14 And _Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived_
was in the transgression.
--1 Timothy ii.
According to the reasoning of verse 13 man should be subject to all the
lower animals, because they were first formed, and then Adam. Verse 14
tells us that Adam sinned knowingly; Eve was deceived, so she deserves
punishment. Now I like that. If you commit a crime understandingly it is
all right. If you are deceived into doing it you ought to be damned. The
law says, "The criminality of an act resides in the intent;" but more
than likely St. Paul was not up in Blackstone and did not use Coke.
This next is St. Peter, and I believe this is one of the few topics
upon which the infallible Peter and the equally infallible Paul did not
disagree:
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands;
that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the
word be won by the conversation of the wives;
2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with
fear.
--1 Peter iii.
I should think that would be a winning card. If the conversation of a
wife, coupled with a good deal of fear, would not convert a man, he is a
hopeless case.
But here is Paul again, in all his mathematical glory, and mortally
afraid that women won't do themselves honor.
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is
Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head
of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head
covered, dishonoreth his head.
5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head
uncovered, dishonoreth her head; for that is even all one as
if she were shaven.
6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn:
but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let
her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch
as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the
glory of the man:
8 For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the
man.
9 Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman
for the man.
--1 Cor. xi.
And that settles it, I suppose. But what on earth was man created for? I
should not think it could have been just for fun.
34 Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is
not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to
be under obedience, as also saith the law.
35 And if they will learn anything, let them ask their
husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in
the church.
--1 Cor. xiv.
That is a principle that should entitle St. Paul to the profound
admiration of women. And yet, when I come to think of it, I don't know
which one gets the worst of that either. Whenever you want to know
anything, ask your husband, at home! No wonder most husbands don't have
time to stay at home much. No wonder they have to see a man so often.
It would unseat any man's reason if he lived in constant fear that he
might, any minute, be required to explain to a woman of sense, how death
could have been brought into this world by Eve, when every one knows
that long before man could have lived upon this earth animals lived and
died. It would make any man remember that he had to "catch a car" if he
were asked suddenly to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. I would not
blame the most sturdy theologian for remembering that it was club night,
if his wife were to ask him, unexpectedly, how Nebuchadnezzar, with his
inexperience, could digest grass with only one stomach, when it takes
four for the oxen that are used to it. That may account, however, for
his hair turning to feathers.
I don't believe St. Paul could have realized what a diabolical position
he was placing husbands in, when he told wives to ask them every time
they wanted to know anything--unless he wanted to make marriage
unpopular. There is one thing certain, he was careful not to try it
himself, which looks much as if he had some realizing sense of what he
had cut out for husbands to do, and felt that there were some men who
would rather be drafted--and then send a substitute.
But why are his commands not followed to-day? Why are not the words,
sister, mother, daughter, wife, only names for degradation And dishonor?
Because men have grown more honorable than their religion, and
the strong arm of the law, supported by the stronger arm of public
sentiment, demands greater justice than St. Paul ever dreamed of.
Because men are growing grand enough to recognize the fact that right
is not masculine only, and that justice knows no sex. And because the
Church no longer makes the laws. Saints have been retired from the legal
profession. I can't recall the name of a single one who is practicing
law now. Have any of you ever met a saint at the bar?
Women are indebted to-day for their emancipation from a position of
hopeless degradation, not to their religion nor to Jehovah, but to the
justice and honor of the men who have defied his commands. That she does
not crouch to-day where Saint Paul tried to bind her, she owes to the
men who are grand and brave enough to ignore St. Paul, and rise superior
to his God.
And remember that I have not read you the worst stories of the Bible.
The greater number of those which refer to women are wholly unfit to
read here. Are you willing to think they are the word of God? I am not.
Believe in a God if you will, but do not degrade him by accepting an
interpretation of him that would do injustice to Mephistopheles! Have
a religion if you desire, but demand that it be free from impurity and
lies, and that it be just. Exercise faith if you must, but temper it
wisely with reason. Do not allow ministers to tell you stories that are
sillier than fairy tales, more brutal than barbaric warfare, and too
unclean to be read, and then assure you that they are the word of God.
Use your reason; and when you are told that God came down and talked to
Moses behind a bush, and told him to murder several thousand innocent
people; when you are told that he created a vast universe and filled it
with people upon all of whom he placed a never-ending curse because of a
trivial disobedience of one; give him the benefit of a reasonable doubt
and save your reputation for slander.
Now just stop and think about it. Don't you think that if a God had come
down and talked to Moses he would have had something more important to
discuss than the arrangement of window curtains and the cooking of a
sheep? Since Moses was the leader of God's people, their lawgiver,
the guardian of their morals, don't you think that the few minutes of
conversation could have been better spent in calling attention to some
of the little moral delinquencies of Moses himself? Don't you think
it would have been more natural for an infinite and just ruler to have
mentioned the impropriety of murdering so many men, and degrading so
many young girls to a life worse than that of the vilest quarter of any
infamous dive, than to have occupied the time in trivial details about
a trumpery jewel-box? Since God elected such a man as Moses to guide
and govern his people, does it not seem natural that he would have given
more thought to the moral worth and practices of his representative on
earth, than to the particular age at which to kill a calf? If he were
going to take the trouble to say anything, would it not seem more
natural that he should say something important?
In his numerous chats with Solomon, don't you think he could have added
somewhat to that gentleman's phenomenal wisdom by just hinting to him
that he had a few more wives than were absolutely necessary? He had a
thousand we are told, which leaves Brigham Young away behind. Yet there
are Christians to-day who teach their children that Solomon was the
wisest man who ever lived, and that Brigham Young was very close to the
biggest fool. It is not strange that some of these children infer that
the trouble with Brigham was that he had not wives enough, and that
if he had only married the whole state of Massachusetts he and Solomon
would now occupy adjoining seats on the other shore, and use the same
jew's-harp?
Do you believe for one moment that a God ever talked with any man and
told him to murder a whole nation of men, to steal their property, to
butcher in cold blood the mothers, and to give the young girls to a camp
of brutal soldiers--_and that he helped to do it?_ Do you believe any
God ever told a man to give so many of those girls to one tribe, so
many to another, and to burn so many as an offering to himself? Do you
believe it? I don't. Would you worship him if he had? I would not.
And yet it is true that he did help in such work, or else the word
of Moses is not worth a nickel. God did this, or else our religion is
founded upon a fraud. He did it, or orthodoxy is a mistake. He did it,
or the Bible is an imposition. If it is true, no woman should submit to
such a fiend for an hour; if it is false, let her unclasp the clutches
of the superstition which is built upon her dishonor and nourished by
her hand.
They say it is a shame for a woman to attack the Bible. I say she is
the one who should do it. It is she who has everything to gain by its
overthrow. It is she who has everything to lose by its support. They
tell me it is the word and will of God. I do not, I cannot, believe
it! And it does seem to me that nothing but lack of moral perception
or mental capacity could enable any human being who was honest (and not
scared) to either respect or believe in such a God.
As a collection of ingenious stories, as a record of folly and
wickedness, as a curious and valuable old literary work, keep the Bible
in the library. But put it on the top shelf--or just behind it, and
don't let the children see it until they are old enough to read it
with discrimination. As a mythological work it is no worse than several
others. As a divine revelation it is simply monstrous.
Among your other tales you might tell the children some from it. You
might tell them that at one time a man got mad at another man, and
caught three hundred foxes, and set fire to their tails (they standing
still the while), and then turned them loose into the other man's corn,
and burned it all up. If they don't know much about foxes, and have
never experimented in burning live hair, they may think it is a pretty
good story. But I would not tell them that the man who got up that
torch-light procession was a good man. I would not tell them that he was
one of God's most intimate friends; because even if they think he had a
right to burn his enemy's crops, I don't believe that any right-minded
child would think it was fair to the foxes.