God & Women: Chapter Four

Deconstructing the Christian Caste System

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Common Enemies

“The feminist and diabolical spirit has invaded every major Christian movement. Their goal is to place women right beside men in administration, decisions of doctrine, and practice, and superintendent responsibilities. They would rather the church cease to exist than to fail their goal, and, in fact, the church will cease to be a part of Christ’s body if they succeed.” [1] — Pastor Joseph Chambers, 1996

These words, written by a contemporary pastor, are a veritable declaration of war against women and echo the sentiments of many Christian leaders.

Where is the proof that those who support practical equality between the sexes “would rather the church cease to exist than to fail their goal?” Chamber’s words reveal a morbid fear of female influence and a prejudicial view of women that is often displayed within mainstream Christian fellowships.

This same kind of fear and prejudice doomed millions of Africans to perpetual slavery in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Slaveholders believed that the emancipation of slaves would result in the end of civilization as they knew it.

Angelina Grimkè refuted this bigotry with facts.[2]

When women resorted to public forums in efforts to end slavery, they found their hands largely tied for no other reason than the fact that they were women. During those years, women were severely criticized and socially ostracized for breaking from prescribed roles in making public efforts to help the less fortunate and oppressed. They realized that they, themselves, were bound as tightly into a caste system based on sex as slaves were bound in a caste system based on color. Thus, the American “Woman’s Rights” movement was born.[3]

The two causes, freedom for slaves and equal rights for women, seemed to converge almost immediately. Although abolition of slavery was not the first humanitarian cause that highlighted the need for women’s rights, the American Woman’s Rights movement was a direct result of women’s participation in the efforts of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which eventually experienced a split over the woman issue.[4]

In England the Woman’s Rights issue seemed to run a parallel course with the slavery issue as well. In fact, in every major movement on behalf of human rights, the issue of women’s rights presented itself, but the slavery issue appears to have been the catalyst for propelling women’s rights into a full-fledged movement in the United States.

The causes of emancipation for slaves, subsequent civil rights for people of color, and the emancipation of and equal rights for women, have fought common enemies in religion, law, public opinion, and in the most implacable and powerful enemies of all, fear and prejudice.