Feminism: The ‘Shadow Church’ Replacing Christianity
“Feminism has created a Shadow Church,” author Carrie Gress stated at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., last week. She said the movement functions as a sinister moral system intent on replacing Christianity, as it offers its own authority, rituals, and theological principles in direct opposition to Christianity and its influence on Western society. She contends that this framework explains why debates over gender roles, abortion, and transgenderism continue to intensify after decades of feminist influence over our culture.
That argument forms the backbone of Gress’ latest book, Something Wicked, which frames feminism as a “Shadow Church.” Rather than operating merely as a political movement, Gress argued, feminism mirrors the structure of Catholicism by meeting women’s emotional, spiritual, and practical needs on a daily basis. “That’s one of the reasons it’s so hard for women to leave feminism,” Gress said.
Gress has long argued that feminism is incompatible with Christianity, a position she has developed across several books examining the movement’s roots. In earlier works, she traced feminism from its origins through contemporary gender ideology, rejecting the idea that the movement only imploded in later waves and concluding that feminism’s emphasis on power and autonomy stands in direct opposition to Christian principles of humility, charity, mercy, and surrender. (READ MORE: How Feminism Has Escaped Public Scrutiny)
Whereas Christians worship Christ, feminists worship autonomy.
At the center of this shadow religion, Gress argued, is a false object of worship. Whereas Christians worship Christ, feminists worship autonomy. “In feminism, the real idol that’s been created is this idea of autonomy,” she said, which is an attempt to “protect women from vulnerability” by “allowing women to not have to be connected with men, to not have children, to be able to live their lives independently of the family.” (RELATED: The Real Divide Isn’t Red v. Blue — It’s Male v. Female)
Gress pointed to what she described as feminism’s “three commandments,” an ideological trinity drawn from early feminist influences: contempt for men, involvement in the occult, and promiscuity. She argued that these function as a deliberate inversion of Christian theology, each undermining a piece of the Christian Trinity. She explained that contempt for men undermines a relationship with God the Father, occult practices distort a relationship with Christ, and promiscuity fractures connection with the Holy Spirit. In practice, she remarked that “if you look at any co-ed girl today on a college campus, she is probably reading her horoscopes, she is probably promiscuous, and she has a lot of contempt for men.” (RELATED: Feminism, the Nose-Ring Theory, and Our Potential Extinction)
Gress contrasted Christianity’s theological virtues of faith, hope, and love with what she described as feminism’s driving emotions: rage, envy, and contempt. In the late 19th century, she said, socialists recognized that anger could be politically useful: “If you can make women mad, they’re going to be a lot better for your political goals than if they’re happy.” She argued that “consciousness raising” was designed by early socialists to inflame these emotions and has been passed from country to country ever since.
That interpretation resonated with attendees like Rick Plasterer of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, who traced feminism’s roots to moral autonomy, or “[the belief] that inner life is more important than external reality. This is truly their Gospel, and you stick with your Gospel.” He expressed doubt that the feminist movement will fade without demographic change. As he explained, “Unless more children survive the indoctrination that they get in public schools and colleges … I don’t know if [feminism] is going to end.”
Gress described what she called feminism’s “sacred rite of work,” arguing that careerism becomes central to the promise of autonomy. “If you are going to be autonomous and you are not independently wealthy … work takes precedence over almost everything.” She pointed to a recent conversation with a friend who had visited Stanford, where “young women there were being encouraged to freeze their eggs.” (RELATED: America’s Cultural Chasm: Family v. Individualism)
Gress argued that abortion represents one of the clearest consequences of feminism’s worldview. For years, she said, many believed Roe v. Wade was the central problem. “What’s fascinating to see,” she said, “is that it obviously just went back to the states, and we are having major problems with abortion still.” The real “engine of abortion,” she argued, is feminism itself. “It’s been feminism all along that’s fueling abortion. It’s not Roe. It’s never been Roe.”
She warned that until feminism is confronted directly, abortion will remain entrenched in our culture. “Until we figure out how to deal with feminism and how we help women understand that they were made for much more than autonomy,” she said, “abortion is going to remain with us.”
Gress also described feminism as an evangelizing force that draws in “women who are broken, who have wounds,” but lacks the capacity to heal them.
Gress also described feminism as an evangelizing force that draws in “women who are broken, who have wounds,” but lacks the capacity to heal them. Instead, she said, “all it has is the capacity to further aggravate [women] … It just continues, and it gets worse, and it gets worse. You can see this along the generations.”
One male attendee told The American Spectator after the event that feminism is a “socialist usurping of women” and said it has been “very anti-Christian” from the beginning. He argued that women should be focused on “motherhood and being a proper wife in the context of family” rather than careers or political life. (RELATED: Conservative Success Is Tied to Protecting Women and Emboldening Men)
When the conversation turned to women’s suffrage, he said some of his peers believe women “shouldn’t really vote or hold office” and should instead “keep to what they’re good at, at home.” While these views reflect a particularly extreme reaction, they illustrate a very real frustration with the cultural effects of feminism among young men. Gress addressed these extreme reactions of young males as part of the online “Manosphere,” explaining that prolonged cultural tension produced by feminism has resulted in highly reactive responses from men.
Gress’s critique of autonomy and careerism echoed through speeches given later that week at the March for Life, where speakers emphasized the importance of family values. With tens of thousands gathered to advocate for the unborn and oppose abortion, Vice President JD Vance made one thing clear: “To our fellow Americans, we say you’re never going to find great meaning in a cubicle or in front of a computer screen. But you will find great meaning if you dedicate yourself to the creation and sustenance of human life.”
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The Gospel of Discontent: How Feminism Shattered Our Understanding of Motherhood