The conspiracy to subvert Christianity

There have been several attempts of late to create a step change within the Christian faith by implying that there have been Christian conspiracies to deny the existence of a sacred feminine. That the patriarchal nature of Christianity for 2000 years has somehow been against God, and that there is an entire hidden history relating to the female aspect of God that has been suppressed to allow the structure of Christianity and particularly the Catholic Church to retain its powerbase. From iconic religious paintings, to ancient texts, to mysterious secret societies the stories go on and on, but what is at the core of all of them is that the image of a masculine God served by an almost exclusively male priesthood is fundamentally in error. It is relatively easy to see why this would be an attractive proposition, but it almost always misses one crucial point. In order for it to make sense, or have credibility from a Christian perspective one would have to assume that Christianity was wrong, and therefore one would no longer be looking from a Christian perspective.

This may at first seem a somewhat odd thing to say, but lets look at it a little more closely. The principles of Christianity are established by the priesthood, guided by God. Depending on the branch of Christianity there is a greater or lesser requirement to accept the word of God as represented by the Holy Bible. This ranges from the pentecostal and evangelical position that the Bible is the word of God and as such is inviolate, to the liberal protestant position that the Bible is a scripture of guidance and requires interpretation and modification in line with changing societal needs. Between these is the slightly different position of the Catholic Church wherein the bible may be interpreted but the interpretation is at the discretion of the Holy Father, the Pope, who is Gods representative on Earth. This is really at the root of the opportunity seen by some writers to adapt Christian teaching to accommodate the sacred feminine. With so many different ways of defining as Christian there are always conflicts over what is acceptable Christian doctrine and what is not.

What lies at the root of these moves to raise questions about Christian dogma is a desire to weaken the power of the Church, and to spread dissent and discord amongst the various churches. Some of these questions relate to simply interpretations that leave the core belief in a single all powerful God, like questions over the acceptability of homosexuality or contraception, but the question of the female divine reaches to the heart of belief and questions the very nature of God. This makes it far more challenging for the church to deal with, particularly when the challenge comes from multiple sources. Since the 1960's and the feminist revolution there has been pressure for a more active role in religious practice for women, but more than that, there has been a strong movement towards a reinvention of female Gods. This is seen in the significant rise in popularity of reinvented Pagan religions such as Wicca and Druidry wherein the sacred female is celebrated as a balanced duality with the sacred male. It has been suggested that this is the model that Christianity should operate under, but the truth of the matter is that there is no evidence within Christian texts that this is the case. All of the evidence comes from outside the Christian canon and as a result is, at best, questionable, and at worst heresy.