IT is one of the glittering fictions of the Church that to her
civilization is due,* and that it is to her benign influence and
direction alone that woman has been advanced to her present position in
the social scale; that without the Bible and the Church the status of
woman in Christian countries would be lower and her lot harder.
* See Appendix T,
1st. To prove this claim she directs attention to the status of woman
in several non-Christian countries, and compares the degradation and
hardship she there endures to the position of woman to-day in America,
England, and France.
2d. The Church claims the credit of originating and sustaining the
various steps of progress by which woman has been elevated. She claims
to have originated and to sustain the idea that woman is man's equal,
and to recognize her as such in the Church.
3d. She points with pride to the superior education and intelligence
of the women of Christian countries, and contrasts this intellectual
altitude with that of women elsewhere. She says that women owe their
superior opportunities of education and advancement to their religion.
4th. But above all the clergy attempt to silence those who ask
questions, by calling attention to the superior _legal_ status of woman
in Christian countries, and asserting that the Church secured this, _and
that it made marriage honorable and home a possibility_.
5th. The clergy claim that the Bible is woman's best friend and
staunchest defender, and that it is the originator of morality.