False Feminism
Susan Elaine Mueller
July 1, 1995
Nothing has affected me so profoundly as the conversion that occurred in my heart and mind when I came to the frightening realization that the Roman Catholic Church is right on her stand on contraception. A single Catholic woman, part of "Generation X," independent, bright, career-minded, yet open to other views, I was eventually persuaded by my roommate in college, philosophers such as Janet Smith, and the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the church) that Humanae Vitae was right. I can hardly imagine any concept more difficult to accept, nor more rewarding and life-changing to accept, than the church's stand against contraception. Contraception, which encourages women to see their fertility as something to be controlled, had given me a false sense of independence-from God and from my God-given gender. I thought I could have a career, family, and children when and how I wanted them. But after I accepted the church's teaching, I saw womanhood-and indeed myself-in a new light. The light I came to see myself in was the glory of motherhood and womanhood, motherhood implicit in womanhood. For I came to see that woman, through procreation, cooperates with God in a wholly distinctive fashion. She is the very place where God directly intervenes in the world. Her womb is sacred not only because such a miraculous and wonderful event has taken place within her womb, but because it can take place at any point. This is one of the blessings and challenges of being a woman-a blessing contraception rejects. Such a lack of "control" is a challenge, a challenge paramount to being a Catholic woman. But this challenge is implicit in what it means to be a Christian-to give everything to God and to trust completely. "I believe, help my unbelief" ...
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