Women in Religious History

Good Morning! and thank you for coming to hear about Women in Religious History. When I mentioned the title, "Women in Religious History" to a friend of mine, he quipped, "Well, that ought to be a short sermon."

Today I am going to talk about the women who influenced religious history in the United States, primarily Unitarians and Universalists, ignoring for this purpose religions such as: our Native American beliefs, Buddhism, Islam and others. Even though these religious concepts are important to many of us, in American culture we have been influenced mostly by Judaism and Christianity. Unitarian and Universalist affirmations are direct descendants of both Judaism and Christianity.

In this opening monologue I will give a cursory background. Rather, my version of "History of the World, Part 1." In the second part, "She is Called", I will focus more closely on UU women ministers and their being called. They, and others, had enormous influence in religious and social reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries and we will find out why.

Let us begin:

In prehistoric times women were revered because they brought forth new life. The connection between the sexual act of procreation and nine months later delivering a human baby as a result of that act, wasn't given a thought for thousands of years. We had to progress through many evolutionary and intellectual stages before the concept of goddess as creator was formalized. Greek and Roman mythologies introduced us to goddesses and gods for every natural force and human activity. Judaism gave us the one God concept, monotheism. Christianity in its 4th century gave us the concept of the trinity. Judaism and Christianity have their roots in and around the Mediterranean Sea, with stories and concepts traced directly to paganism and mythology.

Fast forward to the Old Testament, the Torah, with one God who is portrayed as a father image.

In the Book of Genesis in the Judeo-Christian Bible, the history of Eve tells of her sinning against God, by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from which both Adam and Eve had been admonished by God not to partake, lest they die. You may recall that Adam blamed her for giving him the apple, and she in turn blamed the serpent. From that event women have been blamed and punished for many things-- witchcraft is one. It depends upon who is interpreting the Scriptures.

However, later, in the book of Judges, Esther and Ruth were elevated to positions of judicial authority in their Hebrew communities. In the person of Lydia we see a businesswoman: purveyor of purple cloth. Women at that time were not allowed to speak in temples or hold the status of rabbi, nevertheless their place in religious history is secured by the Torah's stories.

In the Christian New Testament there were several women surrounding Jesus in his ministerial life. His mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and a few others are mentioned, but do not become disciples in the original chosen 12. Many centuries later, Jesus' mother Mary is elevated in status through the efforts of Ignatious Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

Christianity flourished in Europe for many centuries, and came to the New World by way of one important woman in the late 1400's. She was Queen Isabella of Spain. Without her religious fervor and her grandiose plan to make Christians of the entire world, Christopher Columbus wouldn't have sailed anywhere. He and his crew were out for riches, gold, and pure adventure, and Isabella wanted souls for her church. She felt she was "called" and funded his voyages.

In the 16th century the Spaniards established small colonies in Mexico, Florida, and California. By the 17th century, with the founding of the two English colonies at Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts the North American continent witnessed control by religious groups. Later, the French colonized portions of the midwest and south along the Gulf. All brought their versions of Christianity and forced them upon the natives of the "discovered" lands.

An account of one Puritan woman, Anne Hutchinson, is described in the book Women in American Religion. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony she was respected for her piety and intelligence, having worked as a midwife in Boston. Because of her reputation, "large crowds assembled in her home to hear her comments on the previous Sunday's sermon and her further thoughts on the religious doctrine presented there."

But that challenged the church authorities who were men, and in a long interpretation she was found guilty of believing that God spoke to her soul. Of course, this meant that she claimed to have access to a higher authority than the Bible. That's all they needed to convict her, and banished her and her followers to the wilds beyond the British settlement, where they perished. This happened in 1638.

The Puritans had what we might call "conflicting beliefs". In some cases they considered the magistrates to be next to God. There were fine-line judgments made if the authorities in the community felt threatened. It was difficult, obviously, to live in a community like that and be an assertive woman.

In doing my research I was fascinated and astounded by the stories of women who challenged the higher authorities in their communities. In the same book, an account 200 years later, in 1811, Jarena Lee heard a voice saying, "Go preach the Gospel!"

She immediately replied aloud, "No one will believe me." But then she heard the same voice say, "Preach the Gospel; I will put words in your mouth, and will turn your enemies to become your friends." At first she thought the voice came from Satan in an effort to deceive her. Lee viewed herself as an unlikely choice for a preacher. A 28-year-old free black woman living in Philadelphia, she believed that God could find more effective vehicles to spread his word. But when she prayed to God to know whether the voice was his, she had a vision of a pulpit with a Bible lying on it. This convinced her that the voice came from God and that he had indeed called her to preach, whatever apparent obstacles stood in her way.

Jarena Lee became part of a growing sorority of women who experienced the call to preach.

Poised on the chairs behind me are posters depicting many but not all of the women who spoke out against injustices in all aspects of their society. Abolition of slavery, women's rights, notably the right to vote, yes, and also to own property and not be property. Education reforms, access to the ministry, and more. You will see Clara Barton, Susan B. Anthony, Judith Sargent Murray, Mary Livermore, Antoinette Brown Blackwell and many others. Please see these and some of the references I used for my research after the service.

In the early years of the 19th century America experienced what had begun a century before in Europe: the Age of Reason, sometimes called the Age of Enlightenment. Faith in reason was reflected in the literature of the time, and also influenced political, social and economic ideas. Religious ideas were challenged by women as well as men. Our Unitarian and Universalist heritage tells their stories in the voices of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, William Channing, Theodore Parker, Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller.

What was it like to be a woman in America in the period 1800-1900? Why did women think they were called to preach? And how did they accomplish that ambition since there were poor modes of transportation, few facilities, and towns were long distances away?

Answering in reverse order: In the early part of the century travel was difficult over dirt, gravel and wood plank roads. Horseback or horse and carriage were the mode, and the weather often was uncooperative. Railroads were non-existent in many parts of the states for decades, even though the first horse-powered railroad was in Boston on Beacon Hill in 1807. Men and women had to want to travel to be subjected to the many inconveniences and often hardships.

The messages of the wrongs of slavery and equal rights for women were so important that women managed somehow to get to whomever would invite them. Many churches seemed eager to promote lecturers and preachers and especially welcomed intelligent female speakers. Supportive families would offer lodging for a night or two.

People were eager to learn what was going on and what was the thinking in this new country. There were few newspapers outside of larger cities and towns. No telegraph until 1844, no telephones until 1876, and radio wasn't available until well into the 20th century. Pamphlets, handbills and word of mouth served as ways to advertise lecturers and preachers.

Remuneration was small for preaching, sometimes just a meal, but it gave these women the opportunity to speak out. After the Civil War and the emancipation of the slaves, women's groups focused on the right to vote during the next 50 years until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920.

In answer to what was it like to be a woman in the 19th century: There was considerable freedom of thought allowed in the most liberal of the Protestant denominations, Congregationalism. Freedom of thought was encouraged by many parents. Private academies enrolled girls. Indeed, Lombard College (established in 1852) admitted women from the start.

Keep in mind that public schools did not become established in all states until long after the United States became a democratic entity. It took many years into the 19th century before states taxed their citizens to provide for education for all children.

So why was the Age of Enlightenment centered in New England? The bulk of the population of the young United States was in New England and hugged the Atlantic coastline southward. The thinkers of the early century were descendants of the Revolutionaries, and mainly of British descent: Universalists, Unitarians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Quakers. Most of the followers of Catholicism were in Maryland and southward, until the frontiersmen-and-women crossed the Mississippi River, from Canada to Mexico later in the century.

As to why did these women think they were being called -- I will focus on two women ministers: Olympia Brown and Sophia Lyon Fahs, for the answers.

Claudia Nichols wrote in her paper, Olympia Brown: Minister of Social Reform, that Olympia Brown was born on January 5, 1835 to Lephia and Asa Brown in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the oldest of 4 children. Her parents were Universalists who had moved to Michigan from Vermont. Her father, Asa, went from home to home collecting money in order to support a teacher for all the children in the community. They were believers in good education. Olympia and Oella, her sister, attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts in the 1854- 55 year, but quickly soured on the school's evangelistic attitude toward them. She referred to her education there as "the doctrine of endless punishment."

Her attendance at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, inspired her to become a Universalist minister. As liberal as Antioch College advertised itself to be, it did not feature women as speakers on campus. Olympia was instrumental in collecting enough money from women students to invite Antoinette Brown, who was the first woman to be ordained by a congregation, but not by full denominational authority, to speak at Antioch and at a local church the next day. Olympia is quoted as saying after the experience of hearing Antoinette speak: "The sense of victory lifted me up. I felt as though the Kingdom of Heaven were at hand." This was the moment of her calling.

Becoming an ordained minister didn't occur for Olympia until after Antioch College, and graduation from St. Lawrence Theological School in 1863. The school tried not to admit her, but under pressure from forward- thinking people, finally did. However, the school authorities refused to ordain her because she was a woman, even though she excelled in her work and gained experience by preaching wherever she could during her three years at St.Lawrence. The strong belief that women shouldn't be ordained was a carry-over from the Judaic-Christian heritage.

She sought support from the Northern Universalist Association and was ordained by the St. Lawrence Association also in June of 1863. Thus she was the first American woman ordained by full denominational authority.

To Olympia, God was loving and kind; there was no hell, and salvation was available to everyone. She believed in the fatherhood of God, in His son Jesus Christ, and in the brotherhood of man. Early in her ministerial career she preached on "Woman's Place in the Church." She spoke of Jesus Christ as a feminine spirit in his gentle, nurturing presence.

In the evolving churches of the 19th century, women's identities began to emerge with one of the responsibilities being: the transmission of cultural ethics and values, and spiritual ideals to each new generation. The church was their sphere of power in which women ultimately found their strengths. Their religious principles were the very basis for arguments in favor of woman suffrage and equal rights. Although many decades of hard work and masculine resistance lay ahead before American women would even be allowed to vote, religious organizations were among the first institutions in this country to support women in their efforts in social reforms. The same Bible that had been a tool of oppression of gender, race, and social class became more and more an instrument for liberation.

Olympia Brown married later in life to Henry Willis and kept her name with his approval. She had two children after age 40, and outlived her husband and one child. Yes, Ladies, she did have a career and a family, just as many of us have today.

An inspiring woman minister, she worked alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton in writing The Woman's Bible, and had many more experiences to finally live long enough to see passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. Olympia Brown died 6 years later in 1926, at age 91, while working toward an equal rights amendment. It was not enough for her to rest on her laurels.

In Sophia Lyon Fahs, who lived 101 years, from 1876-1978, we recognize not only a woman minister, but an innovative religious educator whose beginnings as a child of Presbyterian missionaries in China, could not have foretold her fascinating journey to recognizing the natural sciences as basis for religion. Having said that, we will not be able to cover her life of 101 years in this discussion!

Instead, I will give you some of her insights as to what she developed for children's religious education which are our guidelines in curriculum.

From the time of her graduation from Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio she dedicated herself to being a foreign missionary with a goal to "evangelize the world in this generation", the period roughly between 1880 and 1905. She was a determined young woman with high expectations for herself, and which would not be realized.

She considered herself to be following a fundamental Christian life, and yet kept an open mind to whatever she was exposed. She took a secretarial job at the YWCA on the campus at the University of Chicago in 1901, which even then had a reputation for radical thinking. She was preparing herself for serving in the mission field, she said.

At the university, the beginnings of the Modernist movement were taking place in the classrooms. This was a time of questioning everything. The Victorian era was drawing to a close. A "scientific" study of the Bible which took into consideration its historic nature profoundly influenced Protestant churches at the beginning of the 20th century. Later, in 1925, these ideas would come head to head with Christian Fundamentalism at the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Remember Inherit the Wind?

In 1902, Sophia married Charles Harvey Fahs who shared her plan to become a missionary. His health became poor and they moved to New York City where he accepted a position with the national board of missions for the Methodist Church. Sophia continued her studies at Columbia University Teacher's College. Columbia shared Chicago's reputation for radical and progressive thinking.

Sophia's exposure to the humanistic progressive education movement over a period of years caused her to rethink the theology that underlay "the real fundamental Christian Life" of which she had been so sure. However, the most influential were her 5 children, born to them between 1905 and 1914.

She later wrote: "The children who joined our family circle were not merely the object of my educational efforts, they were the most potent source of my education. In a vital sense, the children were unwittingly my major teachers."

Harvey Fahs' health continued to be problematic and they abandoned their thoughts to become foreign missionaries. In the succeeding years, Sophia achieved an M.A. from the Teachers College at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Union Theological Seminary in 1926. She taught Sunday School for years and after graduation from the seminary she was chosen principal of the Union School of Religion.

During the years 1936-1951, Sophia was editor of Children's Materials for the American Unitarian Association. She was a major guiding force behind the changing practices within the Liberal Churches (Unitarian Universalist) and for more than 30 years helped shape church school curriculum. For over 20 years she also served on the Advisory Editorial Board of Parents Magazine.

To give you an idea of her thinking, Edith Fisher Hunter wrote of Sophia Lyon Fahs: "She found herself drawing less exclusively on the Judeo-Christian tradition and more on the natural sciences, on the religion of primitive people, and on other world religions. She had discovered that primitive people developed their religious ideas as they reacted to the natural world. What if today's children were allowed to express freely their reactions to the same primary phenomena-- birth and death, sun, moon and stars, dreams, shadows, wind and rain? Should not children's inescapable confrontations with, and reflection on, these realities be the beginning of their religious education rather than Bible stories about people long ago and far away?

She even suggested that children not be introduced to other people's idea of God until they had an opportunity to begin to develop their own.

Her ordination as a Unitarian minister was in 1959 at age 82, by the Montgomery County Unitarian Church of Bethesda, Maryland. She gave her own ordination sermon and pressed for continuing reforms in the ordination of ministers. Sadly to say, none of her reforms have taken place, nearly a quarter century since she died in 1978.

Edith Hunter, in commenting on the many curriculum materials that Sophia developed of which only 2 are still in print: "That is to be expected of materials that embrace the philosophy that, in Sophia Fahs' own words,

We have given a glimpse here today of the women ministers who heard the calling, who gave of themselves, who had cooperation of many men, including their husbands, and other women, to bring the messages of inspiration and of the needed reforms in their society, and to make those reforms happen. We give back to them our gratitude and honor their memories.

We come full circle, from the early women to the women in our midst, Rev. Dorris Dow Alcott, our resident minister, and Rev. Lisa Ward, our called minister.