Gnostic Feminism

Posted on | March 24, 2016 | 15 Comments

In a post Sunday (“Feminist Tumblr: ‘Broken People’ and the Tragedy of the Darwinian Dead End”), I made reference to how “an evil idea has flourished in our time . . . latter-day gnosticism,” remarking: “When theologian Peter Jones wrote, ‘Gnosticism and feminism are a match made in heaven,’ he was only half-right — this ‘match’ was made in Hell.” People are free to scoff at such warnings, but even if you are not a Christian, it is impossible to ignore the similarities between feminism’s cult ideology and the gnostic heresy. Permit me to quote from Peter Jones’ 1997 book, Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America:

Do you want to capture a civilization? Change perceptions of sexuality. . . . Sexuality keeps a civilization functioning. . . .
“We are doomed as a species and a planet,” prophesies a religious feminist, “unless we have a radical change of consciousness.” . . .
It is little wonder that a leading voice in the contemporary deconstruction of Western Christendom was the French homosexual, Michel Foucault. Foucault sought to deconstruct the value system of heterosexuality by arguing that truth is only power and that heterosexual values are a power-play of the majority imposed upon the homosexual minority. . . .
In the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, the dominant theme is asceticism, the refusal of all sexuality. . . . This has the appearance of Christian holiness, and appealed to Christians living in the dissolute Greco-Roman pagan world.

Rather than to quote further (those excerpts are from Chapter 12 of Jones’ book), I will cut to the chase, and remind the reader that the Apostle Paul had warned against this dangerous heretical doctrine:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (I Timothy 4:1-3 KJV)

“Forbidding to marry” — this hostility toward an institution ordained by God is common in cults. And, quoting the second-century bishop Irenaeus, Jones notes (pp. 243, 322) why these hypocritical “seducing spirits” demanded their Gnostic followers be unmarried: “Some secretly defile those women who are being taught this doctrine by them,” Irenaeus wrote in Against Heresies, while others “feigned to dwell chastely with them as with sister, [but] were exposed as time went on when the ‘sister’ became pregnant by the ‘brother.'” In other words, by prohibiting marriage, and proclaiming an ascetic ideal, Gnostics acquired vulnerable followers whom they could control and exploit sexually. There is much more in Professor Jones’ book worth studying, and I wholeheartedly recommend Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America.

Category: Religion, Sex Trouble

Comments

15 Responses to “Gnostic Feminism”

CrustyB
March 24th, 2016 @ 3:55 pm

Feminism, gnosticism, atheism, homosexuality, transsexualism, and those weird short on the side/long on the top haircuts the fagulas tend to have. They all seem to go together. What do they have in common? Rejection of nature.
RS
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:06 pm

While there are certainly aspects of certain feminist factions which appear “Gnostic,” we need to remember that Feminism is a mishmash of competing views of reality and philosophies. And, by “competing,” I mean “mutually exclusive” and “self-refuting.” We need to be careful in not overstating the case that Feminism is somehow and offshoot or extension of the Gnosticism of the first couple of centuries A.D.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:21 pm

https://saboteur365.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/funny-feminist-debate-guy-fixing-street.jpg?w=584
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:21 pm

https://saboteur365.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/feminist.jpg
Quartermaster
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:26 pm

Irenaeus was 2nd century. He was a disciple of Polycarp, who had been a disciple of the Apostle John.
CaptDMO
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:46 pm

Where’s Hugo Swiezer when you need him?
RKae
March 24th, 2016 @ 4:46 pm

There’s such a powerful motivation in America to say “Oh! That philosophy was suppressed? Then it HAS to be correct!”

Gnosticism’s appeal lies entirely in its history as a heresy.

My family were SOOOO into saying “Ah-ha! Look at what we found out!” They jumped from one weird ideology to the next, all based on weird pamphlets printed in lunatics’ basements. That was back in the ’80s. God only knows what they’re like now with the internet! I don’t want to know!
NeoWayland
March 24th, 2016 @ 6:21 pm

I’m rather fond of the Gnostics and their writings.

There’s an old saying that history is written by the winners. Heresies are likewise defined by the victors no matter what the truth.

Radical feminism has enough things wrong with it, you don’t need to link it something from nineteen centuries ago.

Especially when it weakens your case.
robertstacymccain
March 24th, 2016 @ 9:10 pm

Corrected. Thanks for your attention to detail.
M. Thompson
March 24th, 2016 @ 11:48 pm

Actually, it illustrates a very good point: that how people think does not change, and that while the details may change, the broad spectrum does not.
NeoWayland
March 25th, 2016 @ 8:07 am

Or one could point out that no matter how hard some try to suppress it, truth will come out.

I just think folks should live and let live, but that’s me.
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March 25th, 2016 @ 3:05 pm

[…] supremacist cisheteronormative patriarchy.” At what point will women wise up to the fact that feminism is a neo-gnostic cult, insofar as it is not simply a pyramid scheme, a scam by which academics and other professional […]
Beat Man
March 25th, 2016 @ 4:11 pm

these same heretical gnostic cults rejected by the eucomenical councils i think help to form islam. islam like Gnosticism rejected the trinity father son and holyspirit. it’s not a coincidence feminists likw whoring for islam. to the point of being islamic rape apologists.
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April 2nd, 2016 @ 12:19 pm

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