CONFRONTING the Religious Right

Off Our Backs, 2006 by Seelhoff, Cheryl Lindsey

"Right-wing women have surveyed the world: they find it a dangerous place. They see that work subjects them to more danger from more men; it increases the risk of sexual exploitation. They see that creativity and · originality in their kind are ridiculed; they see women thrown out of the circle of male civilization for having ideas, plans, visions, ambitions. They see that traditional marriage means selling to one man, not hundreds; the better deal. They see that the streets are cold and that the women on them are tired sick and bruised.. They see no way to make their bodies authentically their own and to survive in the world of men... Right wing women are not wrong.. Their desperation is quiet; they hide their bruises of body and heart; they dress carefully and have good manners; they suffer, they love God, they follow the rules... They use sex and babies to stay valuable because they need a home, food, clothing. They use the traditional intelligence of the female-animal, not human; they do what they have to do to survive."

-Andrea Dworkin in Right-Wing Women

The date was July 4, 1994. I was a magazine publisher, the mother of nine children, ages 3 to 22, the sole support of my family. Over a period of several months, I had separated from my abusive husband of nearly two decades, left my church, filed for divorce, and I had begun seeing someone new. I was finished with conservative Christianity and Bible literalism. I intended to leave it behind and to move on with my life.

Two weeks prior I had kept a speaking commitment made months earlier to keynote a conference in Columbus, Ohio. Five thousand women attended my keynote speech. I went on to present five additional workshops over a long weekend to appreciative audiences, and flew home.

On this day I was hearing from the chair of the organization that had sponsored the conference that should not have kept my commitment to speak. The organizer, a man I had met for the first time in Columbus, had been contacted by my exhusband and ex-pastor, who told him I was divorcing "without grounds," was involved in "unrepentant adultery," and that I was "walking in darkness." Armed with this information, the organizer, my ex-pastor and my ex-husband had contacted leaders of a number of national organizations on the Religious Right-Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Fund and Patrick Henry College and one-time candidate for Lt. Governor of Virginia, officials with James Dobson's Focus on the Family, editors and publishers of four periodicals, and other national leaders and public figures. Together they had concocted a performance plan by way of which I might be able to redeem myself for the sin of having kept my commitment to speak. The issue was not the workshops I presented; they had gone well. The issue was that a woman who is divorcing "without grounds" and who is committing adultery is not qualified to speak publicly or to write for publication.

My magazine publishing business was always a sole proprietorship. It was never connected with any church or religious organization. It began in 1989 as a 'zine created at my kitchen table on a Selectric typewriter, photocopied, and mailed to 17 subscribers. By the summer of 1994, it had become a full-color glossy publication reaching 50,000 people internationally, 11 months per year. Several weekends out of the year, I traveled to speak at various events across the country. I had never advertised; my subscribers, columnists and advertisers had come to me by and large by word of mouth.

So to say I was surprised by the call I received on Independence Day, 1994, would be to grossly understate. I listened in stunned silence as the stranger on the other end of the line set forth his demands. In the days to come I was to:

* Return my honorarium

* Write a letter of apology to my ex-husband, my ex-pastor, my subscribers and a laundry list of leaders on the Religious Right

* Fire my attorney

* Withdraw my restraining order against my ex-husband

* Stop divorce proceedings

* Stop dating

* Cease publishing

* Cease writing for publication

* Cease speaking publicly

* Agree never to defend myself

* Turn over my bank accounts to my ex-pastor

* Agree never to go out alone

* Give up my post office box

* Give up my internet service

* Agree to fly across the country with my ex-husband for two weeks of Christian marriage counseling

If I failed to comply, a letter of discipline and censure would be first read to the assembled congregation of the church I had left months earlier and would then be circulated and published nationally.

I did not comply.

My caller, my ex-pastor, ex-husband, and leaders I've named, as well as others, then made good on their threats. A letter of discipline turning me "over to Satan for the destruction of my flesh" was read at the assembled meeting of a church I had left three months prior. My subscribers, advertisers, columnists and others were contacted and told I was under church discipline, that I would no longer be publishing, and that they should sever any business relationship they had with me. Over the weeks and months to come, subscription cancellations and demands for refunds rolled in, columnists quit, advertisers canceled ads and demanded refunds. In short order, I found myself unable to fulfill subscriptions, to publish, or to support my family of seven children still at home, the youngest only three-years-old. My house and land went into foreclosure. My car burned to the ground in a mysterious fire. Strange men showed up at my house wanting to "pray" with me, despite my having kept my address secret. I felt under siege. I was under siege. I was shunned by all of my long-time friends and acquaintances.