Been gone for a few weeks and see the Ask God cult has moved here to bless you with the Gospel. Here is part of Helen Gardners book I think you and Ann will enjoy. Emile will probably go nuts as usual. <ggg>
It seemed to me that the time had come when women should know for themselves what the Bible
teaches for them and what the pulpit has upheld; so I have looked it up a little, and although I cannot
soil my lips nor your ears with much of it, there is enough, I think, that I may use to make any
self-respecting, pure woman blush that she has sustained it by word or act.
The Bible teaches that a father may sell his daughter for a slave, [Ex. xxi. 7.] that he may sacrifice her
purity to a mob, [Judges xix. 24.] and that he may murder her, and still be a good father and a holy
man. It teaches that a man may have any number of wives; that he may sell them, give them away, or
change them around, and still be a perfect gentleman, a good husband, a righteous man, and one of
God's most intimate friends; and that is a pretty good position for a beginning. It teaches almost
every infamy under the heavens for woman, and it does not recognize her as a self-directing, free
human being. It classes her as property, just as it does a sheep: and it forbids her to think, talk, act,
or exist, except under conditions and limits defined by some priest.
If the Bible were strictly followed, women and negroes would still be publicly bought and sold in
America. If it were believed in as it once was, if the Church had the power she once had, I should
never see the light of another day, and your lives would be made a hell for sitting here to-night. The
iron grasp of superstition would hold you and your children forever over the bottomless pit of
religious persecution, and cover your fair fame with infamous slander, because you dared to sit here
and hear me strike a blow at infinite injustice.
Every injustice that has ever been fastened upon women in a Christian country has been "authorized
by the Bible" and riveted and perpetuated by the pulpit. That seems strong language, no doubt; but I
shall give you an opportunity to decide as to its truth. I will now bring my witnesses. They are from
the "inspired word" itself, and therefore must be all that could be desired.
I will read yon a short passage from Exodus xx. 22; xxi. 7-8:
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have
seen that I talked with you from heaven. * * *
7. And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the
men-servants do.
8. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be
redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt
deceitfully with her.
The Lord doesn't object to a man selling his daughter, but if any one thing makes him angrier than
another it is to have her go about as the men-servants do after she is sold. On a little point like that
he is absolutely fastidious. You may here notice that God took the trouble to come down from
heaven to tell the girl what not to do after she was sold. He forgot to suggest to her father that it
might be as well not to sell her at all. He forgot that. But in an important conversation one often
overlooks little details. The next is Joshua xv. 16-17:
16 And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my
daughter to wife.
17 And Othniel the brother of Caleb [and consequently the girl's uncle] took it: and he gave
him Achsah his daughter to wife.
Please to remember that the said Caleb was one of God's intimates -- a favorite with the Almighty.
The girl was not consulted; the father paid off his warriors in female scrip. The next is Gen. xix. 5-8
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this
night? bring them out unto us that we may know them.
6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him.
7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
8 Behold now, I have two daughters * * * * let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and
do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came
they under the shadow of my roof.
These men had come under the shadow of Lot's roof for protection, it seems, and Lot felt that his
honor demanded that he should shield them even at the cost of the purity and safety of his own
daughters! Do you know I have always had a mild curiosity to know what his daughters were under
the shadow of his roof for. It could not have been for protection, I judge, since Lot was one of
God's best friends. He was on all sorts of intimate terms with the Deity -- knew things were going to
happen before they came -- was the only man good enough to save from a doomed city -- the only
one whose acts pleased God and this act seems to have been particularly satisfactory. These men
were "angels of God" who required this infamy for their protection! If it takes all the honor out of a
man when he gets to be an angel, they may use my wings for a feather-duster.
Now here is a little property law. Num. xxvii.
6 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then
ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
And our law works a little that way yet; being the result of ecclesiastical law it naturally
would.
Next we have Num. xxxvi.:
8 And every daughter that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel,
shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may
enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.
9 Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the
tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.
10 Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad.
That is all the women were for -- articles of conveyance for property. Save the land, no matter about
the girls. Now these silly women actually believed that God told Moses whom they had to marry just
because Noses said so! I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it is not safe to take heavenly
communications at second-hand. Second- hand articles are likely to be varnished over, and have to
be taken at a discount. And it seems to me that, if the lord is at all particular as to whom a girl should
marry she is the one for him to discuss the matter with. Moses didn't have to live with the sons of
Zelophehad, and consequently wasn't the one to talk the matter over with. But, you see, it won't do
to question what Moses said God told him, because upon his veracity the whole structure is built. He
had more personal interviews with the Deity than any other man -- he and Solomon -- and hence
they are the best authority.
I have here the 31st chapter of Numbers, but it is unfit to read. It tolls a story of shame and crime
unequalled in atrocity. It tells that God commanded Moses and Eleazar, the priest, to produce vice
and perpetrate crime on an unparalleled scale. It tells us that they obeyed the order, and that 16,000
helpless girls were dragged in the mire of infamy and divided amongst the victorious soldiers. They
were made dissolute by fore, and by direct command of God!
This one chapter stamps as false, forever, the claim of inspiration for the Bible. That one chapter
would settle it for me. Do you believe that God told Moses that? Do you believe there is a God who
is a thief, a murderer, and a defiler of innocent girls? Do you believe it? Yet this religion is built upon
Moses' word, and woman's position was established by him. It seems to me time for women to
retire Moses from active life. Coax him to resign on account of his health. Return him to his
constituency. He has been on the supreme bench long enough. Don't let your children believe in such
a God. Better let them believe in annihilation. Better lot them think that the sleep of death is the end
of all! Better, much better, let them believe that the tender kiss at parting is the last of all
consciousness for them, and after that eternal rest! Don't let their hearts be seared, their lives
clouded, their intellects dwarfed by the cruel dread of the God of Moses! Better, thrice better, let the
cold earth close over the loved and loving dust forever, than that it should enter the portals of infinite
tyranny.
Next we will take Deut. xx. 10-16
10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. [Good
scheme!]
11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that
all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt
besiege it:
13 And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every male
thereof with the edge of the sword:
14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the
spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thy enemies, which
the LORD thy God hath given thee.
15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the
cities of these nations.
16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an
inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.
The injunction to proclaim peace unto a city about to be attacked and plundered strikes me as a
particularly brilliant idea. When you go to rob and murder a man, just tell him to keep cool and
behave like a gentleman and you won't do a thing to him but steal all his property and cut his throat
and retire in good order. God always seemed to fight on the side of the man who would murder
most of his fellow-men and degrade the greatest number of women. He seemed, in fact, to rather
insist on this point if he was particular about nothing else. And, by the way, if you had happened to
live in one of those cities, what opinion do you think you would have had of Jehovah? Would he
have impressed you as a loving Father?
Here we have 2 Samuel v. 10, 12-13:
10 And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.
12 And David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had
exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.
13 And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from
Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
The nearer he got to God -- the more God was "with him," the more wives he wanted.
Next we have 2 Samuel xx. 3:
3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his
concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them * * * * *
So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
Now what did David do that for? I don't know. It was such a trifling little matter that it was not
thought necessary to give any reason. Perhaps he had eaten too much pie and felt cross; and what
else were those women for but to be made to stand around on such occasions? Weren't they his
property? Didn't those ten women belong to David? Hadn't he a perfect right to shut them up and
feed them if he wanted to? Don't you think it was kind of him to feed them? I wonder if he sang any
of his psalms to them through the key-hole. His son Absalom had just been killed, and he felt
miserable about that. He had just delivered himself of that touching apostrophe we often hear
repeated from the pulpit to-day, to awaken sympathy for God's afflicted prophet: "O my son
Absalom, my son, my son Absalom I would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
And I haven't a doubt that there, were at least ten women who echoed that wish most heartily. It
must have been carried in the family without a dissenting vote. |
