During my Sunday School class one day I made the statement, “When
a pastor explained submission to me it saved my marriage.” Whew, I opened a can
of worms. I got a startling reaction from this group of what I consider very
godly women.
“Women have a right to do what they want to do.”
“Too many men lord over their wives because of that verse.”
Had the women’s liberation movement infiltrated the hearts
of these women? Or had they had bad experiences with men who didn't follow the
flip side of the Biblical admonition in Ephesians 5:24-25, love your wife as
your own body?
I usually avoid reading or thinking about women’s liberation
advocates, even historical ones. They bother me. I believe in equal rights, but
many take it too far.
In researching for my next book, I found one couple who followed
both sides of the admonition in Ephesians 5, James and Lucretia Mott who lived
in the early 1800s.
In Philadelphia where they lived, James worked as a merchant
buying and selling cotton until he switched to the silk business. He didn't
want to have any part of the cotton industry because slaves produced it. He and
Lucretia both hated slavery and wanted to do something about it.
James was one of those gems who valued
his wife’s gifts instead of being intimidated or jealous of them. He showed his
love for her by appreciating her gifts. One gift she had was for public
speaking. He admitted that he did not have speaking ability but wanted his wife
to use hers.
Their Quaker denomination encouraged women to become preachers.
Lucretia became a very good preacher because of her natural speaking ability.
As a preacher, Lucretia worked to right a wrong that she
couldn't bear. James and Lucretia wanted to see all slaves freed. In the mid 1800s
when she bravely began her crusade, slavery occurred freely all over the inhabited part of the United States. Many realized its cruelty but others felt it
necessary for their financial health. Lucretia attended the first meeting of
national significance, the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. She was the
only woman to say anything. Many prominent men lacked
the nerve to speak at that meeting because in that year of 1833, those against
slavery had a rough time. Many people mocked them, rioted against their
meetings, and caused personal injuries. Lucretia Mott did not let fear stop her
from doing what was right.
Both James and Lucretia became part of
the Underground Railroad which secretly helped runaway slaves. One time a mob
threw a brick at James Mott narrowly missing his head. Another time they housed
the famous Henry “Box” Brown who had escaped slavery after being shipped to the
anti-slavery office in Philadelphia.
Lucretia passionately spoke against
slavery in church and helped form a woman’s anti-slavery association. She even
went to London to an Anti-Slavery Convention. At the convention, the men in
charge didn’t let her speak so she spent the time making friends with the other
women. Later those friendships became valuable to her next cause.
The slavery issue became settled when the Civil War ended. Lucretia Mott then turned to the issue that
the Anti-Slavery Convention in London had burdened her with. Not allowed to
speak there, she realized that women needed to be treated more equally. She
began to work for women’s rights and helped form the first convention on
women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York. They drafted a document which she was
the first to sign saying that women should be treated fairly in the home,
workplace, church, and government. In 1920, forty years after she died,
Lucretia’s work led to the vote that gave women the right to vote. Because of
Lucretia’s husband’s encouragement, Lucretia used her gifts to help change the
world.
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