01.05 Baseline Research
Task
Topic: Christian Conservatism (Phyllis Schalfly). Identify the basics:
1. What is your topic focused around?
- Phyllis Schalfly (1924-2016) was an American attorney (involved in politics and
policymaking) who argued against feminism, gay rights, and abortion
- She believed that ERA was abandoning the needs of older middle-class women
and divorcees in favour of young career women, taking away the rights and
protection of housewives
-
- The “Christian Right” or “Religious Right” was a political movement
- Went against the Equal Rights Amendment during 1970s
- “...denounced the amendment because she believed it would attack the rights
of housewives, give the federal government excessive power, and hurt women
already equal before the law in the ways that mattered.” (Source)
- Thought it would take away “gender-specific privileges enjoyed by women,
including "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, separate restrooms
for males and females, and exemption from Selective Service (the military
draft)” (wiki bestie)
- "The truth is that American women never had it so good. Why should we
lower ourselves to ‘equal rights’ when we already have the status of
special privilege?" (Schlafly 1972, 93)
- Conservative Christianity (aka Right Wing Christianity or The New Christian Right)
involves a group of Christian denominations that seek to maintain orthodox
traditions and beliefs written in the Bible
- Rose in the 1900s; focuses on Biblical morality. These beliefs include:
- “Conservative Christian theologian Gilbert Bilezikian points out that throughout
the Old Testament era and beyond, just as God had prophesied, men continued
to rule over women in a patriarchal system which he sees as being a
compromise or accommodation between sinful reality and the divine ideal.[21]
The coming of Jesus is understood as moving forward from Old Testament
patriarchy, reinstituting full equality of gender roles, as succinctly articulated in
Galatians 3:28” (i.e. that men and women are equal but have gender roles to
fulfil for example women are to submit to their husbands) (a bit hypocritical
NGL)
- “The Christian Right emerged from both long-range and short-range
developments in American life. The long-range origins lay in the growth of
biblical higher criticism in the seminaries, the teaching of human evolution in
public schools, and, after World War II, the real or perceived threat of
Communism.” (Source)
- Related:
Evangelical Christians whose view of the Bible is ‘conservative’, i.e. who either
reject critical study of the Bible or else hold that such study confirms its authority
and historical accuracy.
- Conservative Christianity is based on Fundamentalism (a form of a religion that
upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture)
- The most conservative branch of Christianity is Protestant Christianity
2. How might this reflect values at the time?
- 1970-1980s shift to conservatism (USA)
Task
Topic: Christian Conservatism (Phyllis Schalfly). Identify the basics:
1. What is your topic focused around?
- Phyllis Schalfly (1924-2016) was an American attorney (involved in politics and
policymaking) who argued against feminism, gay rights, and abortion
- She believed that ERA was abandoning the needs of older middle-class women
and divorcees in favour of young career women, taking away the rights and
protection of housewives
-
- The “Christian Right” or “Religious Right” was a political movement
- Went against the Equal Rights Amendment during 1970s
- “...denounced the amendment because she believed it would attack the rights
of housewives, give the federal government excessive power, and hurt women
already equal before the law in the ways that mattered.” (Source)
- Thought it would take away “gender-specific privileges enjoyed by women,
including "dependent wife" benefits under Social Security, separate restrooms
for males and females, and exemption from Selective Service (the military
draft)” (wiki bestie)
- "The truth is that American women never had it so good. Why should we
lower ourselves to ‘equal rights’ when we already have the status of
special privilege?" (Schlafly 1972, 93)
- Conservative Christianity (aka Right Wing Christianity or The New Christian Right)
involves a group of Christian denominations that seek to maintain orthodox
traditions and beliefs written in the Bible
- Rose in the 1900s; focuses on Biblical morality. These beliefs include:
- “Conservative Christian theologian Gilbert Bilezikian points out that throughout
the Old Testament era and beyond, just as God had prophesied, men continued
to rule over women in a patriarchal system which he sees as being a
compromise or accommodation between sinful reality and the divine ideal.[21]
The coming of Jesus is understood as moving forward from Old Testament
patriarchy, reinstituting full equality of gender roles, as succinctly articulated in
Galatians 3:28” (i.e. that men and women are equal but have gender roles to
fulfil for example women are to submit to their husbands) (a bit hypocritical
NGL)
- “The Christian Right emerged from both long-range and short-range
developments in American life. The long-range origins lay in the growth of
biblical higher criticism in the seminaries, the teaching of human evolution in
public schools, and, after World War II, the real or perceived threat of
Communism.” (Source)
- Related:
Evangelical Christians whose view of the Bible is ‘conservative’, i.e. who either
reject critical study of the Bible or else hold that such study confirms its authority
and historical accuracy.
- Conservative Christianity is based on Fundamentalism (a form of a religion that
upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture)
- The most conservative branch of Christianity is Protestant Christianity
2. How might this reflect values at the time?
- 1970-1980s shift to conservatism (USA)
