Radical Womanhood: Carolyn McCulley

Carolyn McCulley has been a blessing to me through her writing, speaking, and the few times I have been blessed to hang out with her.  She cares deeply about Christ, the church, missions, and women.  She cares about the gospel being lived out well by the women she is in contact with.  That is why you can hear and feel her heartbeat in her latest book, Radical Womanhood. 

I love hearing Carolyn’s story of God’s grace on her life.  Saved much later than most, in her 30s, she saw great evidences of God’s grace in her life as He shaped, and continually shapes, her to be a Radical Woman.  This book was written to help others who find themselves in the culture that displays very different standards for men and women when compared to God’s Word. 

As a friend and I have read this book together over the past 2 months, we both said that it was very helpful to us.  This would not be a book we would give to new Christians though, especially young women because of its depth.  More so, I see this book as a crucial tool to give to women in our churches to see how their ideologies and performance-based theories of worth are not founded in Scripture – yet they are founded in the lies of Satan.  If you did want to walk through it as a new believer, or even one who doesn’t know Christ, this would be excellent to go through with a friend.  My friend and I were able to discuss it over sushi or pizza and salads.  Made for interesting dinner conversation and I was thankful for the push!

This book has enough history in it to give one an overview of the three movements within Feminism.  McCulley shows you the depth of which these movements have permeated every part of our society: our home, the work place, and the church.  When reading through some of the tougher chapters, such as “The Mommy Wars” – one almost reads in defeat because of the overwhelming sin and destructive thoughts that permeate the area of birth control, Planned Parenthood, etc.

At the end of the chapters, Carolyn brings each of the matters a little closer to home with real life snippets of women who have been molded and shaped in these areas by the grace of God and for His glory.

Just some thoughts that I underlined:

“Sin also separates us from one another.  We need to be redeemed from the consequences of sin – God’s righteous judgment and wrath – to experience true freedom.” (p 45)

“Every time my married friends spoke to me about their trials and temptations, I had the choice to influence them with the Bible’s perspective or with the latest self-help theories.  We do not need the authority of personal experience to counsel one another because the Bible is sufficient for this task.  But, we do need to know the Word.” (p 75)

“However, even among a large number of Christians today, the home is not as important as it once was, nor it is viewed as a place of ministry and outreach.” (p 104).  Carolyn goes into this concept more in depth, especially for single women, in her book Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye?.

Thoughts on Margaret Sanger (founder of modern-day birth control movement) – THINK about this – whether you are married or not: “Margaret Sanger was the founder of the modern birth control movement and a vocal proponent of eugenics – the theory of race improvement that was the cornerstone of Nazi Germany.  Sanger believed that all evils stemmed from large families, especially large families of those she deemed as unfit.  As she wrote in her 1920 book Woman and the New Race, “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” (p 128)   This will and should make you weep for the gospel and the coming of Christ.

“Without the cross, we are doomed.  There is no hope for mercy to triumph over judgment unless it be at the foot of the cross.” (p 131)

Read, learn, engage the culture around you with the Truth of the Cross and the Word.