You're correctly seeing the problem that Wilson and the Gilderites are studiously ignoring.
Wilson is attempting to interpret Gilder in terms of 1800s society (or perhaps earlier). By 1970, when Gilder actually wrote his first book, Sexual Suicide, the women's movement was already well underway the "contract" framework that Gilder claimed…
You're correctly seeing the problem that Wilson and the Gilderites are studiously ignoring.
Wilson is attempting to interpret Gilder in terms of 1800s society (or perhaps earlier). By 1970, when Gilder actually wrote his first book, Sexual Suicide, the women's movement was already well underway the "contract" framework that Gilder claimed was in operation was... decidedly already broken. The only thing was that Christianity was likely (not as a whole) on board with it. There was still resistance in the Church at large and that resistance posed a real problem to transforming society as drastically as the leaders of society were wanting. So people like Gilder were employed to make the principles of the social upheaval (and keep in mind, "Feminism" was simply a means to a broad end - the removal of a men in leading families) palatable to the block of society that would naturally be most resistant to them.
This is why - from our vantage point of looking at the full history - it is impossible to praise Gilder and the people and organizations like him (Focus on the Family) who strategically made the ideas of male expendability and female necessity, male responsibility and innate female virtue bedrocks into the American Christian philosophy and experience. Really very masterful. And wholly destructive. They WERE the tools (the trogan horses) by which our families were destroyed.
We can talk long about the evils of no fault divorce and the utter destructiveness of family law against fathers.. but until we as a nation and as a Christian community come to terms with the reality that our "leaders" brought this into our camp and are STILL pushing it - we will never regain what was lost.
The Bible is clear that men are the building block of society. They can in no way be seen as "expendable". They are the leaders and keepers of the virtues of society. They set the frameworks and direction of society. And their empowerment keeps the destructive forces at bay. That is not to say women aren't needed or even necessary - they are but in their proper sphere. And their place is never over the man. Their place is connected to and supporting the man in his endeavors per the Biblical framework.
It really does go back to the Edenic curses. And what Christianity should be addressing to the genders are those - Men must be productive and not lazy. Women must accept their place in submission to their authority (either a father or husband). These are the foundational principles of successful society as the Bible has laid out from the very beginning.
I was a feminist until 1987, when I read Gilder's 1973 book "Sexual suicide", which he revised and released as "Men and Marriage" that same year. It was a helpful book with many good ideas in it.
You're correctly seeing the problem that Wilson and the Gilderites are studiously ignoring.
Wilson is attempting to interpret Gilder in terms of 1800s society (or perhaps earlier). By 1970, when Gilder actually wrote his first book, Sexual Suicide, the women's movement was already well underway the "contract" framework that Gilder claimed was in operation was... decidedly already broken. The only thing was that Christianity was likely (not as a whole) on board with it. There was still resistance in the Church at large and that resistance posed a real problem to transforming society as drastically as the leaders of society were wanting. So people like Gilder were employed to make the principles of the social upheaval (and keep in mind, "Feminism" was simply a means to a broad end - the removal of a men in leading families) palatable to the block of society that would naturally be most resistant to them.
This is why - from our vantage point of looking at the full history - it is impossible to praise Gilder and the people and organizations like him (Focus on the Family) who strategically made the ideas of male expendability and female necessity, male responsibility and innate female virtue bedrocks into the American Christian philosophy and experience. Really very masterful. And wholly destructive. They WERE the tools (the trogan horses) by which our families were destroyed.
We can talk long about the evils of no fault divorce and the utter destructiveness of family law against fathers.. but until we as a nation and as a Christian community come to terms with the reality that our "leaders" brought this into our camp and are STILL pushing it - we will never regain what was lost.
The Bible is clear that men are the building block of society. They can in no way be seen as "expendable". They are the leaders and keepers of the virtues of society. They set the frameworks and direction of society. And their empowerment keeps the destructive forces at bay. That is not to say women aren't needed or even necessary - they are but in their proper sphere. And their place is never over the man. Their place is connected to and supporting the man in his endeavors per the Biblical framework.
It really does go back to the Edenic curses. And what Christianity should be addressing to the genders are those - Men must be productive and not lazy. Women must accept their place in submission to their authority (either a father or husband). These are the foundational principles of successful society as the Bible has laid out from the very beginning.
I was a feminist until 1987, when I read Gilder's 1973 book "Sexual suicide", which he revised and released as "Men and Marriage" that same year. It was a helpful book with many good ideas in it.