2.4 2.5 the literature of the early church  (Page 6/8)

References to the "silence" issue proliferated in the 1890s when some women began asserting themselves in ways they felt they could justify and others wanted to condemn. Questions were raised as to whether women could make or second motions, pray, or speak in church meetings, and they were often met with a literal reading of Paul:

It seems to me that it is not a question as to whether God commands Christian women to refrain from speaking in the churches, but the real question is as to whether these daughters of the Lord are willing to obey the command of their Father. BS, February 18, 1897, p. 3.

No language can be plainer or more explicit. No candid mind can mistake its meaning. BS, December 19, 1895, n.p.

Paul says again: Let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. We cannot mistake the meaning of this scripture. . . . Are you such bigots that you will practice those things forbidden by God's word, as if you had power to originate the Bible? Or, will you act as if you had received the word as your only standard of appeal, instead of sending out your own ideas as the standard. BS, November 15, 1894, p. 8.

The Word of God expressly commands women to keep silence in the churches. That they think they might do good sometimes by speaking publicly in the church, does not excuse them for violating Christ's command. BS, January 7, 1897, p. 1.

I differ from those of our sex who affirm that Paul, the inspired man of God, was an enemy, or that their restrictions applies [sic] to some local trouble. This has been explained away, but my dear sisters, we are Baptists and the word of God should be the end of all controversy with us. This we shall do by the grace of God. BS, October 19, 1893, p. 3.

The most narrow view suggested that women could only pray silently without offending the dictum of I Corinthians, BS, December 19, 1895, n.p. but another pointed out that by that standard "every Baptist church in Christendom" had already erred by allowing women to sing. BS, January 21, 1897, p. 5.

A woman who sang was certainly not silent, but this was rationalized on the basis that woman's singing had biblical precedents and that in so doing she was "neither teaching, save incidentally, nor usurping authority, nor… joining in the debates that necessarily arise in the transaction of church business." BS, February 20, 1896, p. 3. The other imperative that broke the silence barrier was the necessity of a woman's testifying to her own conversion experience when she joined the church, "a universal custom among Baptists," and if she "has a hope in Christ she should ever be ready to give a reason therefor, and this carries with it the right to tell her experience more than once.” BS, January 21, 1897, p. 5.

Evidently the knowledge that Baptist custom had already admitted that Paul meant something other than absolute silence and the fact that women did not rush into unrespectable authoritative roles altered the terms of argumentation by the turn of the century. The Corinthian passages were put in their cultural context of confusion and disorder, an unusual situation that called for an extreme remedy. The "misinterpreted" apostle had "allowed those same women to pray and prophesy, provided they had due regard to distinctions of sex," readers were reminded. BS, May 29, 1902, p. 3. Instances of Paul's working with women and the example of women's exercising spiritual gifts on the day of Pentecost were used frequently as illustrations of the fact that women had an active, biblically approved role in the church. There was general agreement that women had a sphere, even obligations, but, aside from a prohibition against preaching, no firm limitations were set. In the free-church tradition, each church decided its own version of orthodoxy. One such congregation wrote in 1903 that they had "women as Sunday-school teachers and our choirs are principally made up of women. Women are sent as messengers to associations, placed on committees to solicit funds for pastor's salary and other purposes. They publicly relate their Christian experiences, give testimony, lead in public prayer, second motions and vote in our conferences. All this is legitimate. Paul did not mean to prohibit any of the work above mentioned." BS, October 22, 1903, p. 3. These were the kinds of activities pursued by women in most churches, with the greatest controversy centering around a woman's speaking aloud in a "mixed assembly," i.e., one composed of men and women. In order to obey the injunction against "usurping authority," many women restricted their teaching to other women and children. The Bible was used to support a wider role for females, but in general that role was exercised by virtue of the permission and good will of males, who held the reins of power.