Liturgy Versus Liberty: A Post-Roe Confrontation with Reproductive Labor Ideology in Christian Worship

Despite the American ideal of “liberty for all,” work remains to definitively establish within our law and culture that people with female reproductive systems are equally free. In particular, after the fall of Roe, the targeted state domination and economic exploitation of this group for its reproductive labor power are of grave concern. As hegemonic ideology is a crucial point of intervention, this paper commends and builds upon the work of feminist liturgical scholars, who have long charged that Christian Eucharist liturgy constructs women as colonized reproductive laborers for a Father God. Analyzing content and ritual actions in a specific instance of contemporary Advent liturgy, it underscores the renewed urgency of worship problems raised decades ago and illustrates the type of work needed on a larger scale, both to dislodge the unjust cultural common sense about reproduction culturally and to advance feminist, liberatory re-formation of Christian worship.