Book Review . . . Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love
By REY FLORES
“The pain of motherhood is a cleansing fire. I experience this each time I birth a child, a true phenomenon of hanging on the precipice between life and death. In one moment, I’m recalling the pain and horror of being cast out of the Garden of Eden as my body trembles in the pain of childbirth. In the very next moment, as I hold my newborn child, I’m being ushered into the sweet relief of heavenly glory.”
The above is the introduction of author, blogger, and pod-caster Kimberly Cook’s most recent TAN Books publication Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love.
I’m not sure how many of you men reading this responded or may respond upon reading these words. For me, they brought tears to my eyes because it flooded my soul all at once with memories of the birth of every one of our children my wife brought into this world, all eight, two who went to Heaven before full term.
Through examples like Kim’s and our kids’ mothers, we witness the absolute love and strength of a mother at her most vulnerable but courageous moment.
The afterglow. The ethereal, heavenly afterglow of motherhood is a miracle which none can deny. Babies are magical. And where do babies come from? Their mothers. Creatures created by God Himself to bring life itself into a world which is in much more need of life, and the love that life itself brings.
While Kim Cook has brought a terrific collection of beauty and reverie for Catholic womanhood and motherhood, not all women who have been blessed with these absolute graces may or may not always remain in that state of grace.
Satan does not desire low-hanging fruit. Like our bishops and priests, Satan wants the souls of those who are consistent, fervent, and on fire for God. Of course, Satan desires any souls he can rob from Heaven, but like the Blessed Virgin Mary and many other female saints, women and mothers must never fall for the lies of modernist feminism which is the opposite of God’s design.
In chapter titled “Fighting Her Disenfranchisement – Nineteenth Century,” Cook addresses the importance of unadulterated feminism the likes of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, highlighting Anthony’s clarification on the importance of women in both family and outside of the home; “My whole souls is in the work, but my hands belong to my family.”
With birth control, abortion, and the sexual revolution came more chaos and mayhem during the already tumultuous 1960s and 1970s. All of the above only served to further promote hedonism and sin over virtue and truth.
Interestingly enough, Cook manages to seamlessly intersperse the much more recent “riot grrrl” pop culture movement which she grew up with during high school in the 1990s. For those of you unfamiliar with “riot grrls,” it was basically a radical movement based more so on someone like Gloria Steinem and women-led hard rock and punk music of that era.
In this book, Cook covers everything from abortion, birth control, the Suffragettes, marriage and divorce, and the beginnings of the Women’s Movement, to the damage caused by Socialism and Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. All important historical information, but she never strays from the divine connection and relevance to it all.
One chapter I really liked was “The Power of Masculine Virtue,” starting with a great quote from St. John Paul the Great “Christ … assigns the dignity of every woman as a task to every man; at the same time, he assigns also the dignity of every man to every woman.”
Much like Cook writes about the importance and redeeming motherhood, men too must hold up our end of the bargain by helping our wives become more virtuous by our own virtuosity. How can we expect to raise the next generation of virtuous Catholics if we ourselves do not honor our marriages and spouses?
A great read that should be given to every modern feminist women’s studies professor in all academia. Cook could teach them quite a bit. You can order your copy of Motherhood Redeemed: How Radical Feminism Betrayed Maternal Love by visiting www.TanBooks.com.
- + + (Rey Flores writes opinion and book and movie reviews for The Wanderer. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
