Defending the Family
A Feminist Perspective on the Traditional Family, Fatherhood and Motherhood in the
Christian Right
Jorien Martine Stolwijk
3806359
BA-Thesis – code 200401010
Supervisor – Eva Midden
Language and Culture studies – Third Year
Postcolonial and Gender studies
Block 4
Date – 05-08-2014
Summary
Conservative Christian organizations are gradually gaining more political influence in
democratic societies, such as the United States. Conservative Christian values are not always
in tune with contemporary western values towards equality and gendered hierarchies. These
conflicting values, of conservative Christian movements and feminists are the subject of this
thesis.
In preparation for this paper I researched the construction of gender sensitive concepts,
namely the traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood within the context of the Christian
Coalition of America. The Christian Coalition is a Christian Right Movement and is widely
viewed as a conservative organization. Thus, with the foregoing in mind, the research
question of this thesis is: How does the discourse of the Christian Coalition construct the
‘ideal’ traditional family and what does this mean for the construction of fatherhood and
motherhood?
Motherhood is an established and powerful concept within feminist discourse,
however fatherhood is comparatively speaking discursively less prominent. This does not
mean that fatherhood has not an important place in the construction of the traditional family.
Therefore, I have chosen to research both concepts within the context of ‘traditional’ family
structures. The Christian Coalition has fixed ideas regarding how the family, fatherhood and
motherhood are defined and this is reflected in their promotional material, in blogs that
support their ideas and in articles that appear on their own website. Analysis of this literature
forms the basis of my research, looking specifically at ways in which the Christian Coalition
and its own agendas create specific concepts of the family, motherhood and fatherhood. The
feminist discourse that is researched is not compatible with the discourse of the Christian
Coalition. Feminists view the same concepts in a different light. For them marriage,
fatherhood and motherhood are not about hierarchy, but about equality.
A pivotal aim is to make clear precisely how these concepts are both defined and
created and then subsequently used to present members of the organization with powerful,
stereotypical views both of what the family, fatherhood and motherhood are, and more
importantly, are not.
The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the discussion between feminists and
conservative Christian movements. It is important that feminists have a more educated and
nuanced understanding of these movements, in order to engage in discussions about gender
equality with, rather than against, the members of conservative organizations.
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Contents
Introduction
Page 4
Chapter one – The traditional family in scientific debates.
Page 6
Chapter two – Approach
Page 10
Chapter three – The ideal of the traditional family as seen through the eyes of
Christian Right Movements and the Christian Coalition of America
Page 14
Chapter four – The construction of fatherhood by Christian Right Movements
and the Christian Coalition of America
Page 18
Chapter five – The construction of motherhood by Christian Right Movements
and the Christian Coalition of America
Page 21
Conclusion
Page 24
Bibliography
Page 26
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Introduction
In democratic societies every person and political party potentially has a voice within politics.
This obviously includes conservative religious parties. However their ideas are not always
consistent with western secular values. Their influence is nonetheless growing within
American politics. One of these parties is the Christian Coalition of America and it has a
significant influence upon national politics.
The Christian Coalition is a conservative party with set ideas about gender sensitive
concepts such as the structure of the family, fatherhood, motherhood and associated concepts
like marriage and abortion. The organization wants to re-assert old ideals of the white,
patriarchal family. By striving for this ideal Christian Right movements want to return to an
era in which roles were clearly defined and men and women had their own functions both in and outside the house.1
This re-assertion of a traditional family structure is problematic for feminism.
Feminists have fought for decades to create equality within marriage. According to them men
and women are equal and hence the woman does not need to be submissive to her husband.2
Additionally, concepts of fatherhood and motherhood possess more ambivalent definitions
within feminist theory than they do within conservative Christian movements. Feminists do
not view them as unilateral concepts, in their eyes they are multilayered.3
It is important that feminist discussions on equality continue in western societies,
because even in presumed emancipated societies problems about equality arise in the private
sphere. The question however is how feminists should do that. The case of the Christian
Coalition is especially problematic, because of its religious component. Do feminists have a
right to claim that people who choose to believe in God are oppressed if they follow the
values of the Christian Coalition or not?
It is apparent that there are many questions that can be asked. In this thesis I will start
by creating a nuanced understanding of conservative movements, by analyzing discourse,
both surrounding and within the Christian Coalition. In my opinion it is important to
understand the members of the Christian Coalition before we can start discussing the themes
that are named above. Only by creating a better understanding feminists will have a realistic
Z. Eisenstein, ‘The Sexual Politics of the New Right: Understanding the ‘Crisis of Liberalism’ for the 1980’s’, Feminist
Theory 7 (1982) 567-588, 567
2 K. Blaisure and K. Allen, ‘Feminists and the Ideology and Practice of Marital Equality’, Journal of Marriage and Family
57 (1995), 5.
3 A. Kinser, Motherhood and Feminism, (Berkley 2010), 23. En L. Silverstein, ‘Fathering is a Feminist Issue’ Psychology of
Women Quarterly 20 (2006) 3-37, 20.
1
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image of conservative parties like the Christian Coalition. Therefore the research question of
my thesis is the following:
How does the discourse of the Christian Coalition construct the ideal of the
traditional family and what does this mean for the construction of motherhood
and fatherhood?
These concepts will be analyzed primarily because they occupy an important place in the
politics of the Christian Coalition, although they are also important within feminist theory,
because they shape the ways in which we think about the roles of men and women.
I will analyze the above concepts by using discourse analysis. My opting for this
method will be explained in the following chapter. In the theoretical framework I will reflect
on theories surrounding traditional marriage, fatherhood and motherhood both from a
Christian Right and feminist perspective. In the analysis that follows I will research the
construction of the traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood by the Christian Coalition.
In conclusion I will present the results of my analysis.
Although a secular woman myself, I witness the growing importance of religion in the
lives of people around me and the increasing gulf between religious and secular communities.
Therefore I think it is important to understand how religion constructs the lives of people and
what the effect of this is on gender sensitive concepts. In my research I will keep Adrienne
Rich’s idea of politics of location in mind. Rich argued that every person is created by his or
her surroundings, so in other words the ideas, thoughts and persons around us also construct
us.4
4
A. Rich, ‘Notes Towards a Politics of Location (1984)’ in A. Rich, Blood, Bread and Poetry (London 1987), 210- 231, 212.
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Chapter One - The traditional family in scientific debates
In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir provided the world a new vision on gender. She stated the
following:
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological,
psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female
presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature,
intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.5
In this quote it becomes clear that the idea about a woman or a man is not fixed or biological,
but is influenced by society. According to De Beauvoir children do not see themselves or
others as sexually differentiated.6 They are children who have a body and the differences do
not matter at a young age. In later stages of life they become clearer and the division between
men and women emerges.
Society has a big influence on the way humans view both their surroundings and
themselves. Concepts which are viewed as natural and self-evident were proved to be
constructed by De Beauvoir. Judith Stacey (1998) argues:
The family has no a priori, natural, essential or universal meaning or form.
Instead “family” is an idiom for signifying a fully socially constructed
“institution’”.7
The idea of the family as an institution can be linked to the ideal of the traditional family, as
constructed by the Christian Coalition. It proves that the family is not a natural given, but that
it is constructed within the discourse of an authoritative movement.
In this research the idea of the traditional family and therefore also fatherhood and
motherhood as constructed concepts will be central. I will discuss these concepts in the
American context, because the Christian Coalition of America has its origins in the United
States. Most literature that will be used is also set in this context. This does not mean that this
research is not equally relevant to European society. In the Netherlands for example, there
recently was a discussion about the political party the SGP. The party did not allow women in
their organization, on religious grounds. Dutch society was indignant about this news and
5
S. De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (London 1979), 295.
De Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 295.
7 J. Stacey, Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late-Twentieth-Century America. Second edition (New
York 1998), 114.
6
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eventually the SGP needed to bend to public pressure.8
This example demonstrates a European society actively preventing a religious party
from defending its standpoints. The Christian Coalition of America however has much more
political influence in the United States than the SGP in the Netherlands. Therefore it is
important to research what influence this party has upon the lives of its members. For
feminists it is important to know how the Christian Coalition constructs the concepts of the
traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood. Only when it is clear how this construction
takes place, feminists can understand how the organization works and how they might engage
with it.
In America the family has been heavily politicized. Politicians wanted to re-establish
the traditional family, as a reaction to the changing social climate in the 1980’s.9 Personal
issues such as motherhood, patriarchy, marriage and abortion have attracted much ongoing
attention in American politics. In other words, the private sphere of the family was lifted into
the public sphere of politics and they became intertwined.
The Christian Coalition is one of many political parties committed to the ideal of the
traditional family. They and other Christian Right movements stated the need to re-establish
the white, patriarchal family in order to create a reinforced and better economy. 10 This meant
that the family needed to consist of a traditional, white working father and a white stay-athome mother.11
By re-establishing the traditional white, patriarchal family, the structure of the family
changed. A point argued by political theorist Zillah Eisenstein: ‘By reasserting the power of
the family against the state, the New Right more accurately intends to re-establish the power
of the father.’12 In other words the role of the father became a synonym for state. The state is
leading a nation and the father is leading a family. The father is part of the institution of the
family and has an important role. He is in charge of the family and patriarchy was revived.
In this thesis the discourse that is created around the father by the Christian Coalition
of America, will be researched from a gender sensitive perspective. These are concepts that
are influenced and even constructed by gender related issues. The concept of motherhood for
example, is influenced by someone’s sex, but it also is constructed from a feminine standpoint
NOS, ‘SGP wijzigt vrouwenstandpunt’, (version 16 March 2014) http://nos.nl/artikel/485307-sgp-wijzigtvrouwenstandpunt.html (20-07-2014).
9 J. Pankhurst and S. Houseknecht, ‘The Family, Politics and Religion. In Fear of the New Individualism’, Journal of Family
Issues 4 (1983), 5-35, 5-6.
10 Eisenstein, ‘The Sexual Politics of the New Right’, 567-568.
11 Ibid., 567-568.
12 Ibid., 575.
8
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through society.
Christian Right movements view the father in a strong and leading position within the
institution of the family. The mother however, has her own identity and construction within
Christian ethics. Irene Oh argues that religious traditions tend to identify mothers as willing
and selfless creatures, who do not have an identity of their own. Women need to live up to the
ideal of an unconditionally caring and loving mother.13 This vision of motherhood has its
history in Christian ethics and was reinforced by religious leaders such as the pope.14 While
the influence of the pope is still important, it is also likely that political parties themselves
create persistent ideals about motherhood as well as fatherhood.
Feminist theory has also contributed to discussion about the traditional family,
fatherhood and motherhood. The traditional roles within the family, with a patriarchal father
and a subordinate mother created problems for feminists. The view of the father as provider of
the family created unequal gender hierarchies and feminists wanted to fight this idea.
Therefore much has been written about motherhood. The issue of fatherhood however, has
been largely unexplored.15
Psychologist Louise Silverstein wants to redefine fatherhood from a feminist
perspective. She argues that the father has functioned in the public sphere and was never able
to show intimacy and emotions.16 Unlike others, the Christian Right movements have
emphasized the role of the father in the family, but they wanted to re-enforce male authority
in a dominant way.17 According to Silverstein the role of the father has far-reaching effects on
the lives of women, because gender hierarchy is influenced by both roles of men and women
in the household.18 The father as a dominant patriarch is not the way in which we should
envision fatherhood. Silverstein suggests a feminist perspective in which the father would be
seen as a nurturing and responsible dad.19 The feminist and Christian Right perspectives on
fatherhood are therefore conflicting. The latter sees the father as an authoritarian leader, while
the former sees him as a warm caregiver.
Motherhood takes more ambivalent position in feminist debates. It was once
celebrated, critiqued and used as leverage to gain rights, further re-conceptualized, so that
I. Oh, ‘Motherhood in Christianity and Islam: Critiques, Realities and Possibilities’, Journal of Religious Ethics 38 (2010)
638-653, 639.
14 Oh, ‘Motherhood in Christianity and Islam’, 339.
15 L. Silverstein, ‘Fathering is a Feminist Issue’ Psychology of Women Quarterly 20 (2006) 3-37, 3-4.
16 Silverstein, ‘Fathering is a Feminist Issue’, 4.
17 Ibid., 4.
18 Ibid., 4-5.
19 Ibid., 6.
13
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women could view motherhood as an empowering experience.20 Even now, feminists do not
have a clear image of what motherhood is; the concept cannot be captured in one sentence.21
Motherhood is a universal, but also a personal given. It is tensioned by different intersecting
axes of life like race, class and sexuality. The experiences of mothers all over the world are
different and therefore it is hard to talk about motherhood as a universal entity.22 This is true
for fathers as well, but in both feminist and Christian Right literature, the father has a more
fixed role than the mother has.
It becomes clear that feminists and conservative movements have very different points
of view on the traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood. However for feminists it is
hard to discuss gender equality when religion is an important component of the discussion.
When an individual has freely opted for a given religion it becomes harder to isolate
oppression. Can someone be oppressed when he or she chose to be religious? What feminists
can do is trying to understand the Christian Right movements, and hence the Christian
Coalition in a better way. How do these movements construct gender sensitive concepts and
what does this mean for its members? Feminists should not only critique conservative
movements, they also need to fully understand them. Only when this happens they can
continue the discussion about gender equality within these movements.
20
A. Kinser, Motherhood and Feminism, (Berkley 2010), 1.
Kinser, Motherhood and Feminism, 2.
22 Ibid., 3.
21
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Chapter Two - Approach
For the Christian Coalition the traditional family is a significant and reified concept. Christian
Right movements have a clear image of fatherhood and motherhood. I will research how the
Christian Coalition constructs these concepts by analyzing discourse created around the
traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood.
‘Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language.’23 Stuart Hall’s
quote explains the significant role that discourse takes in human lives. Humans are always
producing knowledge by using language. But according to Hall, discourse does more: it has
its effect upon social structures and is also determined by them.24 Thus discourse is a
comprehensive concept, which influences human lives to a significant degree. A given
discourse is set in the collective memory of human beings and is used unconsciously.25
Eva Midden follows the idea of Norman Fairclough when she argues that discourse is
not only a use of language, but that it also produces meaning.26 So what is said is as important
as how it is said. Everything that is said or done has a meaning and constructs a certain
reality. The discourse of the Christian Coalition thus creates meaning.
This notion of discourse, as a social structure, will hold a pivotal position in this
research. It is clear that the family and politics are intertwined and cannot be seen as two
separate entities. The Christian Coalition of America is initially a political party and therefore
its discourse has a great influence on social practices of human beings.
In order to do a thorough discourse analysis I will analyze texts and visuals that are
available on the website of the Christian Coalition of America. I specifically chose the
Christian Coalition, because it is an influential party in America, with a leading political
voice. I chose to analyse the website (http://www.cc.org/), because it gives me primary
information that is written by the movement itself thus the discourse of the movement is
displayed.
The website is set in the colours of the American flag. It has informative sections in
which the visitor can read their mission statements and ideology. The website itself has a
political feel. There is a section in which news highlights alternate and the messages are
highly political. E.g. the title of one highlighted article is: ‘Demand to know the truth about
S. Hall, ‘The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power’, in R. Maaka and C. Andersen The Indigenous Experience. Global
Perspectives (Ontario 2006), 165-174, 165.
24 E. Midden, ‘Feminism in Multicultural Societies. An analysis of Dutch Multicultural and Postsecular Developments and
their Implications for Feminist Debates’ PhD Dissertation (2010) University of Lancashire, 125.
25 Hall, The West and the Rest, 166.
26 Midden, ‘Feminism in Multicultural Societies’, 124.
23
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Benghazi’. Other articles and highlighted features have a more religious or moralistic
approach. E.g. the button on which people can click if they want to donate to the Christian
Coalition. It shows the following: ‘WE NEED YOUR HELP. Christian Coalition of America
works to strengthen and preserve our families and our values.’ Another highlight asks the
visitors of the website to sign a petition in order to preserve traditional marriage.27 It becomes
clear that the Christian Coalition has a political agenda. They want to gain votes and are
constantly posting items about politics, but everything is influenced by a Christian morality.
In order to further research discourse within the Christian Coalition I examined the
blog page, agenda, ‘about us’ sections and the homepage of the website. I made a selection of
several blogs and articles that are available on the website. The selection was established by
searching several keywords in the contents of the website. These were motherhood,
fatherhood, marriage, the pro-life discussion, planned-parenthood, traditional family and
family values. Most articles that I have found were on the blog-section of the website. I must
make clear that the Christian Coalition also refers to blogs of two other sites, namely: Capital
Notebook (http://www.cc.org/Capitol_Notebook) and Religious Right Watch
(www.religiousrightwatch.com).
I found two articles specifically focussed upon the traditional family. One was in the
agenda of the Christian Coalition and one was in the blog section of the website. I also found
two articles about fatherhood (both in the blog section). Additionally I selected two articles
about motherhood, also from the blog section of the website. I specifically chose these
articles, because they have explicit references to the concepts that I was researching. Because
of the volume of this research, I have focussed on a small sub-selection of data. I am aware of
the fact that this is only a small selection of articles and for a more thorough research more
articles should be analysed.
The questions that guided my analysis were how fatherhood, motherhood and the
traditional family are defined in the articles. The answers on these questions will produce an
insight into how the Christian Coalition creates ideas about the concepts with which we are
here concerned. By analyzing this I can determine the effect of the discourse that is used by
the organization.
It is important to notice that at the moment of writing this thesis, there are upcoming
elections in America. A lot of news on the website of the Christian Coalition is therefore antiObama and anti-Democrats. This can give a distorted image of the data that is available,
27
Christian Coalition, ‘Home’ http://www.cc.org/ (28 May 2014).
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because the Christian Coalition is campaigning for the upcoming elections. This means that
they are emphasizing their key agendas and that emphasis can create a more radical image of
the movement.
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Chapter Three - The ideal of the traditional family as seen through the eyes of Christian
Right Movements and the Christian Coalition of America
The Coalition is a political organization, made up of pro-family Americans
who care deeply about ensuring that government serves to strengthen and
preserve, rather than threaten, our families and our values. To that end, we
work continuously to identify, educate and mobilize Christians for effective
political action.28
With this quote the Christian Coalition of America assures the reader, that the organization’s
main political motivation is to preserve and defend the traditional family. Perceived threats
like divorce, same-sex marriage and abortion need to be tackled by the Christian Coalition.29
In this passage the organization pushes the family into the political sphere. They want to
mobilize Christians for political action, so they can safeguard traditional family values in the
American society.
This ideal of political engagement can be linked to Sara Diamond’s notion that
Christian Right movements are not only political factions. According to her the Christian
Right is more an evangelical subculture that seeks to dominate the secular world. By this she
means that the Christian Right has its own cultural channels to broadcast its ideas.30 So the
Christian Right and by association the Christian Coalition, is not only an organization that
expresses its ideas in politics, it is also a whole standalone subculture with its own values and
practices. By broadcasting its ideas on their website, the Christian Coalition tries to gain
influence on the political and personal ideas of their members.
The traditional family occupies a reified position in Christian Right movements.
Diamond states that the Christian Right guards its ideas about what a good family should be.31
It is foundationally based upon heterosexual marriage in which the husband is leading and the
wife is submissive. Children within this family should be raised with Christian ethics and
abortion is viewed as murder.32 These statements about the family can be viewed as
conservative and according to sociologist Clem Brooks this is imputable to the fact that the
American society does not believe in the traditional family and marriage as they did before.
Christian Coalition, ‘About Us’, http://www.cc.org/about_us (02 June 2014).
Christian Coalition, ‘Blogs – tags’, http://www.cc.org/blog_preview (02 June 2014)
30 S. Diamond, Not By Politics Alone. The Enduring Influence of the New Right (New York 1998), 15.
31 Diamond, Not By politics Alone, 3.
32 Ibid., 14-15.
28
29
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People divorce and numerous single-parent families emerge.33 The Christian Right
movements reacted on these societal changes by re-assuring and preaching the ideal of the
traditional family.34
An important component of the traditional family is heterosexual marriage. Diamond
states the following:
It is unlikely that the Christian Right will succeed in restoring old stigmas to
the practice of divorce. However, internally, within the movement,
rhetorical attacks on divorce are part of a discourse about strengthening
traditional male and female gender roles.35
Thus, marriage consists of a husband and a wife with their own function in the family. Gender
hierarchy plays an important role in this; the husband has a dominant role and the wife is
submissive. According to the Christian Right, marriage is a principle form and Christians are
not supposed to deviate from it.
On the website of the Christian Coalition there are also numerous articles and blogs
about the traditional family. Crucially, there are 97 pages of blogs on the website which are
related to the concept of the traditional marriage. This theme however does not only feature in
the blog section of the website, it is also included in the statements on the homepage, ‘agenda’
and ‘about us’ section. I decided to analyze articles in the agenda about defending the family,
and an article about gay marriage. I chose that article, because gay marriage and gay
relationships are perceived as inherently opposing traditional marriage and family. They are
inappropriate in the eyes of the organization.36
On their website they have a heading for their agenda where visitors can read the
organization’s principle political points. One of these is ‘Defending Traditional Marriage’. In
this item the Christian Coalition calls for the active participation of their members to defend
traditional marriage. The following is a part of the agenda text:
The definition of traditional marriage is under attack as liberals seek to
radically redefine an institution that has existed for thousands of years. In
recent years, it has come under attack by left-wing judges who have sought
C. Brooks, ‘Religious Influence and the Politics of Family Decline Concern: Trends, Sources and U.S. Political Behavior’
American Sociological Review 67 (2002) 191-211, 191.
34 Brooks, ‘Religious Influence and the Politics of Family Decline Concern’, 194.
35 Diamond, Not By Politics Alone, 14.
36 Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014)
33
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to redefine marriage by judicial decree. Now, President Obama's
administration is actively working to repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage
Act37, and is supporting lawsuits to have the law overturned by the United
States Supreme Court and urging the top court to legalize homosexual
“marriage".38
In this item on the agenda of the Christian Coalition it becomes clear that the organization
openly attacks ‘liberal’ ideas of marriage. They want to clarify that traditional marriage is an
institution that has existed for thousands of years, it is almost a natural given. The Christian
Coalition views the family as fixed and this idea is emphasized in the language used, by
stating that marriage is an ‘institution that existed for thousands of years’. Liberal ideas
contradict notions of ‘the family’, and therefore marriage, as a priori, natural or universal
meaning or form, as stated by Judith Stacey above.39
Stacey believes that the family is no longer an a priori fact, but that it is constructed.
The Christian Coalition also sees that marriage is constructed, however in a contradictory
manner, namely into the sphere of gay marriage. They believe people need to go back to a
‘traditional’ ideal.
The Christian Coalition wants to define marriage by proclaiming what it is not. They
state the following:
The Defense of Marriage Act is a federal law that prohibits the federal
government from treating “same sex” relationships as marriage, and
prevents states from being required to give legal recognition to gay
marriages performed in other states.40
They quote The Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same sex relationships and
marriage. According to the organization, same sex marriages or relationships are not legal.
The Christian Coalition argues that same sex marriages cannot have ‘legal recognition’.41 So
following their arguments, it can be concluded that a gay marriage is not a real marriage. The
Christian Coalition thinks that only heterosexual marriage, by implication, traditional
marriage, is thus real and legal.
37
The law is named Defense of Marriage Act, so it is not a spelling error.
Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014).
39 Stacey, Brave New Families, 114.
40 Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014)
41 Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014).
38
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The organization further questions homosexuality in an article entitled ‘Has a Gay Ever
Admitted A Change In Sexual Attraction?’ The article is about treatments and therapies for
young Christians with homosexual feelings. The Christian Coalition does not engage with any
potential problems in attempts to treat homosexuality, because they say it does not harm the
children it only makes them better. They state:
Unfortunately, many politicians have regulated California out of the real
world. SB-1172 is another attempt by gay activists to acquire preferential
treatment, and criminalize all who oppose their wishes. Instead of equality,
they seem to want power to control and tyrannize.42
The Christian Coalition posits a negative image of gay activism by saying activists want to
take control and tyrannize the world with their wishes. They use an anti-gay discourse to reenforce the ideal of traditional marriage and the traditional family. A frequent blogger argues
that gays ‘tyrannize’ and ‘criminalize’ people who are defending the traditional marriage. Gay
activists and gay marriage are components, which threaten this long existing image of the
traditional family.43 Gay marriage is a dangerous opponent of the traditional family and by
constantly stating this, the Christian Coalition constructs an image of what marriage therefore
should be.
My final point about the construction of traditional marriage through the discourse of
the Christian Coalition is that the movement sees its quest for a traditional America as a
battle. They use a military discourse to strengthen their standpoint. This can be found on the
agenda page, again defending marriage:
Christian Coalition of America will aggressively work to support traditional
definition of marriage laws at the state and national levels.44
In previous quotes this idea can also be found. They state that ‘the traditional marriage is
under attack’. Also the fact that the Christian Coalition wants to ‘mobilize’ Christians to
‘defend’ their family values, demonstrates that the Christian Coalition uses a military
discourse to reflect its goals to their members. In all these phrases the organization uses
expressions militaristic in nature. Words like ‘defend’, ‘mobilize’, ‘aggressively’ and ‘attack’
Kevin, ‘Has a Gay Ever Admitted A Chang In Sexual Attraction? (version 1 June 2014)
http://www.cc.org/blog/has_gay_ever_admitted_change_sexual_attraction (02 June 2014).
43 Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014).
44 Christian Coalition, ‘Our Agenda’, http://www.cc.org/our_agenda (06 June 2014)
42
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are used to stress the importance of the traditional marriage. By using such discourse, the
Christian Coalition constructs an ideal that seems worth defending. The task of the military is
to defend the homeland, so to say the motherland. Within the Christian Coalition the members
of the organization can be viewed as the army, they are the ones who need to defend their own
homeland, their own values and therefore their own marriage. It is clear that traditional
marriage takes a central role in the agenda of the organization and therefore it is a serious
ideal to defend.
The Christian Coalition of America made the preservation of the traditional family its
primary goal. They want to protect Christian ethics in America by defending the concept of
the traditional family, with an emphasis on traditional marriage. Feminists have a different
point of view on marriage. They strive for marital equality in both heterosexual and gay
marriages.45 Thus, the fixed ideal of traditional marriage supported by the Christian Coalition
cannot be fully expressed in a more feminist approach. Therefore it is crucial that feminists
continue to engage in discussion with the Christian Coalition and other conservative
movements. Religion is indeed a notable component of this discussion and feminists should
equally engage with this, by taking a nuanced and educated part in any discussion.
Importantly, it is not only feminists, who preach equality, so do many religious movements
and therefore they always need to take the feminist voice into account, which speaks up for
the subordinate position within traditional marriage.
45
Blaisure and K. Allen, ‘Feminists and the Ideology and Practice of Marital Equality’, Journal of Marriage and Family 57
(1995), 5.
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Chapter Four - The construction of fatherhood by Christian Right Movements and the
Christian Coalition of America
Fathers seem to have a dominant role within conservative Christian families. The Christian
Right wants to re-assert the white, patriarchal family with Christian values.46 It has been
argued that the role of the father needed to be re-asserted. 47 Several conservative parties have
urged men to reclaim their position as the patriarch of their families and to regain leadership
of their homes.48 Evangelical pastor Tony Evans preaches the idea of the father as a
patriarchal leader. He states the following in one of his texts:
The primary cause of this national crisis [the decline of the family] is the
feminization of the American male [...] The first thing you do is sit down
with you wife and say something like this: ‘Honey, I’ve made a terrible
mistake. I’ve given you my role. I gave up leading this family, and I forced
you to take my place. Now I must reclaim that role.’49
In this quote the pastor urges fathers to take back their role as the leader of the family. They
literally need to reclaim it from their wives, because they have given her the role of the
patriarch in the family. The father needs to become the leader again. So the Christian Right
uses prominent preachers to promote familial reform. Men need to reassume their leadership
and this becomes clear in the discourse used by Tony Evans.
The father has an ambiguous position within conservative Christian parties, such as
the Christian Coalition. He needs to live up to the Christian ideal of the patriarchal leader of
the household, but at the same time there is also a societal and feminist voice that wants the
father to be a loving, warm and emotional beacon in the family.50 Many sociologists express
fears with regard to conservative ideas of fatherhood. They argue that the patriarchal father
would raise his children in an authoritarian way.51 Thus the Christian father needs to live up to
two conflicting voices.
It becomes clear that the position of a Christian Right father is not easy to define. In
order to come to a better understanding of the construction of fatherhood by the Christian
Coalition, I searched for articles specifically about fatherhood. I was surprised to discover that
Eisenstein, ‘The Sexual Politics of the New Right, 567-568.
Ibid., 575.
48 W.B Wilcox, Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands (Chicago 2004), 1.
49 Wilcox, Soft Patriarchs, New Men, 1.
50 Ibid., 8-9.
51 Ibid., 8.
46
47
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there is little about fathers on the website of the organization. There was only one ‘hit’ when I
entered the keyword fatherhood, a legal document. However, when I entered the word father I
found 29 pages which were related to the concept, most articles relating to the ‘Holy Father’. I
have selected two articles to analyze. One is about the view of a father and congressman on
foster youth and one is about the right of the father when it comes to abortion. Planned
parenthood and abortion also have an important role in the ethics of the Christian Coalition.
There are 43 pages of blogs about planned-parenthood and 155 pages of blogs about abortion.
The Christian Coalition does believe in traditional family values. However, the place
of the father seems to be marginal and subordinate to other familial issues such as abortion,
planned-parenthood and marriage. Despite the apparently scant attention given to fatherhood,
Congressman Randy Forbes has made interesting references to it. He wants people to open
their eyes for the problems of foster youth. He begins his article with the following anecdote:
Like many parents, I cherish the memories I have of tucking my children
into bed at night when they were young. Switching on the nightlight.
Reading that favourite bed-time story. Giving that one last good night
kiss.’52
In the article Forbes shows his readers that he is not an authoritarian father. He positions
himself firmly as a loving and caring father, who tucks his children into bed. It can be said
that this sentimental portrait of himself, as a caring, nurturing father serves political purposes,
because he wants to raise attention for children who do not have a father (or a mother) to read
them bed-time stories and give them good night kisses. He supports the Children in Families
First Act, because he wants foster children to grow up in a safe and loving environment.53
Forbes’ article suggests what a father should be, that is to be warm and loving.
Moreover, Forbes description of his own style of fatherhood does not match the ideal of a
patriarchal and authoritarian father that was sketched by the Christian Right. In the article he
has written he sketches the image of himself as a caring father.54 The question we must ask is:
Can we in some way reconcile the authoritarian father and the warm and caring father? It
seems as if the Christian Coalition might, after all follow the feminist perspective on
R. Forbes, ‘Congressman Randy Forbes Co-Sponsors the Children in Families First Act’ (version 12 May 2014)
http://www.cc.org/node/14489 (04 June 2014).
53 R. Forbes, ‘Congressman Randy Forbes Co-Sponsors the Children in Families First Act’ (version 12 May 2014)
http://www.cc.org/node/14489 (04 June 2014).
54 R. Forbes, ‘Congressman Randy Forbes Co-Sponsors the Children in Families First Act’ (version 12 May 2014)
http://www.cc.org/node/14489 (04 June 2014).
52
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fatherhood, more than the Christian Right ideal. But the gap between both perspectives may
not be as big as it seems. Perhaps a father can be both leader and loving dad.
The construction of the father as a warm family man can be found in other articles.
Most articles situating the father talk of abortion and the pro-life discussion suggesting that
fathers often have the feeling that they do not have a voice when their partners decide to abort
a baby.55 The Christian Coalition is a pro-life advocate and therefore articles about abortion
feature prominently within the organization.
One article, borrowed by the Christian Coalition from the Religion Right Watch, has
the following title: ‘No free speech for would-be fathers?’. It is about a man whose partner
chose to have an abortion. He bought a billboard and placed it next to a highway with the
following text: ‘This Would Have Been A Picture of My 2-Month Old Baby If The Mother
Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!’56 It is clear that the father did not want to have an
abortion, but the mother decided to do it. In the pro-life discussion it seems the father has a
marginalized position, even though he wants to take up the role of a loving and caring father.
In the article the father is portrayed as the advocate of life and the mother is the one who
‘killed’ the baby therefore emphasizing the position of the loving father. Thus in this article
the construction of fatherhood as a function of authoritarianism is contested. Additionally in
Randy Forbes’ article the father is shown as an involved and caring person wanting to take
responsibility for his children. In these examples the Christian Coalition does not live up to
the conservative Christian ideal of the father as a patriarchal leader, but rather an emotional
discourse is used to emphasize that the father is not an authoritarian ruler, but a kind and
caring part of the family.
For feminists this outcome is both unexpected and welcome. It shows that
conservative parties can and indeed, do change their ideology. In the selected articles the
father is no longer seen as the ruling patriarch, but now as a warm patriarch. Of course the
leading role of the father is still problematic for feminists, because it often puts women in a
subordinate position. Feminists can however use this change of ideology in their own quest
for marital equality within conservative movements. The fact that the role of the father has
changed shows that conservative movements are open to narratives and maybe even a
discourse of change and feminists can use this opening to discuss wider questions of equality.
Religious Right Watch. ‘No free speech for would-be fathers?’ (version 8 June 2011)
http://www.cc.org/blog/no_free_speech_rights_wouldbe_fathers (4 June 2014).
56 Religious Right Watch. ‘No free speech for would-be fathers?’ (version 8 June 2011)
http://www.cc.org/blog/no_free_speech_rights_wouldbe_fathers (4 June 2014).
55
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Chapter Five - The construction of motherhood by Christian Right Movements and the
Christian Coalition of America
Mothers have an important role in the family, but the definition cannot be captured in one
sentence.57 Even though the task might seem almost impossible, conservative Christian
movements have tried to define motherhood. According to Rosalind Petchesky motherhood is
defined by Christian movements as follows: ‘As a woman’s true destiny, her ‘’calling’’, that
which defines her above all else and so must take priority above all other tasks or
commitments.’58 In other words motherhood is the highest achievable goal in a woman’s life.
It is almost inevitable that any Christian woman who can will become a mother.
Motherhood is shaped around concepts of willing and selfless devotion.59 For
centuries Mary was the idealized mother. She is described as self-offering, limitless and
tireless. This ideal is voiced by Pope John Paul II. According to him mothers need to sacrifice
themselves for their children.60 In other words, the identity of a woman is defined by
motherhood. She can only fulfil her life through caring for children. This can be the same for
women who do not belong to the Christian Right, motherhood can be perceived as a welcome
and important part of the life of any woman. However what I want to emphasize here is that
Christian Right movements perceive motherhood as something inevitable, instead of seeing it
as a choice.
In order to research the discourse of the Christian Coalition about motherhood, I
searched for articles that were about, or related to motherhood. When I entered the keyword
‘mother’ I found 29 pages of blogs with the word in it. I did the same for the word
motherhood and found 5 blogs. I also entered the words planned parenthood and abortion
from which 43 and 155 pages of blogs resulted. Of interest here, is the way that few articles
were solely pertaining to motherhood. Most articles were related to abortion and plannedparenthood. Therefore I chose to analyze two articles, one about motherhood and one about
abortion, selected because they were explicitly linked to the concept of motherhood. In other
articles the word mother was mentioned only once or the article was not built around the
concept of motherhood per se.
The position of the mother within traditional Christian families is less ambivalent than
that of the father. As reverend Austin Miles argues on the website of the Christian Coalition
57
Kinser, Motherhood and Feminism, 2.
R. Petchesky, ‘Antiabortion, Antifeminsm, and the Rise of the New Right’, Feminist Studies 7 (1981) 206-246, 233.
59 Oh, ‘Motherhood in Christianity and Islam’, 638.
60 Ibid., 639.
58
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that the family consists of two sides, just like the brain. Neuroscience makes clear that the
right hemisphere cares and the left does not. The left consists out of more masculine
characteristics such as aggressiveness and rationality. According to Miles this works the same
for marriage. He says that women can complement the natural aggressiveness of men, with
her softness and kindness. Both ‘hemispheres’ collide in a child and then the mother, with her
natural kindness provides a safe environment for the baby.61 In this article it becomes clear
that the Christian Coalition has a fixed, almost natural idea about the characteristics of men
and women with the woman always portrayed as a caring and kind creature.
Motherhood is surrounded by romantic narratives of selflessness, unconditional love
and kindness. By becoming a mother, a woman is answering her primary calling as a human
being.62 This discourse is also used for leverage in pro-life discussions. Political scientists
Rosalind Petchesky explains the following:
Clearly, this is the underlying message of the antiabortion movement, that
women who seek abortions are “selfish’’ because they attempt to deny the
“life’’ of “their own child’’ and therefore their own “destiny’’ (both
“natural’’ and God-given) to procreate, nurture, and suffer.63
In other words, women who have had an abortion lack the ideal of selflessness and
unconditional love, which are prominent in motherhood. In the point of view of the Christian
Right they deny themselves their own destiny. So Petchesky argues that the ideal of
motherhood is constructed by the assumption that it is the calling of a woman to become a
mother.64
The website of the Christian Coalition contains many articles about the pro-life
discussion and anti-abortion issues. The Christian Coalition is against abortion, because they
believe it is murder.65 The Christian Coalition thinks every life is sacred, therefore women
should not end a pregnancy; that it is against the will of God.66
This discourse that is set around issues of abortion is filled with narratives of fear and
Godly punishments. In one article Kevin, a frequent blogger, writes about the ‘real rates’ of
Reverend Austin Miles, ‘Left Brain vs. Right Brain Dilemma’ (version 08 August 2013)
http://www.cc.org/blog/left_brain_vs_right_brain_dilemma (04 June 2014).
62 Petchesky, ‘Antiabortion, Antifeminsm, and the Rise of the New Right’, 233.
63 Ibid., 233.
64 Ibid., 233.
65 Kevin, ‘Planned Parenthood Getting Desperate With Business Drop’ (version 06 August 2013)
http://www.cc.org/blog/planned_parenthood_getting_desperate_business_drop (04 June 2014).
66 Kevin, ‘Planned Parenthood Getting Desperate With Business Drop’ (version 06 August 2013)
http://www.cc.org/blog/planned_parenthood_getting_desperate_business_drop (04 June 2014).
61
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abortion. He shares the following concern: ‘Credit God in His unlimited mercifulness, to
spare the world of immediate and total annihilation after a billion abortions.’67 So it is due to
God that the world has felt no punishment for all the abortions, but this can change. In the
eyes of bloggers like Kevin and other members of the Christian Coalition, people who abort
their babies cannot be good Christians. Moreover abortions do not fit the ideal of motherhood.
These articles featuring abortion are used to create discourse about what motherhood is not.
By doing this, the Christian Coalition therefore defines motherhood as a selfless and devoted
state of being.
Concluding from the above it can be said that the construction of motherhood in the
Christian Coalition and other Christian Right movements, has an idealized background.
Women ought to be selfless and devoted mothers in order to create their identity. Following
their arguments abortion is the most selfish thing that a woman can do; she does not ‘hear’ the
silent screams of her unborn child and is acting against the will of God. 68 Paradoxically, a
mother is however also acting as God has planned. The discourse about abortion that is
researched here is full of contradictions and notions of selfishness. So the Christian Coalition
uses religious discourse about mother Mary and the anti-abortion discourse to define the
mother as a selfless, devoted creature.
Abortion is also an important point of discussion for feminists. Having fought hard to
gain the right for abortion they are not willing to lose it again to moralistic conservative party
values. The fight for feminists now lies in the assertion of the concept motherhood. Feminists
themselves are still searching for a concise definition, but it is clear that the feminist
definition will struggle to encompass the point of view of the Christian Right, the discourses
are not compatible. The feminist approach does not rely on the idea that a woman derives her
identity of her motherhood; it is more based on the woman herself. She has an identity of her
own, whether she is a mother or not.
Kevin, ‘Abortion a Major Issue in 2012 Election’ (version 13 March 2012)
http://www.cc.org/blog/abortion_major_issue_2012_election (04 June 2014).
68 Kevin, ‘Planned Parenthood Getting Desperate With Business Drop’ (version 06 August 2013)
http://www.cc.org/blog/planned_parenthood_getting_desperate_business_drop (04 June 2014).
67
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Conclusion
The Christian Coalition wants to re-assert the traditional family, one in which the man needs
to reclaim his role as a husband and a father and where the woman needs to be a stay-athome-mom who loves her husband and children unconditionally. In marriage, the role
patterns are clear; the husband is leading and the wife is submissive. They have their own
function within marriage and both complement each other. However it is important in the eyes
of the Christian Coalition that the two components of marriage are of opposite sexes.
The ideal heterosexual marriage is constructed by showing what a marriage is not,
namely a homosexual marriage. The discourse about the traditional marriage is formed by the
protest against homosexual marriages. A heterosexual marriage is better, because it is not a
homosexual marriage. The members of the Christian Coalition need to fight against the
upcoming, liberal idea that homosexuality needs to be accepted. They see themselves as
defenders of traditional marriage.
Important components of the family are fatherhood and motherhood. It is clear that the
Christian Coalition wants to re-assert the traditional family and therefore the father needs to
become a ‘real’ father again. For Christian Right movements this means that the father needs
to be a dominant and authoritarian figure. Paradoxically, the Christian Coalition does not fully
live up to this ideal. According to them the father can be a loving and warm figure who is
there for his children. He can be leading but he does not necessarily need to be dominant.
The mother has a less ambivalent role. She is a selfless and loving creature who does
everything for her children. This image of the mother is constructed by showing what a
mother is not. In the eyes of the Christian Coalition a woman who carried out an abortion will
never be a good mother. According to them an abortion is the opposite of selflessness and
therefore a mother is what a practitioner of abortion is not.
All in all it becomes clear that the Christian Coalition has a clear image about the
gender sensitive concepts of the traditional family, fatherhood and motherhood. But what
does this mean for feminists? How should they deal with these results?
First of all it can be said that the discourse of the Christian Coalition does not fit the
feminist ideal. Feminists strive for equality and this is not reflected in the discourse of the
Christian Coalition, in which the wife is submissive to her husband. Feminists however think
that the wife and husband are equal in marriage. Feminists do not only think different about
the conservative ideal of marriage, they also have a different standpoint about fatherhood and
motherhood. Where the father is a leading figure in the family for the Christian Coalition,
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feminists like to see the father as a part of the family and not as the person who is the head of
the family. According to feminists the identity of the mother does not solely depend upon her
having children, she also has a discrete identity of her own. Even though it is hard for
feminists to define motherhood it is clear to them that a woman does not only derive her
identity from her motherhood.
These contradictions between the ideals of the Christian Coalition and feminists make
clear that the concepts studied in this thesis lack a solidly fixed definition. De Beauvoir and
Stacey state that presumed natural facts like the family or gender are constructed by the
society in which they function. This also can be concluded from the data that is researched in
this thesis. Feminist discourse constructs a different meaning about the family, fatherhood and
motherhood than the discourse of the Christian Coalition.
All in all it is important that feminists continue the discussion with conservative
Christian parties, because it is important that they understand the movements and their ideals.
This discussion is also meaningful because of the growing political influence of conservative
parties, such as the Christian Coalition. The parties become stronger and stronger and the
members feel threatened by the changing societal climate. Feminists need to provide a counter
voice to these conservative ideas and they need to defend their own ideal of equality within
the family.
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