Gloria Steinem's Theosophy or CBE: The Devil Is In the Details

By Dwayna Litz

© LTW Worldwide

“Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?” Isaiah 2:22

Documentation from Dr. Peter Jones (Pagans in the Pews, p. 73):

Rosemary Radford Ruether, who elects to remain within the Church, states without nuance or apology: “Feminist Theology must create a new textual base, a new cannon…Feminist theology cannot be done from the existing base of the Christian Bible.” [source: Rosemary Radford Ruether; Womanguides: Reading Towards a Feminist Theology, (Boston MA, Beacon Press, 1985) p. ix]

Consider this from Spirit Wars, Peter Jones, (p.108):

…numerous biblical allusions are combined with some Gnostic phrases in a collage of ideas that blunts the original scriptural intention and promotes obscure Gnostic teaching. Scripture is not functioning here with canonical authority but as a mine of sayings and images to be used for other purposes and another agenda, while projecting a veneer of Christian truth. This is not serious exegesis. It appears distinctly like the self-serving, picking and choosing self, denounced by the church father Irenaeus (130-200 A.D.)….This same Gnostic spirit is very much alive today. Rosemary Radford Ruether, while remaining in the church and teaching at Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois, in Womanguides recommends the use of any text, including Platonic, Gnostic, or sectarian, that make references to the divine female.

For more on Rosemary Radford Ruether, go to the CBE web site at http://www.cbeinternational.org/, Equalizer, May 2005, where they list her book, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine, stating from CBE: “The book looks at what we know about gender in prehistory; goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean world, gender and the divine feminine in Hebrew Scriptures, ancient mystery cults, the New Testament, and Medieval Christianity.”

[Nope, sorry, CBE, but that book sure won't teach me a thing about what I know about the Bible! And CBE actually thinks they can convince us they are not Gnostic? They must be jesting in that attempt. One has to look hard to find any truth (taught in context biblically), whereas the Gnosticism is impossible to escape.]

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As this excerpt below shows Gloria Steinem (pagan, liberal feminist) holds virtually the same beliefs as CBE! The only difference is she does not profess to be a Christian. Obviously, in the demonic realm what is light is dark and what is dark is light. (Isaiah 5:20) Growing up in a Theosophical home, Gloria Steinem liked “Jesus”, too. Gloria wrote the introduction to a book entitled Faith and Feminism, A Holy Alliance, by Helen LaKelly Hunt (Atria Books, New York, NY 2004):

Yes, I share Helen’s belief that women’s spirituality has been and continues to be one of the wellsprings of feminism. This deep belief in universality has been expressed far outside the many patriarchies that make up organized religion, and also as a force for reform and meta-democracy within them. But Helen is writing as a Christian with the courage and belief to reform the institutional Christian faith in which she was raised. By extension, her work applies to all the women and men who are striving within their traditions of Protestantism, Judaism, Catholicism or Islam, to, as she writes, "encourage religious women and men to consider feminism as an essential in the divine plan for love and justice." It also applies to women like me who find spirituality outside of religion, and it will serve the second of Helen’s purposes—to help secular feminists begin to trust the possibility that faith can lead people to effective activism.

[“The divine plan for love and justice” is the Cross! And FEW are those who find it! “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Matthew 7:14. “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” 2 Corinthians 6:16. “Do not love the world…if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.” James 4:4: “Friendship with the world is hostility toward God.” 1 John 2:15. God has not called us to “befriend” the spirit of the world and have unity with the world through any ideology, including feminism! Ephesians 2:2, and 1 John 4:3-6. He has not called us to redeem this culture. “For all that is in the world…the boastful pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world. And this world is passing away, and also its lusts...” 1 John 2:16-17. The Gospel is for individuals. God’s Word warns us to not go the way of the pagans (Nehemiah 10:30; 1 Cor. 10:20-21; 2 Cor. 6:15-18), relying on our own intellect for “peace”. (The Bible is meant to offend the lost, not unite the saved and unsaved. 2 Cor. 4. The idolatrous "Divine Feminine" was defeated at the cross. Though for a season "She" may be allowed to seemingly prevail, the insurrection of this Gnostic "Christian feminism" is subjected in obeisance for all of eternity by the power of the resurrection of the Savior of the Bible).]

Gloria continues with more about "Jesus":

Growing up I mostly absorbed the teachings of Theosophy…that had attracted and held my mother and grandmother and both my grandmothers by the time I was born. It had an appeal for me, too. Sitting with my coloring book in the back of Theosophical Lodge meetings, I sensed the respect with which children were treated…I probably benefited from seeing women’s leadership in Theosophy, perhaps because the rough justice of reincarnation allowed them to imagine cruel patriarchs being reborn as women.

But none of this equipped me as an adult for anything more (or less) than a respect for teachers like Jesus (who countered the hierarchy of his day by caring for ‘the least of these’) or Mohammed (who was an important reformer for women’s rights in his time)…indeed the idea that made the most sense to me was respecting each other’s belief—instead of creating a hierarchy of them or setting out to conquer or convert—because this was a step back toward the greater democracy of pagan times in so called pre-history.

[See John 14:6 and John 3:36: “…he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” 2 Corinthians 11:4, 14]

Gloria states further:

After all, the withdrawal of God from women…had been a part of millennia that justified the conquering of women…Given that history, everyone trying to honor and restore the feminine and therefore complete the universal---whether within an organized religion or outside it—is reversing the imposition of patriarchy and hierarchy. No wonder the anti-woman right wing of almost every organized religion, from the Christian ultra right in the United States to Islamic extremists in other countries, is in such violent backlash against the equality and power of women.

As Helen and I talk about our sense of a universal spirituality, she looks at me with bemused wonderment. "How did you get to be so full of love," she asks, "when you didn’t grow up in a church or any religion?" I look at her with the same wonderment. "How did you get to be so full of love," I ask, "when you grew up in one with a Son of God and not even a Daughter?" We both laugh.

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In conclusion, here is an astute perspective from Dr. Peter Jones (Pagans in the Pews p.106, 107):

Imagination

If the Bible is full of androcentric texts, to save it for use in the Church, feminists—male and female—in this theological movement feel compelled to re-imagine feminine presence in the Bible, thereby placing women as well as men into the center of early Christian history. Such a feminist critical method could be likened to the work of a detective insofar as it does not rely solely on historical “facts” nor invents its evidence, but is engaged in an imaginative reconstruction of historical reality. [source: Oddie, What Will Happen to God, p. 142, discussing Fiorenza].

Fiorenza, who holds the position of professor of New Testament studies and theology at the University of Notre Dame, suggests female authorship for early Christian writings. She does this, not because of solid evidence or new facts, but to challenge the androcentric dogmatism that ascribes apostolic authorship only to men. “The issue has become now, not whether or not such suggestions are true, but which of the various possibilities is most useful to the feminist case.” [source: Oddie, What Will Happen to God, p. 143].

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” Isaiah 5:21 “For the Lord of Hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty…and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” Isaiah 2:12, 17.

Dwayna