Yes, it’s March 4, and I’m only two posts behind in my plan to feature a quote a day from a woman during Women’s History Month. But it’s Sunday — we’re going to have a bonus! Below are three pearls of wisdom and prophetic strength, all quoted in Margaret Hope Bacon’s “Mothers of Feminism: The Story Of Quaker Women In America,” Friends General Conference, 1986:
“Women are still voiceless. We have to wait until complete equality becomes a reality. I grew up in a Quaker family and Quakers believe in the equality of the sexes. It is hard to grow up in such a family and never hear about anything else. When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you’ve reached the end of the row.” Alice Paul, drafter of the Equal Rights Amendment
“All human rights are bound up in one great bundle.” Abby Kelley Foster, Quaker activist
“Friends (Quakers) are reminded that it is the experience and testimony of our Society that there is one teacher, namely Christ, and that in His Spirit there are no distinctions between persons, nor any reason of age, sex, or race that elects some to domination. Live in love and learn from one another. Combativeness in family life, whereby man and wife or parents and children strive to assert a supremacy of will is not compatible with the conviction that there is that of God in everyone . . . ” Anonymous Quaker woman, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends, 1972
My prayer is that the Church would reclaim its history by reclaiming the Gospel, the hope of women and men and all creation as a Body and world reconciled to the Almighty by the perfect atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Any “gospel” that perpetuates division and liberates only some is, indeed, no Gospel at all.
Tomorrow: Words of praise not likely echoed by much you’ve heard in church
recently . . .