I attended an event at church last night and the speaker was telling of Matilda Joslyn Gage's contribution to women's suffrage. I am sorry to say that I was unaware of the details of her lifetime of activism for women's rights. I certainly should have known, since she was from the community where I lived and served just prior to retirement. Don't know how I missed that.
A couple of things stood out to me. One is the impact of her experience with Native Americans in the Onondaga Nation tribe. It was from them that she witnessed a model of a matriarchial society where women were equal in their power to men. In fact, it was the women who voted on whether or not the men would go to war. (What a great idea!) When the statue of liberty was dedicated in the 1800's, she said it was the greatest hypocrisy of all times, that a woman would represent liberty in a country where women did not have any rights at all! (not winning the right to vote until 1920).
Unlike others in the women's suffrage movement, Gage was a strong believer in the separation of church and state. So am I, though our reasons are different. There was a movement early on in the life of our nation to try to make this a Christian nation, by constitutional amendment. That would mean, of course, that one would have to prosecute all those of differing beliefs and practices, which would have immediatley rendered America completely without liberty. In fact, as a mandated Christian nation, we would be not unlike Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, rigidly ruled by one religion with strict religious laws.
It is kind of interesting to think that in order to really be free, an individual has to be able to choose, messy as that is! If there is no choice in the matter of religion, there is no liberty. It is no different with God and creation. The offspring could choose to obey or not.
Love allows the freedom to choose, and only the freedom of choice permits liberty.
So I suppose, in the end, true liberty is a matter of love! Interesting thought!
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