[8]
The feminists are only part of a network of evil groups which promote Satan’s work and these groups all use the same satanic/Marxist plan and promote the same evils. Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) is another example of a group which explicitly and intentionally opposes the natural, normal, God-given family.[9] Here is how BLM states its anti-family credo:
We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.[10]
In this regard, Our Lord’s enemies agree with the popes and with the Catholic Church – viz., that a successful revolution in the state requires a successful revolution in (i.e., destruction of) the family. A good, non-Marxist state requires good non-Marxist families. But when the family is destroyed, the state is in great peril and cannot survive. Here is how Pope Pius XI explains the truth that the family is the foundation of civil society and is prior to the state in nature and rights:
[T]here are three necessary societies, distinct from one another and yet harmoniously combined by God, into which man is born: two, namely the family and civil society, belong to the natural order; the third, the Church, to the supernatural order.
In the first place comes the family, instituted directly by God for its peculiar purpose, the generation and formation of offspring; for this reason, it has priority of nature and therefore of rights over civil society. Nevertheless, the family is an imperfect society, since it has not in itself all the means for its own complete development; whereas civil society is a perfect society, having in itself all the means for its peculiar end, which is the temporal well-being of the community; and so, in this respect, that is, in view of the common good, it has pre-eminence over the family, which finds its own suitable temporal perfection precisely in civil society.
The third society, into which man is born when through Baptism he reaches the divine life of grace, is the Church; a society of the supernatural order and of universal extent; a perfect society, because it has in itself all the means required for its own end, which is the eternal salvation of mankind; hence it is supreme in its own domain.
Divini Illius Magistri (On Christian Education) by Pope Pius XI, 1929, ¶¶11-13, (emphasis added).
Against this feminist and Marxist cultural revolution, we must focus our minds and our efforts upon the best ways for us to defend (and to counterattack) against the feminists’ cultural revolution. We must promote and support the family as an institution and we must defend it against attacks! We must emphasize its importance, praise it, and lead others to esteem it greatly.
We must fight against the selfish, me-first attitude of our present time in which young adults reject or unreasonably delay taking the concrete steps God Wills for them to take in order that they each find the spouse God intends and begin the life of their vocations. (This leaves aside the impurity and other sins that typically accompany this failure to respond – or delay in responding – to God’s vocational call.)
We Must Fight the Feminists’ Attack On Patriarchy
Let us see the feminists’ strategy to destroy the family. That will allow us to do our best to thwart this (and every other) element of this (evil) feminist revolution as framed by Kate Millett and her Marxist comrades.
Kate Millett and the other founders of the National Organization of Women (N.O.W.) chanted (at their meetings) the way in which they intended to wage their attack on the family:
“How do we destroy the family?”
“By destroying the American Patriarch.”[11]
Kate Millett and her co-conspirators correctly saw how essential it is to destroy the patriarch of the family in order for their revolution to succeed. The father (patriarch) is the protector and defender of the family. The family is safe when its vigilant guardian is at his post.
Satan, the Marxists, and feminists know that a revolution in the state will not succeed without destroying the family and this won’t happen if the patriarch is doing his duty.
The feminists join other Marxist groups, e.g., Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) which explicitly and intentionally opposes the natural, normal, God-given hierarchy of the family. BLM declares its opposition to what it calls “heteropatriarchial imperialism”[12] – by which BLM means the authority of a father over his family. (The misspelling of “patriarchal” is in the BLM original.)
Another example, among countless others, is the anti-patriarchal attack of the French socialist and commune leader, Benoît Malon, who declared:
What must happen is to completely abolish the authority of the father and his almost royal power in the family. In effect, equality only will be perfect if this is achieved. Aren’t the children of as great a value as the parents? By what right do the latter command the former? Enough of obedience! Enough of inequality![13]
Of course, Benoît Malon is a man, yet he is attacking the authority of men (fathers). This should not surprise the reader. Only superficial people care most about their own practical advantage. Malon cared more about destroying the authority of patriarchs because he is a tool of the devil who hates paternity. This is like the black BLM leaders praising Cuba’s (non-black) communist leaders who were oppressing black Cubans.[14]
Again, in the quote above, the socialist, Benoît Malon, declared: “Enough of obedience!” We see that this feminist/BLM/Marxist/satanic goal of destroying a father’s authority involves the obvious “stench” of Satan’s rebellion: “Non serviam!” Satan and his servants love this destruction of patriarchy because this destruction opposes God Who is the Creator both of the Natural Law, and also of the supernatural law.
In this regard, Our Lord’s enemies agree with the Catholic Church (and with sound reason) – viz., that a successful revolution in the state requires a successful revolution in (i.e., destruction of) authority in the family. A well-ordered state requires well-ordered families. But when the order in the family is destroyed, the state is in great peril and cannot survive.
That is why the Church (and sound reason) defend a father’s authority in his family. For example, St. Paul commands:
Wives, be subject to your husbands.
Colossians, 3:18.
St. Paul further teaches:
Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence.
1 Timothy, 2:11-12.
A person could wrongly think that somehow a husband’s authority over his family – which is infallibly certain – is not founded upon the Natural Law but only upon Church Law. However, the truth is that his authority is founded upon both.
Entire books can be written showing the certitude of a man’s authority over his wife and children based on the Natural Law (i.e., the natural order of things) as well as upon Church Law. However, for the present article, we include only a very few proofs showing that a man’s authority over his wife comes from nature and creation itself.
Firstly, notice that God declares that he makes Adam’s wife, Eve, to be a helpmate for him. This is a fact of nature itself and does not depend on future laws made by the Church. Here are God’s words:
And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself. And the Lord God having formed out of the ground all the beasts of the earth, and all the fowls of the air, brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: for whatsoever Adam called any living creature the same is its name. And Adam called all the beasts by their names, and all the fowls of the air, and all the cattle of the field: but for Adam there was not found a helper like himself.
Genesis, 2:18-20 (emphasis added).
It is obvious that in any context, the helper is the assistant, not the main authority in the situation. That is why, until the recent feminist revolution, a wife was traditionally[15] and commonly called her husband’s “helpmate”, because she was his inseparable helper. By contrast, the husband is not called a “helpmate” to his wife, not because he does not help her (he certainly does!) but because he is the leader of the family.
St. Paul also shows that the authority of man over woman is from nature, by appealing to the roots of this authority in creation itself. Here are St. Paul’s words, appealing to the creation itself of man and woman:
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
1 Corinthians, 11:8-9 (emphasis added).
Another way we can see from infallible Scripture that Adam had authority over his wife is that he named her – he both named her “woman”[16] when God brought her to him[17] and also gave her the proper name, “Eve”.[18] Just as parents name their children (and humans name their pets) so Adam named his wife showing he has authority over her (although, of course, this authority is not the same as a human naming a pet).
Further, Eve listened to the Devil and was deceived.[19] The sin of Adam, the Man, was far worse because he was not deceived by the Devil but chose to follow Eve, the Woman, into sin rather than to follow God. Thus, God shows that Adam’s sin was to follow the leadership of his wife, rather than to lead her. Here are God’s words:
And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.
Genesis, 3:17 (emphasis added).
From the above, it is clear that the revolution being waged by Satan’s tools, (including, but not limited to, the feminists), is an attack on the natural and supernatural order God created and which He intends. In our fight against these evils, we must especially fight to defend what Satan’s tools are especially attacking. We must do all that we can to uphold a father’s authority for the honor of God and for the good of society.
To be Continued
[1] Cf., Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, scene 2.
[2]
https://catholiccandle.org/2022/08/26/the-feminist-program-is-the-same-as-that-of-satan-and-marx-part-vii/
[3] Quoted from the eye witness account of her sister, Mallory Millett, recounted here: https://mallorymillett.com/?p=37
[5] Quoted from the Congressional Record – Appendix, pp. A34-A35, Current Communist Goals, Extension of Remarks of Hon. A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida in the House of Representatives, Thursday, January 10, 1963.
[6] Quoted from the Congressional Record – Appendix, pp. A34-A35, Current Communist Goals, Extension of Remarks of Hon. A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida in the House of Representatives, Thursday, January 10, 1963.
[7] Quoted from the Congressional Record – Appendix, pp. A34-A35, Current Communist Goals, Extension of Remarks of Hon. A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida in the House of Representatives, Thursday, January 10, 1963 (emphasis added).
[8] Quoted from the Congressional Record – Appendix, pp. A34-A35, Current Communist Goals, Extension of Remarks of Hon. A. S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida in the House of Representatives, Thursday, January 10, 1963.
[9] See, e.g., https://catholiccandle.org/2021/03/03/black-lives-matters-program-is-the-same-as-that-of-satan-and-marx/
[10] https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/ (emphasis added).
[11] Quoted from the eye witness account of her sister, Mallory Millett, recounted here: https://mallorymillett.com/?p=37
[12] Quoted from https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/ accessed on June 4, 2020.
Beginning in about June 2020, conservatives noticed the BLM credo and its overt Marxism. They began quoting it to warn the public about the encroaching Marxism throughout western nations. Sometime, in approximately September 2020, BLM removed this credo and substituted a more generic one in its place. Here is an archive copy of BLM’s Marxist credo we quote, here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200917194804/https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/
[13] Le socialisme intégral, Benoît Malon, (emphasis added), a translation of this from the original French, is found here: https://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/B009cpMen.htm
[15] See, e.g., the section called “A Wife, A Helpmate”, which is part of “Our Deportment,” a secular code of manners for refined society by John H. Young A.M., published in 1881, and found here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/gender-roles-of-husband-and-wife-in-the-home-based-on-1880s-gentlemans-etiquette-manual_4573890.html
[16] Genesis, 2:23: “And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.”
[17] Genesis, 2:22: “And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam.”
[18] Genesis, 3:20: “And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living.”