Willard

Francis Willard was one of the most renowned educators and social reformers in the 19th century. Willard is known for leading the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union as well as being the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University. She was an extreme advocate for women’s suffrage and temperance. With the help of Willard and the influence of her other peers, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. One controversial topic that Willard particularly raised awareness about was women preachers, or rather the lack thereof. In her book, //Women In The Pulpit//, Willard takes own her fellow Christian Americans and underline reasons why woman should be allowed to preach as well as disputing the negative stereotypes that excuse the “men can preach only” mentality.

//Woman In the Pulpit//
 * Ø Willard explains that traditional male exegesis (explanation) is flawed
 * The church has a literal interpretation with the readings that pertain to women; similar to how “Christians” justified slavery
 * Willard speaks of the hypocrisy of men in the church by outlining bible verses that men and pastors break all the time
 * o “there is a specific command not to strike back when one is struck; not to go to law; to give to him that asketh; not to turn away from him that would borrow; and to suffer people to be divorced for one cause only; yet every one of these precepts coming from Christ himself is specifically and constantly violated by pastors and people, and without penalty”
 * o 1 Cor. vii., Paul sets forth a doctrine that, literally interpreted, certainly elevates celibacy above marriage and widowhood above remarriage, but exegetical opinion does not coincide with the great Apostle, neither does the practice of the church, else not one of its adherents would be alive to state the fact ; nor have Protestant clergymen been known to manifest the least reluctance of conscience in performing the marriage ceremony in general, or in taking marriage vows upon themselves, nor has such reluctance become apparent when a widow was thereby involved in taking a second marriage vow.
 * In 1 Tim. Ii 9, Paul says that he desires women to adorn themselves in modest apparel, and “ let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.” All because Adam came before Eve…
 * o However Willard shows the flaws in this exegesis by underlining the moment in genesis when the Lord says to Cain (elder brother) “Unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” in reference to the younger brother Abel. The Christianity does not find there to be divine authorization of an elder brother’s supremacy.
 * Willard calls this method of exegesis “playing fast and loose” with scripture


 * Ø Willard explains the need for women exegesis
 * “Men reason in the abstract, women in the concrete. A syllogism symbolizes one, a rule of life the other. “
 * o Men and women are ½ of the same coin
 * o Men shouldn’t have to interpret the bible alone
 * o You need women to interpret the female side and men to interpret the male side
 * We can only have a real understanding of the Truth when “woman’s eye and man’s together shall discern the perspective of the Bible’s full-orbed revelation.”
 * Male exegesis has oppressed the most faithful followers (women)
 * 2/3 graduates from public education are women; 2/3 of the teachers are women; ¾ church members are women; women are the Sunday school teachers

Frances Willard was born on September 28, 1839 near Rochester, New York. Throughout her life she was an ardent suffragist. Willard preached the importance of education, temperance reform, and woman’s rights. She was instrumental in the passage of the eighteenth and nineteenth amendments. In 1879 Willard became the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and remained president for 19 years. During her presidency she pushed women to lobby for federal aid education, free school lunches, union worker rights, eight hour work days, national transportation, anti- rape laws, and protection against child abuse. In 1883 Willard produced Woman in the Pulpit to interpret the methods the Church used to limit women through ministry. The work examines the lack of consistency in the exigency of the Bible, the work women had been doing in the Church, and those who had opposed the idea that women should be allowed to preach.
 * __ Frances Willard __**

Willard claims that Christianity has two forms of exigency: Literal Exigency and Playing Fast and Loose. She examines how at times Christians will literally interpret the Bible, but when a passage does not align its self with the natural predilections of the male preachers then the passage is either ignored or taken as a metaphor that agrees with the ideas of the male leaders. Willard uses the 1 Timothy 2 as an example. In this passage Timothy states that women must stay quiet in the Church, women must stay away from fine jewelry, fancy clothing, and braided hair. Willard questions why Christians continue to adhere to the idea that women must stay quiet in the Church, but ignore the part where women must abstain from nice clothing, jewelry, and braided hair. It seems to her that a literal interpretation of the Bible is used when it literally pleases the male leaders of the Church. Christians use literal exigency when they speak of how slaves should honor their masters. Willard points out that this was a means of controlling slaves and justifying the cruelty of slavery. However when Jesus lowers himself and washes the feet of his friends as a slave would and claims that everyone should place themselves in a serving role the Church ignores this. Willard also uses the use of leavened bread and fermented wine during Holy Communion as an example of literal versus playing fast and loose exigency. The Church recreates the last super during the sacrament of Holy Communion. In the bible Jesus uses unleavened bread and unfermented wine during the last super. Scholars and religious leaders have agreed that unleavened bread and unfermented wine were used at the last super. However during communion the Church uses leavened bread and fermented wine, because it taste better and it is easier to get a hold of fermented wine. Willard questions the Church and how it determines what should be literally interpreted and what should be over looked. It seems to her when women are involved the Church takes a literal view of scripture but when scripture affects men and their daily actions then the bible becomes a book of metaphors or senseless statements that don’t always need to be followed.
 * __ Inconsistency in Exigency __**

Willard’s biggest problem with biblical exigency was how the role of women was perceived. The apostle Paul stated that women were to men what Jesus was to God. Being that Jesus shared an equal part in the holy trinity Paul may have meant that women and men hold equal parts in humanity. However the Church continuously preached that women were less than men. The Church believed that women had no place at the pulpit preaching to the laity or even singing in the church. The exigency the Church was coming up with at the time was not in favor of giving women any power. Willard believed that for this reason there should be women preachers to create exigency from the point of view of women. She felt that the Church needed exigency from both men and women to give a full understanding of God’s word. She goes on show that women have always had a place in the Church by comparing and contrasting scripture. She quotes a passage that the Church uses to confine women and then compares it to another passage she has found that shows women supporting and building up the Church.
 * __ Women in Ministry __**

"But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness." || // Judg. iv. 4, 5. // “Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time…And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." || // Gal. iii. 28. // "There can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus." || "Let the women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak." || // Joel ii. 28, 29. // "And it shall come to pass afterward. . . that your. . . daughters shall prophesy,. . . and upon the handmaids will I pour out my spirit.” || // 1 Cor. xi. 5. // "But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoreth her head." || "It is shameful for a woman to speak in the church." || // Luke ii. 36-38. // "And there was one Anna, a prophetess, . . . which departed not from the temple, worshipping with fastings and supplications night and day. And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks unto God, and spake of him to all them that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." || // Phil, iv. 3. //
 * ** PAUL ** ||  ** OTHER SCRIPTURE **  ||  ** PAUL **  ||
 * // 1 Tim. ii. 11. //
 * // 1 Cor. xiv. 34. //
 * // 1 Cor. xiv. 35. //

"I beseech thee also…help these women, for they labored with me also in the Gospel." || “Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection." || // Acts xviii, 26. // "Apollos…began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more carefully." [This seems to have been the first theological school.] || // Rom. xvi. 3, 4. // "Salute Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,. . . unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” || "Let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they would learn anything let them ask their own husbands at home." || // Acts xxi. 9, 10. // "Now this man [Philip the Evangelist] had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days" [i.e., Paul and his company]. || // 1 Cor. xi. 11. // "Howbeit neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, so is the man also by the woman; but all things are of God." || "The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."
 * // 1 Tim. ii. 11. //
 * // 1 Cor, xiv. 34, 35. //
 * // 1 Cor, xi. 3, //

// Eph. v, 23, // "For the husband Is the head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church." || // John i. 1, 3. // "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made."

// John xiv, 9. // "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

// Col, ii, 9. // " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

// John x, 30. // "I and the Father are one. || // Rom. xvi. 1. // "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church that is at Cenchreae." [The Epistle to the Romans was written from Corinth, and sent by Phoebe. The greatest of Epistles was carried from Corinth to Rome by a woman, a Journey involving a sea-voyage, and a visit to a foreign country.] ||

Willard uses Deborah, Mary Magdalene, and other prominent women in the bible as models for the influential roles women could hold in the Church. She claims that at one point women were respected preachers and prophets, so if the people of the bible could find a valuable use for women then the Church should be able to do so as well. She continues to explain why women would make excellent preachers by pointing out that women make up one third of college graduates and two thirds of the teachers in the country. Willard goes on to explain that the majority of liquor and tobacco purchases in the United States came from men. Men attributed to two thirds of the prison population, while women were the Sunday school teachers at Willard’s point in history. So she could not understand how women could play such a large role in shaping the minds of future Christians but they could not stand at the pulpit and preach alongside men; especially when men seemed to be the creators of evil while women made positive contributions to society.

Willard gives respected theologians and preachers a chance to critique her work and give their opinion of the role of women in the Church. Many people suggested that Willard makes women seem holier than men in her work. In her description women appear to be perfect humans and men are riddled with flaws. Those who decide to accept Willard’s idea that women are perfect claim that their perfection is precisely why women should not become preachers. They claim the event the holiest angle was not fit to preach than Saul the king of sinners; meaning that even God thought that sinners made for the best preachers. Other critiques believed that women should be allowed to preach in the Church. They came to agree with Willard’s thoughts on Sunday school teachers and agreed that if women were good enough to preach the Gospel to Children, Jesus’ most beloved creatures, then women should be allowed to preach inside the Church.
 * __ Skeptics __**