In 1975 my friend Ginny Hearn and I picketed a seminar of The Total Woman at the Claremont Hotel near Berkeley, California.
I paid to attend the workshop and further heckle the speaker, Adelaide Woodcock, by asking questions about the biblical basis of the book by Maribel Morgan, which was the basis of the seminar.
Ginny's and my main point was that the behaviors recommended for wives in that book had no basis in biblical teachings.
We were interviewed by a reporter for the UC Berkeley daily newspaper, and when he asked, "Why do you think these women argue that wives should be sexy and subservient?" I answered, "Because they're stupid."
Getting quoted in the newspaper with that less-than-brilliant socioeconomic analysis was one of the low points of my life as a social activist.
A few years later Adelaide came across All We're Meant To Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1974, reprinted several times).
The biblical feminist point of view made sense to her--she was an intelligent woman--and she later contacted Letha and wrote an article for Christian Feminism Today about her personal journey. "Four Keys That Opened My Way to Consciousness."
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/four-keys
I had a chance to correspond with Adelaide and talk on the phone. She was writing a memoir with the help of her daughter, Maridel Bowes.
This experience taught me never to write anyone off as unenlightened or as a political enemy. People change. Where you and I are today may not be where we are in ten years.
I paid to attend the workshop and further heckle the speaker, Adelaide Woodcock, by asking questions about the biblical basis of the book by Maribel Morgan, which was the basis of the seminar.
Ginny's and my main point was that the behaviors recommended for wives in that book had no basis in biblical teachings.
We were interviewed by a reporter for the UC Berkeley daily newspaper, and when he asked, "Why do you think these women argue that wives should be sexy and subservient?" I answered, "Because they're stupid."
Getting quoted in the newspaper with that less-than-brilliant socioeconomic analysis was one of the low points of my life as a social activist.
A few years later Adelaide came across All We're Meant To Be: A Biblical Approach to Women's Liberation by Letha Dawson Scanzoni and Nancy A. Hardesty (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1974, reprinted several times).
The biblical feminist point of view made sense to her--she was an intelligent woman--and she later contacted Letha and wrote an article for Christian Feminism Today about her personal journey. "Four Keys That Opened My Way to Consciousness."
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/four-keys
I had a chance to correspond with Adelaide and talk on the phone. She was writing a memoir with the help of her daughter, Maridel Bowes.
This experience taught me never to write anyone off as unenlightened or as a political enemy. People change. Where you and I are today may not be where we are in ten years.
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