Denny Burk: Is feminism a source of good in the church?

I saw the CT post and thought about challenging it in the comments there, but decided that I’d be spitting into the wind. Glad to see Denny challenge it on his blog. From my comment there:

“The discussion to this point has missed a critical area in which feminism has harmed the church and society: no fault divorce laws. To put it in Suzanne’s terms {a commenter defending feminism in the church] , because of no fault divorce laws allowing unilateral divorce for any reason (including for non-biblical reasons), my ex-wife was able to treat me as less than a neighbor, less than an equal, and less than a fellow human being. We had each promised the other that we would meet our respective obligations as husband and wife for the rest of our lives, barring a major breach that would constitute a biblical ground for divorce (and hopefully not even then). I was still doing that 29 years and 4 kids later, even in the face of a Christian marriage counselor’s determination after a full year of counseling that I had biblical grounds for divorce due to her conduct (no specifics needed). Thanks to feminism and no fault divorce laws, she was able to divorce me without biblical grounds and contrary to church counsel, and there was not a thing in the world I could do about it. But not only was she allowed to do it, she was rewarded for doing it — primary custody of one of our two kids still at home, $952/month child support until that child is 20, and $300/month alimony, all on top of a good, stable full-time job that paid her quite enough to live on. I would love it if she had been treated the way I wanted to be treated, which was to be held accountable to keep my vows.”

Something I failed to say there: I submit that to the extent any church, including the fundamentalist and evangelical churches represented by SI readers, does not actively seek to stop a female member from obtaining an unbiblical divorce (and the financial rewards that accompany such under our legal system), and/or does not institute church discipline against her for doing so, that church has been saturated with the feminism it almost certainly claims to oppose.