Nothing wrong with adding a little spiritual aid to your driving ambition.
As for the sad state of feminism, its mostly a PR problem, accentuated by the fact that there is no clear coherent message or leader. The KKK suddenly found form and support when David Duke started handling PR. Obviously, that was bad, but it shows that a movement needs a leader that 1) the public can understand, 2) the public can relate to, 3) a message they can accept.
Before coming here, my main reaction to someone complaining about the "patriarchy" was rolling my eyes, and tuning them out. Same with most people, at least doubly so in the media. The current women's rights movement is portrayed as a bunch of gangly shrews and man haters. I mentioned a study earlier in the F-Sexism thread where only about 26% of women will identify themselves as feminists, because of the radical stigma attached. Your best bet to improve that status is when speaking about feminism, speak about feminism and do not use it as an opportunity to take potshots at religion or Republicans. Both parties can be your most valuable allies in the struggle if you don't piss them off by going off the handle.
BTW, since about 83% of Americans are Christians, and about 35% are conservatives, you're going to have to appeal to them in some degree if you want any measures passed in the near future. You can be right about everything until you're blue in the face, but unless you can convince an already paranoid populace that your ideals are right and your methods are the best, without threatening their existence, you will end up like Ralph Nader, who's been spinning his wheels since the 1960's.
PS. It wasn't the bra-burners of the 1960's that got things done; it was the mature women they grew into in the 1970's that managed to get the women's rights agenda on the table for the first time since the 1920's.