Gen Z’s Incompetent Converts

In the introduction to theology course I teach for college freshmen, one of the assigned readings is the third-century account of the martyrdoms of Saints Felicity and Perpetua. For years, the text—which depicts the gruesome torture and death of these women, one of whom had just given birth—provoked negative reactions. It especially seemed to anger the feminists in my classes, who argued it was “patriarchal” and “glorified abuse of women.” But to my surprise, two years ago a student—a self-described pro-choice feminist—said she found the story to be inspiring. The depiction of a mother nursing her baby before being killed for her beliefs was, to this student, “a message of hope and empowerment.”