Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 March 2007 15:47:46
I have finished reading From Preachers to Suffragists by Beverly Zink-Sawyer, which as I said the other day, tells the story of Antoinette Brown Blackwell , Olympia Brown and Anna Howard Shaw.
I know I often get over enthusiastic about things, particularly books, but this one is different. It wasn't an amazing book in the normal sense that you thought wow what a wonderful book, rather it is the sort of book where by the end I found myself stopped in my tracks. These three women were truly remarkable in their achievements but more than that they seem amazing in the way they appear to have negotiated the constant tension between faith and activism in a way which was dignified and attracted as much respect as it did disagreement.
They took, what many appeared to be a radical agenda, and infused it with a religious dimension indeed a religious orthodoxy, underpinned with gospel values. They were not prepared to be anything other than who they were, women made in the image of God yet they were equally not prepared to be driven from their core religious beliefs by the theological interpretations of those who disagreed and did not feel that they were equal. At many points they could have taken the easy option but chose not to.
Whilst in the modern world the battles they fought are, largely, all but forgotten newer issues are still there. One cannot help but wonder how different the world would be if more men and women took the example of these types of forgotten pilgrims or how different our world would be if these women had not had the courage to follow through their convictions.