Well if you can’t really attack Amy Coney Barrett’s character both as a woman at the pinnacle of career success and a mother to seven children, have a go at her Catholic faith.
In a New York Times op-ed on Tuesday, Katelyn Beaty, realizing perhaps that she couldn’t mount an easy offensive against SCOTUS nom ACB’s personal character – well aside from petty mockery – decided to go after Barrett’s orthodox Catholicism, which as we all know, is the antithesis to the leftist worldview.
Beaty’s thesis is that Barrett is such a success in the eyes of the patriarchy and her GOP masters in spite of the religion that shaped her. Barrett is the exception, because a Catholic upbringing generally represses women.
Beaty’s main question asked, “If Judge Barrett’s Catholic faith and indisputable career accomplishments make her such a young heroine of the Christian right, why doesn’t the traditional Christianity to which she adheres encourage more women to be like her?”
Clearly – and we’ve seen this from feminists all over the media in recent days – Beaty has a hard time reconciling the fact that Barrett is both an exemplary mother and potential member of the nation’s highest court. New wave feminists often see successful career women and dutiful mothers as mutually exclusive, many even going so far as to view abortion as a tool of the liberated woman.
As a good feminist, Beaty has to be real careful not to denigrate any of the powerful feminine ideals which Barrett embodies, so her only choice is to hold up Barrett as the exception that proves the rule.
Beaty began by noting Barrett is very privileged, especially for a woman: “Most Americans do not enjoy the privileges of class and elite education that she has had as a federal judge and legal scholar.” OK, well good for her. “A flexible workplace and supportive spouse — things many men take for granted — remain elusive for many women,” she added. Amy Coney Barrett has had a good life, and other women haven’t. Life’s a crap shoot. .
“But there’s another reason few Christian women can simultaneously pursue career ambitions and family life in the ways Judge Barrett has: In traditional Christian communities, women are often asked to sacrifice the former at the altar of the latter.”
Of course, although many Christian women choose to prioritize family life over career ambitions, Beaty’s point is that the Church leads them to this and that it becomes a point of shame for women who choose one lifestyle over the other.
Beaty explained this “shame,” which is “powerfully enforced from without.” She then went through one example about how one pastor told an ambitious woman that no Christian man would want her if she became a lawyer. Yes, how evil.
Though, the particulars of this conversation were left out (would a more traditional spouse consider a woman who works 60 hours a week – and nights often – his first choice for raising children?) it’s clearly just another indictment against the Church and the traditional view that the man is the breadwinner.
To be alive is to be pulled in different directions by competing needs and desires. In the end, free people choose which way to go. Beaty doesn’t respect those who choose to heed the call of the tradition and the Church.
