It has a sort of explanatory elegance to it – assuming there’s some genuine data to explain, which doesn’t seem to be the case if you actually look at trends in violent crime stats and whatnot in recent history.

That labour-pain-killers thing is probably from Genesis 3:16, where God promises that labour will be painful. It’s not explained in terms of “bonding” or anything, but, you know, God made it that way, so don’t interfere.

I hope this doesn’t turn into a total sausage cult. :(

What boggles me is the emphasis that they place of women’s issues as being so basic to what’s wrong with society. I think that’s one of the few clear-cut ways in which society has actually progressed significantly. The idea that we were better off when social roles were more authoritarian, more paternalistic, more severe, and that all the bad stuff we have like crime, addiction, aids, ennui, Internet porn and all that are just the rotten fruit of the shitty, feminist tree, I really can’t get my head around.

They sound almost exactly like a non-violent Taliban (although the TT do share their belief in, if not their enthusiasm for, corporal and capital punishment). But I suspect their non-violence has a great deal to do with their impotence (so to speak).

Yet, there is something about women like the one you described (washed out dress, washed out complexion, washed out hopes and dreams, overall, a beige person) that inspire in me thoughts of bra burning and other forms of public protest. It makes me want to grab her, shake her, pound some sense in to her. I want to scream that Susan B. Anthony is rolling over in her grave! I want to educate her about matriarchical societies, where women are revered and respected. I want to inspire some reaction, any reaction, other than a limp look in her deadened eyes.

How do societies like this still exist? How can they bury their heads in their Bibles and not realize that they have completely missed the 20th century? Did they also miss the memo, or the heritage commercial, that tells them women are in fact persons? It would seem so.

Maybe what they see as a breakdown is actually an evolution of societal norms. I mean, at one point it was considered normal to believe non-whiites were inferior. Times and beliefs change like the seasons. It is God’s way.

*

Scott, sorry for the essay in response. Obviously I am missing taking classes more than I thought I would. Arg! These pavement preachers drive me crazy! Especially when they have their brainwashed younglings involved. But I digress. Your cult sound promising. I like that you don’t expect the eviction of testicles or purchase of Nikes to be a member. Good luck with recruitment! May I suggest reading ‘Helter Skelter’ for some tips?