Christian Suffragettes?

Two hot topics for the price of one

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
McCulloch
Site Supporter
Posts: 24063
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 9:10 pm
Location: Toronto, ON, CA
Been thanked: 3 times

Christian Suffragettes?

Post #1

Post by McCulloch »

Christian Suffragettes?
Gonzo wrote:And how long...did women get the right to vote?
Biker wrote:It wasn't the Christians holding it up, it was the atheists/heathens.
Historically, was the push for the right for women to vote a Christian initiative or were the Christians generally opposed? Is there support for the idea of women's rights in the Christian New Testament?
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

User avatar
MagusYanam
Guru
Posts: 1562
Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:57 pm
Location: Providence, RI (East Side)

Post #11

Post by MagusYanam »

Homicidal_Cherry53 wrote:It is true that Quakers are not biblical literalists, nor do they even consider themselves Christian anymore, but I believe you mentioned a congregationalist or two and congregationalists were probably one of the most fundamentalist Christian sects of the time.
I think you're halfway right here. The use of 'fundamentalist' is somewhat anachronistic in this case (since fundamentalism didn't emerge until the evolution-creationism debates of the 1920's). The Congregationalists started out as an extremely strict and incredibly intolerant Christian sect (during the 17th and 18th centuries), with a very dim view of women's rights. However, the East Coast Congregationalists started seriously questioning their own strictness and intolerance starting quite early in the 19th century, with the Unitarian / Calvinist split following the appointment of Henry Ware to the Hollis Chair at Harvard University.

Despite some Congregationalist support of abolitionism and other leftist causes during the American Antebellum, I don't think the Congregationalists could really be considered 'liberal' in any meaningful sense of the word until Horace Bushnell's Christian Nurture (a treatise essentially advocating basic rights of children in Christian families) was published in the 1840's. That said, by the time women's rights became a serious political issue, Congregationalists were some of the leading liberal voices in the society.
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.

- Søren Kierkegaard

My blog

User avatar
McCulloch
Site Supporter
Posts: 24063
Joined: Mon May 02, 2005 9:10 pm
Location: Toronto, ON, CA
Been thanked: 3 times

Re: Christian Suffragettes?

Post #12

Post by McCulloch »

Homicidal_Cherry53 wrote:It is true that Quakers are not biblical literalists, nor do they even consider themselves Christian anymore, but I believe you mentioned a congregationalist or two and congregationalists were probably one of the most fundamentalist Christian sects of the time.
I admit that there have been some Biblical Christians who were for the women's suffrage movement. My argument is with Biker who claims that Christianity (presumably his brand of literalism) was the driving force for votes for women and that it was the pagans, heathens and the atheists who were against it.

I think that it would be difficult to find more than six atheists who were actively against the American women's suffrage movement. Pagans and heathens perhaps if you count Mormons and Roman Catholics.
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

Post Reply