CHAPTER VIII
WOMEN AND THE CHURCH
HEART TO HEART TALK WITH THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH BY THE GOVERNING BODIES
Go, labor on, good sister Anne, Abundant may thy labors be; To magnify thy brother man Is all the Lord requires of thee!
Go, raise the mortgage, year by year, And joyously thy way pursue, And when you get the t.i.tle clear, We"ll move a vote of thanks to you!
Go, labor on, the night draws nigh; Go, build us churches--as you can.
The times are hard, but chicken-pie Will do the trick. Oh, rustle, Anne!
Go, labor on, good sister Sue, To home and church your life devote; But never, never ask to vote, Or we"ll be very cross with you!
May no rebellion cloud your mind, But joyous let your race be run.
The conference is good and kind And knows G.o.d"s will for every one!
In dealing with the relation of women to the church, let me begin properly with a text in Genesis which says: "G.o.d created man in his _own _image ... male and female created he _them_." That is to say, He created male man and female man. Further on in the story of the creation it says: "He gave _them_ dominion, etc."
It would seem from this, that men and women got away to a fair start.
There was no inequality to begin with. G.o.d gave _them_ dominion over everything; there were no favors, no special privileges. Whatever inequality has crept in since, has come without G.o.d"s sanction. It is well to exonerate G.o.d from all blame in the matter, for He has been often accused of starting women off with a handicap. The inequality has arisen from men"s superior physical strength, which became more p.r.o.nounced as civilization advanced, and which is only noticeable in the human family. Among all animals, with the possible exception of cattle, the female is quite as large and as well endowed as the male.
It is easy for bigger and stronger people to arrogate to themselves a general superiority. Christ came to rebuke the belief that brute strength is the dominant force in life.
It is no wonder that the teachings of Christ make a special appeal to women, for Christ was a true democrat. He made no discrimination between men and women. They were all human beings to Him, with souls to save and lives to live, and He applied to men and women the same rule of conduct.
When the Pharisees brought the woman to Him, accused of a serious crime, insistent that she be stoned at once, Christ turned his attention to them. "Let him that is without sin among you throw the first stone," he said. Up to this moment they had been feeling deliciously good, and the contemplation of the woman"s sinfulness had given them positive thrills of virtue. But now suddenly each man felt the spotlight on himself, and he winced painfully. Ordinarily they would have bluffed it off, and laughingly declared they were no worse than other men. But the eyes of the Master were on them--kind eyes, patient always, but keen and sharp as a surgeon"s knife; and measuring themselves up with the sinless Son of G.o.d, their pitiful little pile of respectability fell into irreparable ruin. They forgot all about the woman and her sin as they saw their own miserable sin-eaten, souls, and they slid out noiselessly. When they were gone Christ asked the woman where were her accusers.
"No man hath condemned me, Lord," she answered truthfully.
"Neither do I condemn you," He said. "Go in peace--sin no more!"
I believe that woman did go in peace, and I also believe that she sinned no more, for she had a new vision of manhood, and purity, and love. All at once, life had changed for her.
The Christian Church has departed in some places from Christ"s teaching--noticeably in its treatment of women. Christ taught the n.o.bility of loving service freely given; but such a tame uninteresting belief as that did not appeal to the military masculine mind. It declared Christianity was fit only for women and slaves, whose duty and privilege it was lovingly to serve men. The men of Christ"s time held His doctrines in contempt. They wanted gratification, praise, glory, applause, action--red blood and raw meat, and this man, this carpenter, nothing but a working man from an obscure village, dared to tell them they should love their neighbor as themselves, that they should bless and curse not.
There was no fun in that! No wonder they began to seek how they could destroy him! Such doctrine was fit for only women and slaves!
It is sometimes stated as a reason for excluding women from the highest courts of the church, that Christ chose men for all of his disciples--that it was to men, and men only, that he gave the command: "Go ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature," but that is a very debatable matter. Christ"s scribes were all men, and in writing down the sacred story, they would naturally ignore the woman"s part of it. It is not more than twenty years ago that in a well-known church paper appeared this sentence, speaking of a series of revival meetings: "The converted numbered over a hundred souls, exclusive of women and children." If after nineteen centuries of Christian civilization the scribe ignores women, even in the matter of conversion, we have every reason to believe that Matthew, Mark, Luke or John might easily fail to give women a place "among those present" or the "also rans."
Superior physical force is an insidious thing, and has biased the judgment of even good men. St. Augustine declared woman to be "a household menace; a daily peril; a necessary evil." St. Paul, too, added his contribution and advised all men who wished to serve G.o.d faithfully to refrain from marriage "even as I." "However," he said, "if you feel you must marry, go ahead--only don"t say I did not warn you!" Saint Paul is very careful to say that he is giving this advice quite on his own authority, but that has in no way dimmed the faith of those who have quoted it.
Later writers like Sir Almoth Wright declare there are no good women, though there are some who have come under the influence of good men.
Many men have felt perfectly qualified to sum up all women in a few crisp sentences, and they do not shrink from declaring in their modest way that they understand women far better than women understand themselves. They love to talk of women in bulk, all women--and quite cheerfully tell us women are illogical, frivolous, jealous, vindictive, forgiving, affectionate, not any too honest, patient, frail, delightful, inconstant, faithful. Let us all take heart of grace for it seems we are the whole thing!
Almost all the books written about women have been written by men.
Women have until the last fifty years been the inarticulate s.e.x; but although they have had little to say about themselves they have heard much. It is a very poor preacher or lecturer who has not a lengthy discourse on "Woman"s True Place." It is a very poor platform performer who cannot take the stand and show women exactly wherein they err. "This way, ladies, for the straight and narrow path!" If women have gone aside from the straight and narrow path it is not because they have not been advised to pursue it. Man long ago decided that woman"s sphere was anything he did not wish to do himself, and as he did not particularly care for the straight and narrow way, he felt free to recommend it to women in general. He did not wish to tie himself too closely to home either and still he knew somebody should stay on the job, so he decided that home was woman"s sphere.
The church has been dominated by men and so religion has been given a masculine interpretation, and I believe the Protestant religion has lost much when it lost the idea of the motherhood of G.o.d. There come times when human beings do not crave the calm, even-handed justice of a father nearly so much as the soft-hearted, loving touch of a mother, and to many a man or woman whose home life has not been happy, "like as a father pitieth his children" sounds like a very cheap and cruel sarcasm.
It has been contended by those high in authority in church life, that the admission of women into all the departments of the church will have the tendency to drive men out. Indeed some declare that the small attendance of men at church services is accounted for by the "feminization of the church," which is, in other words, an admission of a very ugly fact that even in the sacred precincts of the church, women are held in mild contempt. Many men will resent this statement hotly, but a brief glance at some of the conditions which prevail in our social life will prove that there is a great amount of truth in it.
Look at the fine scorn with which small boys regard girls! You cannot insult a boy more deeply than to tell him he looks like a girl--and the bitterest insult one boy can hand out to another is to call him a "sissy." This has been carefully taught to our small boys, for if they were left to their own observations and deductions they would hold girls in as high esteem as boys. I remember once seeing a fond mother buying a coat for her only son, aged seven years. The salesman had put on a pretty little blue reefer, and the mother was quite pleased with it, and a sale was apparently in sight. Then the salesman was guilty of a serious mistake, for as he pulled down the little coat and patted the shoulders he said: "This is a standard cut, madam, which is always popular, and we sell a great many of them for both boys and girls."
Girls!
Reggie"s mother stiffened, and with withering scorn declared that she did not wish Reggie to wear a girl"s coat. She would look at something else. Reggie pulled off the coat, as if it burned him, and felt he had been perilously near to something very compromising and indelicate.
Thus did young Reggie receive a lesson in s.e.x contempt at the hands of his mother!
Let us lay the blame where it belongs. If any man holds women in contempt--and many do--their mothers are to blame for it in the first place, it began in the nursery but was fostered on the street, and nourished in the school where sitting with a girl has been handed out as a punishment, containing the very dregs of humiliation; where boys are encouraged to play games and have a good time, but where until a few years ago girls were expected to "sit around and act ladylike" in the playtime of the others.
The church has contributed a share, too, in the subjection of women, in spite of the plain teaching of our Lord, and many a sermon has been based on the words of Saint Paul about women remaining silent in the churches, and if any question arose to trouble her soul, she must ask her husband quietly at home.
But it is at the marriage altar, where women receive the crowning insult. "Who gives this woman away?" asks the minister. "I do," says her father or brother, or some male relative, without a blush.
Perfectly satisfactory. One man hands her over to another man, the inference being that the woman has nothing to do with it. In this most vital decision of her whole life, she has had to get a man to do the thinking for her. It goes back to the old days, of course, when a woman was a man"s chattel, to do with as he saw fit. The word "obey"
has gone from some of the marriage ceremonies. Bishops even have seen the absurdity of it and taken it out.
Women have held a place all their own in the church. "I am willing that the sisters should labor," cried an eminent doctor of the largest Protestant church in Canada, when the question of allowing women to sit in the highest courts of the church was discussed. "I am willing that the sisters should labor," he said, "and that they should labor more abundantly, but we cannot let them rule." And it was so decreed.
Women have certainly been allowed to labor in the church. There is no doubt of that. There are many things they may do with impunity, nay, even hilarity. They may make strong and useful garments for the poor; they may teach in Sunday-school and attend prayer-meeting; they may finance the new parsonage, and augment the missionary funds by bazaars, birthday socials, autograph quilts and fowl suppers--where the masculine portion of the congregation are given a dollar meal for fifty cents, which they take gladly and generously declare they do not mind the expense for "it is all for a good cause." The women may lift mortgages, or build churches, or any other light work, but the real heavy work of the church, such as moving resolutions in the general conference or a.s.semblies, must be done by strong, hardy men!
It is quite noticeable that each of the church dignitaries who have opposed woman"s entry into the church courts has prefaced his remarks by elaborate apologies, and never failed to declare his great love for womankind. Each one has bared his manly breast and called the world to witness the fact that he loves his mother and is not ashamed to say so--which declaration is all the more remarkable because no person was asking, or particularly interested in his private affairs. (Query--Why shouldn"t he love his mother? Most people do.) After having delivered his soul of these mighty, epoch-making declarations, he has proceeded to explain that letting women into the church would be the thin edge of the wedge, and he is afraid women will "lose their femininity."
Women are not discouraged or cast down. Neither have they any intention of going on strike, or withdrawing their support from the church. They will still go on patiently, and earnestly and hopefully.
s.e.x prejudice is a hard thing to break down, and the smaller the man, and the narrower his soul, the more tenaciously will he hold on to his pitiful little belief in his own superiority. The best and ablest men in all the churches are fighting the woman"s battles now, and the brotherly companionship, the real chivalry, and fairmindedness of these men, are enough to keep the women"s hearts cheered and encouraged.
Toward their opponents the women are very tolerant and hopeful. Many of them have changed their beliefs in the last few years. They are changing every day. Those who will not change will die! We always have this a.s.surance, and in this battle for independence, many a woman has found comfort in poor Swinburne"s pagan hymn of thanksgiving:
From too much love of living, From fear of death set free, We thank thee with brief thanksgiving, Whatever G.o.ds there be!
That no life lives forever, That dead men rise up never, That even the weariest river Leads somehow safe to sea!
But when all is over, the battle fought and won, and women are regarded everywhere as human beings and citizens, many women will remember with bitterness that in the day of our struggle, the church stood off, aloof and dignified, and let us fight alone.
One of the arguments advanced by the men who oppose women"s entry into the full fellowship of the church is that women would ultimately seek to preach, and the standard of preaching would be lowered. There is a gentle compelling note of modesty about this that is not lost on us--and we frankly admit that we would not like to see the standard of preaching lowered; and we a.s.sure the timorous brethren that women are not clamoring to preach; but if a woman should feel that she is divinely called of G.o.d to deliver a message, I wonder how the church can be so sure that she isn"t. Wouldn"t it be perfectly safe to let her have her fling? There was a rule given long ago which might be used yet to solve such a problem:
"And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone, for if this council, or this work, be of men, it will come to naught, but if it be of G.o.d you cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against G.o.d."
That seems to be a pretty fair way of looking at the matter of preaching; but the churches have decreed otherwise, and in order to save trouble they have decided themselves and not left it to G.o.d. It must be great to feel that you are on the private wire from heaven and qualified to settle a matter which concerns the spiritual destiny of other people.
Many theories have been propounded as to the decadence of the church, which has become painfully apparent when great moral issues have been at stake. That the church could stamp out the liquor traffic has often been said, and yet although general conferences and a.s.semblies have met year after year, and pa.s.sed resolutions declaring that "the sale of liquor could not be licensed without sin," the liquor traffic goes blithely on its way and gets itself licensed all right, "with sin,"
perhaps, but licensed anyway. Where are all these stalwart sons of the church who love their mothers so ostentatiously and reverence womanhood so deeply?
There is one of Aesop"s fables which tells about a man who purchased for himself a beautiful dog, but being a timid man, he was beset with the fear that some day the dog might turn on him and bite him, and to prevent this, he drew all the dog"s teeth. One day a wolf attacked the man. He called on his beautiful dog to protect him, but the poor dog had no teeth, and so the wolf ate them both. The church fails to be effective because it has not the use of one wing of its army, and it has no one to blame but itself. The church has deliberately set its face against the emanc.i.p.ation of women, and in that respect it has been a perfect joy to the liquor traffic, who recognize their deadliest foe to be the woman with a ballot in her hand. The liquor traffic rather enjoys temperance sermons, and conventions and resolutions. They furnish an outlet for a great deal of hot talk which hurts n.o.body.
Of course, various religious bodies in convention a.s.sembled have from time to time pa.s.sed resolutions favoring woman suffrage, and recommending it to the state, but the state has not been greatly impressed. The state might well reply to the church by saying: "If it is such a desirable thing why do you not try it yourself?"
The antagonism of the church to receiving women preachers has its basis in s.e.x jealousy. I make this statement with deliberation. The smaller the man, the more disposed he is to be jealous. A gentleman of the old school, who believes women should all be housekeepers whether they want to be or not, once went to hear a woman speak; and when asked how he liked it he grudgingly admitted that it was clever enough. He said it seemed to him like a pony walking on its hind legs--it was clever but not natural.
Woman has long been regarded by the churches as helpmate for man, with no life of her own, but a very valuable a.s.sistant nevertheless to some male relative. Woman"s place they have long been told is to help some man to achieve success and great reward may be hers. Some day when she is faded and old and battered and bent, her son may be pleased to recall her many sacrifices and declare when making his inaugural address: "All that I am my mother made me!" There are one or two things to be considered in this charming scene. Her son may never arrive at this proud achievement, or even if he does, he may forget his mother and her sacrifices, and again she may not have a son. But these are minor matters.