- “They were not allowed to do what they did. They were blocked from doing it and they did it anyway. They did it anyway."
John has a brilliant and active mind that constantly ranges over a multitude of social and political justice issues, and I am often challenged by his interests and knowledge and the things he posts.
This is what John originally posted:
- "I have been reading about 1847 women. The Blackwell sisters, Congregational members and Unitarians from New York State, and Lucretia Mott, a Quaker minister, and her group around Philadelphia. Antoinette Brown first woman as Congregational minister. What strikes me is they were not allowed to do what they did. They were blocked from doing it and they did it anyway. They did it anyway."
Elizabeth Blackwell, who was born in England in 1821, and immigrated to the United States with her family as a child, was America’s first female doctor. She was rejected, because of her gender, by every medical college to which she applied, except Geneva Medical College, which eventually granted her Doctor of Medicine degree. Her younger sister Emily followed her as the third women doctor in the U. S.
Lucretia Mott was a abolitionist and a women’s right activist. After she was excluded from an international anti-slavery convention in 1840 simply because she was a woman, she apparently decided that the role of women needed to be reshaped – and she set out to do so.
Antionette Brown was the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the United States – specifically in the Congregational Church.
At a time when women were expected to be submissive and quietly in the background, these women, and others like them, refused their allotted roles and forged their own way.
This led me to wonder about who and when people in scripture chose to “forge their own way.” Such stories are few and far between because most of scripture consists of teaching people to obey all the rules and to do what they were told. To disobey or disagree with the “authorities” was tantamount to disobeying God. Even Jesus, while often demonstrating a resistance to the prevailing norms mostly spoke in favor of obeying the rules.
The first scripture that seems to fit our storyline today is the story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10:
- “Now as Jesus and his followers went on their way, a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary’s role was laid out for her from birth. In a culture stuffed to the gills with rules on how to do everything, women were meant to be subservient – period. This belief is based in the creation of Adam and Eve as told in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, where Adam was created first, and then later, Eve was created – not from the earth as Adam had been – but from one of Adam’s ribs -- therefore clearly making her secondary in the Hebrew mind.
Mary chose differently – she chose to step out of the role that “the rules” appeared to set for her -- and Jesus supported her in this choice. She was allowed to join the men in learning from Jesus.
We might also include in this list as an example from the Old Testament, Miriam, sister to Moses and Aaron. This story is found in Numbers, chapter 12. Miriam was a prophet and one of the leaders of the Hebrew people in her own right until she was abruptly stricken with leprosy for the “crime” of speaking out publicly in defense of Zipporah, Moses’ wife. Moses had suddenly and without explanation separated himself from Zipporah and Miriam defended her as having done nothing to deserve this action, which was quite shaming in their culture.
God grew angry at this because he had apparently privately told Moses to leave Zipporah and live celibately as a sign of his advanced prophetic role. God punished Miriam for the crime of “disrespecting” Moses in public with her defense of Zipporah.
Moses later asked God to forgive Miriam and she was cured of her leprosy, living out the rest of her life with great honor.
The last story I was able to come up with is that of Jesus and the Canaanite Woman, as told in Matthew 15. When she tried to ask Jesus to cure her ailing daughter, the disciples turned her away because, as a Canaanite, she would have been judged unclean and undeserving of Jesus’ attention.
Even Jesus when pushed, responded with “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” When she persisted, the apparently annoyed Jesus told her “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” The woman replied with the now famous line that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” She stood her ground and argued with Jesus that she had the right to ask for his help – and she won. Jesus conceded her point and cured her sick daughter and praised the woman for her faith.
Even though the people who originally caught my attention here were all women, I did not particularly set out to use only women as my scriptural examples but, as it turned out, women were the only examples I found. Perhaps that is because women more often – then as now – had to stand up and fight for their right to be seen and heard or else remain silent and accepting. Perhaps it is simply that a woman arguing for her rights was more “newsworthy” and so it got written down and included in various scriptural writings. Something of a "man bites dog" story -- odd enough to attract attention.
There are certainly stories of men speaking out when doing so put them against public opinion, but not too many of them being silenced before they ever had a chance to speak.
I’m going to throw in here one of my favorite stories which may or may not fit my original premise. I’m not sure it does, but it’s a great story. It’s found in John’s gospel, chapter 9. It’s the story of the man born blind. Jesus had healed him but he did so on the sabbath and so, of course, the Pharisees were livid and set out to find criminal charges against Jesus.
They asked the man how Jesus could have cured him and his response was simply, “I don’t know.” When they asked the man’s parents, their response was the same, “We don’t know.” So they went back to the once-blind man, determined to catch him saying something they could use to incriminate Jesus.
His response was perfect -- “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!.....I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
Yes. Yes I do. I want to hear the stories again. And again. The stories of people insisting on their right to speak their own truth -- the truth God gave to them. Those who refuse to be shushed or pushed aside. All those who, in my friend John’s words, “were blocked from doing it and they did it anyway. They did it anyway.”
Hooray for them, and thanks be to God.
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