Digging Deeper Into the “Christian” Origins of Feminism and of Our Nation, by Dr. Margaret Harper McCarthy

By Dr. Margaret Harper McCarthy, Catholic World Report, June 29, 2026

This 250th year of U.S. independence is an excellent occasion for Christians, especially Catholics, to consider the values central to the American identity, especially freedom and equality.

The current debate over the Christian origins of feminism is a lot like the one over the Christian origins of America. It is argued that the Founders of America and the “first wave” feminists were mostly good Christian gentlemen and good Christian ladies, that they sought inspiration from the Christian Scriptures, and that, therefore, their ideas were essentially Christian, or at least compatible with it.

In each case, too, Christianity was recovering something that had been lost to it through corruptions of the past. Reason and natural law had returned after a centuries-long banishment under voluntarism and its arbitrary power. Indeed, the founding feminist anticipated Benedict XVI’s call to redeem reason, no less. Equality and freedom, too—both central to Christianity—were making a kind of debut, at least as politically instantiated. …