Prominent Female Christian Personalities

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on February 1, 2010 at 6:06pm

Back when there was Anita Bryant. How vocal she was on politics, I'm not certain, but she was plenty vocal about gays and gay rights ... and sparked a boycott of orange juice (which she was a spokesperson for) for her trouble.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on February 11, 2010 at 7:34pm

Apaprently there is talk about a movie on Anita Bryant. She was a highly prominant character, the Sarah Palin of her time. She galvanized the evangelicals as a political force, probably better than the actual ministers like Farwell and his ilk. She was beautiful (a Miss America or runner up, I think), had a powerful singing voice (I can still hear her sing Battle Hymn of the Republic) and was passionately antigay. She spearheaded the early antigay movement, including a referrendum to allow discrimination in Florida.

Take some antinausea medicine and a blood pressure pill, before playing this youtube embeddment.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on February 1, 2010 at 6:57pm

I'm a Christian first, and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on February 1, 2010 at 8:20pm

And how could you forget Mother "village idiot but for the grace of god" Theresa.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by ryan cameron on February 8, 2010 at 7:48am

My understaning of Mother Theresa is she was trying to do what she thought was right, and was tortured most of her life with her doubt of God's existence. She seemed fairly contemplative and selfless to me. What is your assessment based on out of curiosity?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on February 10, 2010 at 1:33am

Not only was Teresa privately convinced that God had abandoned her, she was a real piece of work. Christopher Hitchens details her shortcomings as a human being in The Missionary Position.

The short story is that she said that suffering is beautiful because it glorifies God, and used this as a justification to simply provide hospice care to people rather than spend the millions in donations that were piling up in her charity's bank accounts on actual medical care that might have done some good. People thought they were giving her money to help the poor, but she had odd ways of helping that looked a lot more like providing an early introduction to God. Of course, she always availed herself of the best science-based medicine when it came to her own health. Teresa was either cruel or insane. Probably both. Of course, that's the stuff that saints are made of.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on February 11, 2010 at 8:09pm

Wow! I never heard of her. But, the Baptist Church that I went to as a child is now called "Living Water". Eerie.

Going to the site, the curser drops little snowflakes all over the place. It's hypnotic. You are getting sleepy.... sleepy.... sleepy.....

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on February 11, 2010 at 7:53pm

Phyllis Schlafly was also highly influential - her opposition for the Equal Rights Amendment was probably the most influential movement to end that amendment.

Here's the rub, however: she's not famously christian. Her politics are more based on the 'traditional values' concept. Her religion is listed as Roman Catholic. She is strongly antigay (common thread there), and had a gay son. She had another son who formed conservapedia - Im not going to link to it because it's too scary as Orwellian retelling of its content.

Interesting to note, Schlafly was a one-time model. She's highly educated, from a generation when higher education was less available for women. Even though she's a crackpot, she's a highly intelligent, highly influential conservative crackpot.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on February 11, 2010 at 8:04pm

If you want total nutcase, there's Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachmann. She's another christian politician who is way out there, but hasn't been as influential. In congress, she introduced the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act" and she called for a McCarthyism-style investigation of congressional patriotism. She's said to be a member of a Lutheran sect (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) which states that the Roman Catholic papacy is the Antichrist.

OK, that last part isn't so bad. The pope is the antichrist. Does that mean there was a pro-christ? Im confusing myself.

Like Palin, Bachmann played off the idea of Obama as "anti-american".

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on February 18, 2010 at 1:22pm

IF they have official saints, can they also have an official sinner?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Meggan Dominytus on February 18, 2010 at 2:33pm

Faye Hardin. I wouldn't say she is prominent, but that she is trying to be. She is always trying to influence politics and she used to have a show on GLC(she might still have it.)

http://www.insightusa.us/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by x Secular X Combatant x on February 19, 2010 at 12:57pm

Stepford wives, sure enough.
More along the lines of homophobia and perhaps residual from postpartum; as I hear on CSPAN isolationism...

racism even.

• ▶ Reply