Social Factoring

In the early 19th century, Fredrick Franson writes,

Brothers, the harvest is great and the laborers are few. If the ladies want to help out in the fields during the harvest time, then I think we should let them bind as many sheaves as they can. It is better that women bind the sheaves than that the sheaves get lost. When one has been sent out on the field and heard the real cries for help from dozens of places, places to which one cannot possibly reach, then one cannot help but think, "It seems strange that only such a few verses of Scripture, about which there are so many disputes, should be made such obstacles to hinder those who otherwise would have responded to these calls for help."
(Fredrik Franson, quoted in Edvard P. Torjesen, Fredrick Franson: A Model for Worldwide Evangelism, Pasadena CA, William Carey Library, 1983, pg. 47)

And we see that many women did indeed answer that call to join with men in ministering the Word of God to the world. Women like Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, and Hannah Whitall Smith, to name a few, were pioneers in this challenge. Preaching at places like the Winona Lake Bible Conference and forming the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, these women are recognized for outstanding preaching that led thousands of souls to Christ. Yet, by the 1930's we see a gradual withdrawal of women from the forefront of the pulpit.

Janette Hassey, in her article entitled Evangelical Women in Ministry a Century Ago, lists several reason why we saw this decline of women from the pulpit. She cites the emergences of a fundamentalist subculture which took a hard stand against women's involvement, a backlash against the social values arising in the dominate culture due to the feminist movement, and finally, a more literalists view of Scripture concerning those passages in the scriptures dealing with women. These factors combined to effectively wipe out women's involvement and we see the effect of the minimizing of women's voice during the last 50 years or so.

As a sociologist, I find it incredibly interesting that social factors played such a huge role in this battle of women to be heard. Many try to wrap the argument in Scripture and while there is a place for this discussion, we must also consider our culture, our subculture, and our reactions to both of these when making what we deem to be moral decisions about right and wrong. Many times our decisions are tempered by the events of the social world around us. Our individual experiences, especially what happens in our own families, shapes us in such strong ways that we come to believe that what our parents taught us as right or wrong must be validated in the Word. Sometimes this is not always the case and it is our responsibility to step back, examine our culture, and try to determine its impact on our moral decisions.

While one can never completely separate from the culture around us, I will attempt to do this as I pursue my thoughts on gendered reality.